GetUp! gets tetchy over The Australian’s frank and fair reportage

Cut & Paste received a lovely email from GetUp! on Monday night:

Will you sign on to a massive letter to The Australian, demanding truth in journalism?

And they’ve got all their favourite Australian front page stories ready. GetUp! email, continued:

Here are just some of the lies and attacks in The Australian lately …

This particular complaint from the lefties really intrigued Cut & Paste. The GetUp! email, continued:

In a classic “red scare” campaign, claiming GetUp took money from a “group linked to Soviets” …

GetUp! took money from a group that actually had “USSR” in its name. The Australian, August 23:

The Australia USSR Friendship Association gave GetUp! at least $10,000 in 2006 …

And never mind all the people the Soviet regime killed through the years. The New York Review of Books, March 10, 2011:

The total figure (killed in the Soviet Gulags) for the entire Stalinist period is likely between two million and three million.

GetUp! also does not really understand the basic concept of news. The email sent out on Monday night:

Writing repeated stories about major donor funding from more than 12 years ago, while refusing to report that 97% of GetUp’s donations are under $100, from everyday people.

Bloomin’ huge donations from possible future prime ministers is real news. The Australian, August 16:

Mr Shorten gave about $100,000 of union money, possibly more, to the left-leaning activist group when it launched in 2005.

Do your worst, GetUp! We’re not scared of holding you to account. The Australian’s editorial, August 16:

GetUp! is far more than the grassroots movement it purports to be, leaving Mr Shorten with explaining to do about why he backed its extremist agenda …

In other news, you may have seen Scott Morrison making a hip pop culture reference in question time, Monday:

If he went to Hogwarts, he would have been in the house of Slytherin.

Bill Shorten disagrees. The Opposition Leader on Twitter, Monday:

Slytherin is a bit harsh. I’m self-aware enough to know I’m more Hufflepuff.

How you get in House Hufflepuff? JK Rowling’s Pottermore website:

Hufflepuffs value hard work, patience, loyalty, and fair play.

We think you may be more of a Slytherin after all, Bill … Pottermore:

Slytherin … turns out leaders who are proud, ambitious and cunning.

Shorten was comparing himself to another fantasy hero yesterday on Adelaide’s Mix 1023 FM:

Jodie Oddy: Bill, we had the Prime Minister on the other day and he’s a fan of Game of Thrones, if you could be a character who would you be and who would the Prime Minister be?

Shorten: I’d be Jon Snow … he’s true to himself.

And who’s the Prime Minister? Shorten, continued:

Is he the King of the White Walkers?

The villain in Game of Thrones isn’t called the “King of the White Walkers”. Game of Thrones Wiki:

The Night King is the supreme leader and the first of the White Walkers.