Which of Australia's politicians will point out the bleedin' obvious?

Notwithstanding the Storm salary cap fraud, it's been a big day for Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd.

ABC reports:

Former Olympic cyclist Mark French has won a defamation case against a Melbourne newspaper which labelled him a drug cheat.

The 25-year-old sued the Herald Sun for two articles published in 2004 which the Victorian Supreme court found damaged his reputation.

French was cleared of doping charges in 2005.

The Court awarded him $175,000 in compensation plus court costs. ...

While 'The Age' reports:

Publishing supremo John Hartigan warned former Herald Sun editor-in-chief Bruce Guthrie to guard against his predecessor, Peter Blunden, a year before Mr Guthrie was sacked, a court has heard.

Mr Guthrie, who was dismissed 15 months before his three-year contract expired, is suing News Limited for $2.7 million in an unfair dismissal claim before the Supreme Court. ...

At least one of our politicians has the balls to tell it like it is:

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Lateline invited the Climate Change Minister Penny Wong and two other relevant Government ministers, Greg Combet and Martin Ferguson, to appear on the program tonight to answer questions about the decision to shelve the ETS. None of them were available.

Instead I spoke a short time ago to the Greens leader, Senator Bob Brown, who was in our Hobart studio. ...

LEIGH SALES: So, Senator Brown, the Lowy Institute for International Policy has been polling people on climate change since 2006. When they asked people to respond to the statement, "Global warming is a serious and pressing problem. We should begin taking steps now, even if this involves significant costs." In 2006, 68 per cent of people agreed; today that's only 46 per cent. Other polls have shown that people are losing interest in climate change as an issue. What do you think is going on there?

BOB BROWN: Well, the Labor and Liberal parties and big sections of the media, including the Murdoch press, want it off the agenda. They're being very sceptical about it. But 46 per cent - the Greens are rating at 12 per cent. We have a very big constituency out there that wants and will be getting more and more behind the Greens as the action party on climate change and that's the people who are thinking about the Australia we're going to hand on to our children and our grandchildren.

We are about giving them a secure future where we haven't left it to them to deal with climate change. A six to 20 per cent hit on their gross income if we don't act now by putting one or two per cent into the measures which would reorient our economy to help us to deal with dangerous climate change in 2010. ...

Action: Vote "Green" in the Senate (except in Queensland, where you should vote for anyone not in bed with the Murdoch Press) so we can have some kind of handbrake on this insanity. Do not vote for any front group like the "huntin'Shootin'Fishin' Party" or such!

Time for a public inquiry

This is what the Deputy Prime Minister was reported as saying about the (Murdoch owned) Melbourne Storm salary cap fraud in today's [27/4/10] 'Sydney Morning Herald':

... "I believe News Limited and everyone else involved would realise that the investigation here has to be enough - open enough, transparent enough, serious enough - to restore the confidence of the fans and the sponsors in the league," she told ABC radio on Tuesday.

"I believe it's in everybody's interests, including, very very clearly, the interests of News Limited, to get to the bottom of all of this.

"At the end of the day, News Limited, the fans, the sponsors, the players, everyone has an interest in making sure that people are confident that the game is being played well and fairly right across the country." ...

As former CEO of The Storm Brian Waldron said in a statement, which was read out on ABC Radio today:

... I would be prepared to tell everything I know to a properly constituted public and transparent inquiry which requires evidence under oath from all relevant persons.

I am also prepared to give the entire background to Rupert Murdoch so that he has a full understanding of how his Australian company has managed a $66 million investment in the Melbourne Storm.

So where is the Federal Minister for Sport, Kate Ellis? Doesn't it concern her that she and her State counterparts have delivered millions of taxpayer dollars directly and indirectly into Murdoch's News Ltd. coffers by way of subsidies, tax-breaks, infrastructure and, especially through 'your' ABC, free publicity?

A public inquiry is a great idea!

PS: News Ltd's Greg Baxter said something. Not sure what, really. Honest people stopped listening to anything he said right after his great work as chief PR spin-man for James Hardie as they were weaselling out of their obligations to their asbestos victims and making off with their billions into the night. What a piece of work.

