Media Watch Dog: ABC in denial over vile anti-Semitism display as staff protest Gaza coverage

Protesters burn the Israeli flag on the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House on October 9.

One of the most disturbing events in recent Australian history has been the evident rise of anti-Semitism on the streets of Australia’s major cities – especially Sydney and Melbourne. Indeed, as former Labor MP Michael Danby has pointed out on Sky News, it was the anti-Israel demonstration in Sydney on Monday 9 October that initiated the contemporary anti-semitism that has afflicted many nations.

This was the occasion on which the term “Gas the Jews” was heard outside the Sydney Opera House. It was more than racial vilification. This was incitement to murder.

How disturbing, then, that the ABC – the taxpayer funded public broadcaster – has not addressed the rise of anti-Semitism in Australia at any length on any of its major programs. This is an example of the public broadcaster in denial. Indeed, over the last

month, ABC TV, radio and online has covered many stories of little or no interest while all but ignoring the most significant display of anti-Semitism ever experienced in Australia.

PATRICIA KARVELAS LETS A NON-CHRISTIAN CRITIC OF THE LGBTQI+ CAUSE GO UNCHALLENGED

Thanks to the avid Media Watch Dog reader who drew attention to the interview between presenter Patricia Karvelas and Mansour Shouman, the Palestinian-Canadian father who has decided to stay in Gaza. The date was 10 November.

It is well known that the ABC is very sensitive to LGBTQI+ causes. How then to explain this exchange between Patricia Karvelas and Mansour Shouman which took place on Radio National Breakfast on 10 November? Let’s go to the transcript.

Patricia Karvelas: You left Canada two years ago to live in Gaza. Just explain why you and your family decided to move back to Gaza.

Mansour Shouman: Unfortunately, the education system in Canada got overwhelmed with leftist agenda, LGBTQ propaganda. We couldn’t raise our children by the social norms and the religious values that we believe in They’re forcing their agenda, certain agenda, on the families – on the children…

Patricia Karvelas: That’s really interesting.

Just imagine what would have been Ms Karvelas’ reaction if a fundamentalist Christian man had said that he left a nation because it was forcing an LGBTQ agenda on “the families, the children”. Yet she said nothing in response to this claim – apart from commenting “That’s really interesting”. Interesting indeed.

ABC STAFF SOVIET PROTESTS THAT THE TAXPAYER FUNDED PUBLIC BROADCASTER IS TOO SOFT ON ISRAEL – REALLY

Media Watch Dog has always maintained that the ABC is effectively a staff collective – or workers’ soviet. So, it came as no surprise that the Nine newspapers reported on 9 November that more than 200 ABC journalists participated in a meeting about the taxpayer funded public broadcaster’s coverage of the Israel/Gaza war. According to the report:

Journalists argued that the ABC’s coverage of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza was too heavily reliant on the talking points of the Israel Defence Forces. They also raised concerns around the ABC’s unwillingness to use language such as “invasion”,

“occupation”, “genocide”, “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing” regarding Israeli government policy and allegations made by human rights groups.

How about that? The ABC is a Conservative Free Zone without one conservative presenter, producer or editor for any of its prominent television, radio or online outlets. Moreover, it is difficult to think of any prominent ABC personality who openly supports Israel’s right to retaliate against terrorist Hamas’ murderous attacks on, and kidnappings of, Israeli citizens on 7 October.

And yet many ABC journalists are complaining that the ABC reporting of the current conflict is not sufficiently critical of Israel. What a load of absolute tosh. Which demonstrates, once again, that the ABC is very much a captive of the left.

CAN YOU BEAR IT?

NIKI SAVVA USES BILL HAYDEN’S DEATH TO (BRIEFLY) SNEER AT JOHN HOWARD AND TONY ABBOTT

Can you believe (sic) it? Since moving from The Australian to Nine Entertainment’s Age and Sydney Morning Herald in the lead-up to the May 2022 election, an overwhelming number of Niki Savva’s columns have bagged the Liberal Party in general and its leaders – Scott Morrison, followed by Peter Dutton – in particular.

So, it came as some surprise on 9 November when Comrade Savva came up with a fresh idea – and wrote about the late Labor Party leader Bill Hayden (1933-2023), who died recently. It was a fine obituary about an important figure in Australian politics – whom the author described as a friend.

Niki Savva.

However, even in the midst of her account of relatively recent Labor Party history, Ms Savva could not resist having a go at political conservatives – the Nine scribbler only likes Liberals such as Malcolm Turnbull who identify as “moderate” or “progressive”. Here’s what she had to say:

Hayden’s death and the reviews of his big life also coincided with the London jamboree of conservatives, where older participants seemed to believe the solution to their existential crisis was to find new ways of fighting old or lost causes. John Howard was still grappling with multiculturalism and Tony Abbott with climate change.

How about that? A good friend was dead. But the penultimate tribute to one of the Labor Party’s best leaders was devoted to fanging past Liberal Party prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott. The former for discussing multiculturalism, the latter for querying Australia’s response to climate change – at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference that met in London recently. Savva’s reference to a jamboree was just a sneer.

It so happened that Mr Howard’s comments were focused on street demonstrations in Sydney, London and elsewhere where anti-semitic chants were heard – while Abbott’s focus was on developments in Australia where there appears to be growing resistance to the cost and inconvenience of a rapid transition to renewable energy.

However, to Niki Savva it was a case of “Former Labor leader Bill Hayden is dead – so let’s not miss an opportunity to sneer at a couple of former Liberal leaders.” Which raises the question: Can You Bear It?

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD’S LETTERS PAGE LACKS POLITICAL DIVERSITY. ALWAYS

While on the topic of the Sydney Morning Herald, there was enormous reader interest in the previous issue of this hugely popular segment – which drew attention to the SMH’s Letters Page. Reference was made to the fact that, on 31 October 2023, the SMH ran seven letters on the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship conference in London – all of which bagged either John Howard (who spoke at the conference) or the ARC conference itself. Re which see above.

It would seem that, like the ABC, the Sydney Morning Herald has lost many of its conservative readers over the years. You be the judge.

• On 3 November, under the heading “Abbott’s divisive climate change rhetoric should be extinct”, the SMH ran eight letters – all of which attacked and/or sneered at Tony Abbott, Australia’s 28th prime minister. Some of the SMH’s correspondents even called for Abbott

to be censored. No other view was heard which suggests that either the SMH censors letters submitted by political conservatives or they no longer read the paper.

The intellectual level of the SMH’s Letters Page has dropped so low that it even published this 13-word sneer from a Rod Bartlett of Woonona: “Your budgie smugglers are too tight, Tony. Cutting off circulation to your brain.” Now that’s not funny or clever – it’s just abuse. But abuse that’s fit to print in Nine Entertainment’s Sydney broadsheet.

• On 4 November, under the heading “Price sold her soul to further her career” the SMH ran six out of six letters fanging Country Liberal Party Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. The first abused the Country Liberal Party senator by describing her as adopting an ideology “based on ignorant, myopic and egoistical selfishness”. Another accused her of “political opportunism”, another one alleged that “her rise will be brief”, another claimed that she was “most inept” another stated: “She is showing an Aboriginal politician can be as ambitious, self-interested and scheming as any white politician”. No other view was heard.

• On 7 November, under the heading “Why was former minister for everything in Israel?” the SMH ran seven out of eight letters criticising Scott Morrison for visiting Israel.

• On 8 November, under the heading “Former PM’s visit to Israel is a weak publicity stunt”, the SMH returned to its Morrison obsession and ran eight out of nine letters fanging former prime minister Scott Morrison for visiting Israel – along with former United Kingdom prime minister Boris Johnson. There were references to the Three Stooges and Mr Morrison’s religious beliefs were mocked. More abuse.

There was a time when the Sydney Morning Herald carried a high standard of written argument and comment along with diverse political opinion. No longer. But the SMH boasts that it is “Independent. Always.”. Can You Bear It?

[Interesting. I note that on 4 November the SMH published three out of three letters attacking Anthony Fisher, the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney. – MWD Editor.]

THE ABC/AUSTRALIA INSTITUTE PACT UPSETS THE LABOR PARTY – BUT NOT THE GREENS

Did anyone see the stunning performances – in a leftist kind of way – by Emma Shortis (on ABC TV The Drum on 9 November) and Ebony Bennett (on ABC TV’s News Breakfast on 10 November)? What this duo have in common is that both work for the avowedly left-wing Australia Institute, based in Canberra.

That was a couple of days after The Australian published a story by Jess Malcolm and Greg Brown titled “Leftist think tank’s independence in doubt”. This is how the report commenced:

The Australia Institute has extensive links with the Greens political party, undermining its claim of being “fiercely nonpartisan”, amid growing anger within federal Labor over the left-wing think tank’s attacks on the government’s tax, climate and environmental policies.