Another day, more public hospital bashing

It seems like every day the Gold Coast Murdoch press attack the Gold Coast Hospital.

Here's today's effort [25/4/10]:

The number of emergency room patients being attended to within the medically recommended timeframe at Gold Coast Hospital are the worst they have been in months.

According to the latest emergency department monthly performance report provided by Queensland Health for February, 40 per cent of patients to present at the Gold Coast Hospital and 44 per cent at Robina waited more than eight hours in the ED before being admitted....

They don't do this out of any desire to remedy inequity or inform the public. They do it to scare the community and to denigrate the notion of universal health care.

If they were serious about reporting on health issues, they would be writing honestly about private and public health systems - not slandering the public health system at every opportunity while at the same time running private hospital PR pieces.

They would also tell you how many taxpayer dollars are spent propping up the private health providers, at the expense of delivering health care services to all.

Murdoch and his properties don't agree that health is a human right.

They are pushing a neoliberal agenda which will tear the heart of our public health system and force us into the hands of ruthlessly, profit driven international companies.

If you are concerned about health issues, don't rely on the Murdoch Press, don't comment on their websites, don't write letters to the editor, speak to your local MP.

And switch off the ABC when they are clearly just following up on the Murdoch agenda.

News Ltd's "Melbourne Storm" NRL Team Are Cheats!

Shock! Horror! Fury! Outrage!

So, Rupert Murdoch presides over a bunch of flagrant cheats. Why is everyone acting surprised?

IT'S WHAT THEY DO!

Unless you are completely stupid you should know that everything in Murdoch's history points to semi-truths, half-truths, non-truths, lies and worse in order to get what he wants. Whether it is a Prime Minister (Thatcher he actually famously crowed about on his front page) needing election, a war-criminal President, a legislative change allowing him more concentrated control and power, some way for him to not pay tax etc... Whatever it is, he knows no lowness to which he is unstoopable.

This could just upset sport-mad footy lovers enough to do something about this shocking man and his company, maybe.

Unfortunately, a quick look at the comments on the 'Courier-Mail' story doesn't even show a hint of anger directed at Murdoch or News Ltd. for this fraud.

Here is what appears if you leave a comment on one of his crappy mono-media papers' website:

Thank you for your comment

Please note that we are not able to publish all the comments that we receive, and that we may edit some comments to ensure their suitability for publishing.

Feedback will be rejected if it does not add to a debate, or is a purely personal attack, or is offensive, repetitious, illegal or meaningless, or contains clear errors of fact.

Although we try to run feedback just as it is received, we reserve the right to edit or delete any and all material.

Maybe that could explain it?

Crooks!

Action:

Boycott 'The Courier Mail'
Botcott 'The Australian'
Boycott 'The Herald Sun'
etc, etc, etc,....

If I wanted to hear from an arsehole, I'd fart.

'The Australian's' Political Editor, Dennis "Rupert Approves Of Kevin's Bastardy Border Controls And Blank Cheques For Private Health Providers" Shanahan

Here we go again.

Your ABC using peak viewing time ('Lateline' 19/4/10) to broadcast the views of a Murdoch property about a Murdoch poll.

What a joke.

If you think this is ridiculous, let your candidates in the upcoming Federal Election know how you feel.

Or if you just want to complain to the ABC, shoot them an email.

If we are not going to stop this free exposure, it should certainly be valued at commercial rates and taxed accordingly.

Time to end the farce

This person is very much a Murdoch property, and is also in the powerful position of hosting the ABC's Brisbane morning radio show

Neoliberal mainstream politicians want to normalise Murdoch's absolute control of our news media.

In our view, it is untenable for any Murdoch property to appear on any ABC forum.

For fucks sake, he controls more than 70% of Australia's news media in his own right. It is damaging to our democracy to give these same people a voice on your publicly funded national broadcaster. Doing so explicitly or implictly endorses every view coming from the Murdoch empire.

That is just a fact.

We've already tried numerous times, maybe you might have better luck asking the ABC to stop this Murdoch infiltration.