The Australian named three comrades who currently work for The Australia Institute and appear regularly on the ABC – Richard Denniss, Ebony Bennett and Chris Redman. To this list MWD would add Emma Shortis, Polly Hemming and Rod Campbell. And Ben Oquist was an ABC fave until he left The Australia Institute last year.

MWD has always maintained that the ABC is critical of both the Coalition and Labor governments, but invariably from the left. This comes as no surprise since, as The Australian documented, The Australia Institute and the Greens support the same policies on many political issues.

In short, the ABC is forever extending a platform to Australia Institute commentators. However, most – if not all – political conservatives or right-of-centre think tanks are effectively cancelled by the taxpayer funded public broadcaster.

Ask yourself this: How often has anyone seen or heard a staffer from the Institute of Public Affairs, the Centre for Independent Studies, the Menzies Research Centre in Sydney or the Robert Menzies Institute in Melbourne on ABC TV or radio or online? The answer is rarely, if ever.

For the record, on 8 November Mr Shortis joined The Drum chorus in attacking Donald J. Trump and next morning Mr Bennett criticised the Coalition for opposing the increasing number of Commonwealth public servants. Mr Bennett lives in the public service city named Canberra. And Mr Shortis would never support a non-Left politician.

THE GUARDIAN’SKATHARINE MURPHY AND LENORE TAYLOR DEPICT COALITION POLITICIANS AS “SILLY”

Just when it seemed safe to assume that The Guardian/ABC Axis was falling apart due to fewer of the Guardian commentators appearing on RN Breakfast, Insiders and the like – the ABC TV Insiders program stepped up and resuscitated the entity. Which is good news indeed for Media Watch Dog – since Speersy (as he likes to be called) and the Insiders team (executive producer Samuel Clark) provide lotsa copy for MWD when the Guardian is represented on the Insiders couch at Hangover Time on Sunday mornings.

Just like Sunday 5 November. First up, David Speers interviewed The Guardian Australia’s political editor Katharine (“Malcolm calls me Murpharoo” ) Murphy in Shanghai about Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to China. By the way, Ellie’s (male) co-owner just loves it when journalists interview journalists.

Katharine Murphy is Guardian Australia's political editor.

Then there was the panel. On the Insiders couch back home were Jacob Greber (Australian Financial Review), Peter Hartcher (The Age & Sydney Morning Herald) and Lenore Taylor (The Guardian Australia’s editor).

Since Speersy was in China, the panel discussion back in Canberra was chaired by the ABC’s very own Patricia (“I like to be called PK”) Karvelas. As usual, the Guardian Australia’s Michael Bowers presented the “Talking Pictures” segment – his guest was Mark Humphries. In the late Barry Humphries’ term – Mark Humphries identifies as a comedian and his comedy material (for want of a better word) invariably finds its way to the taxpayer funded public broadcaster, perhaps because others will not use it.

How about that? All up, six out of eight talking heads on Insiders on 5 November were part of The Guardian/ABC Axis. That is, some 75 per cent.

As it turned out, it was a pretty boring Insiders. Quelle Surprise! Only your man Greber made any fresh points – challenging the level of government expenditure on inland rail, the Snowy 2.0 hydro-electric scheme and “the 10,000 km of transmission lines build”, in light of Australia’s high level of inflation. Needless to say, the latter reference upset Taylor who supports the construction of massive transmission lines through the

rural properties of others. The Guardian’s editor lives in inner-city Sydney – well away from commercial wind and solar farms and the environmental impact of Malcolm Turnbull’s fave Snowy 2.0 scheme.

So, what did the Guardian duo bring to the program? Not much – except for the word “silly”. Murpharoo reckoned that former prime minister Scott Morrison used “silly language” when talking about China when he was prime minister. And Ms Taylor said that it was “silly” for the Opposition to criticise PM Albanese’s travel. Mr Greber was interrupted by Taylor and Karvelas and also your man Hartcher for raising this point. To enlarge the word usage somewhat, Nine’s Mr Hartcher said that the Coalition was into “nonsense” when criticising the PM’s travel.

In spite of being classified as political “insiders”, the likes of Taylor, PK, Murpharoo and Hartcher have never worked inside politics. They’re journalists – who seem ignorant of the fact that oppositions of whatever political persuasion, rightly or wrongly, tend to criticise government leaders for travelling too much. It’s called politics.

Here’s hoping for another episode of the Guardian/ABC Axis at the soonest. Media Watch Dog needs the material.