Worthwhile weekend activities

'Anonymous Lefty' writes:

Well, News Ltd and other conservative organisations wanted refugee-bashing to be part of our national politics again, and they’ve succeeded. We on the left didn’t counter their utter lies hard enough, or strongly enough, and both major parties (I’m going to ignore the Cruel Samaritan as the irrelevancy he’ll hopefully soon be) are now essentially as repulsive as each other on the issue. Voters who know the facts (please, print that out and put a copy in the Herald Suns in the local cafe) now only have one party to represent them – the Greens. Those progressive, humane ALP members still in that party, trying futilely to change it from the inside (give up guys, it belongs to the Right now) should probably consider this the final straw and jump ship. Looks like we’re going to have to unite against the Liblab bastards together. ...

Excellent idea, print out as many as you can and put them in the Murdoch papers wherever you see them, or be as inventive as you like.

For extra bonus points, print out 50 of these fact sheets and put them in a pile of 'mX's' next Monday!

More solutions to monomedia pollution

Costa sets an example at the Alexandria Park Community School

We've previously made suggestions for the use of monomedia crap that pollutes our minds and our social discourse, not to mention our city streets.

Here's another, courtesy last night's [15/4/10] episode of 'Costa's Gardening Odyssey':

Alexandria Park Community School, in inner Sydney, is a green oasis in the middle of the industrial sprawl. The school, with its large indigenous student base, asked Costa to help them build a bush tucker garden to be used as part of the school curriculum.

Costa found a perfect spot to locate the garden. It has an existing tree belt; it’s protected from the sports field; it’s close to the school’s main entrance and best of all the kids have got a nice place to hang out and learn a little about bush tucker. ...

TIPS:

• If you’re building a garden bed where grass exists, don’t remove it. Just mow it close to the ground and then cover with a layer of wet newspaper. The grass will eventually break down and nurture the soil. ...

A lot of Australians get monomedia delivered in the form of a so called community newspaper, others get it handed to them on the way to the train, or might see it in stands around their city.

So do what's right for this country and put it to some useful purpose.

Australian Politicians Take Note

Standing up to Murdoch and the neoliberals is SO HOT RIGHT NOW!

Victorian Premier John Brumby gave an address on health reform at the National Press Club today [14/4/10]

Take Premier John Brumby. He's displayed remarkable resilience as a lone voice raising concerns about the Rudd Government's proposed neoliberal overhaul of our health system.

He's the David in battle against a Goliath of a spin machine that includes your ABC, the corporate media and well aired weaselly word attacks by Rudd Government robotrons.

When Sue Dunlevy of the 'Daily Telegraph' arrogantly made a series of blanket assertions about the state of the Victorian Health System in her snarky question at today's address, before slamming her question he said:

"Sounds like someone may have written that question."

Sue "Na na nan naa naa, Rupert, Kevin and the neoliberals would like to know" Dunlevy after having her question slammed down by the Premier

Politicians of Australia - your constituents are not as dim as you think. After decades of media monopoly they are wising up and are easily able to sniff an elected representative dancing to the Murdoch media's tune.

They like politicans who stand up to the neoliberal T.I.N.A. mantra.

They want you to show some balls, and represent their interests, not those of big corporations.

He Lies To You (Using Your Politicians and His Shills)

Two hours after the actual game, you could watch it for free on Channel 9

Did you think that you could hear your local Rugby League game for free, live, on your ABC radio? No Way, Loser!

We own your entertainment, sports and news and you will bloody well pay for it. It belongs to us, not you.

Not blaming the NBN Channel 9 folks for this abomination. It was the only picture we could get. Actually, who cares about a bunch of rapists without necks? Hate the bloody game, anyway.

But that is not the point! This afternoon, on ABC 'local radio' Coast FM, they casually mentioned that ABC's "Grandstand" would not broadcast live coverage of tonight's [9/4/10] NRL game between the 'Titans' and 'Storm' because the owner of the broadcast rights refused to allow it.

You remember when you all thought it would be such a great idea to hand over all Australia's sport, media and government to Rupert Murdoch and we said that wouldn't be a good idea and you told us to 'shut up'?

Well, suck shit! Hope you enjoy Rupert owning your free footy (not to mention media and government), because you didn't blink when the few of us were saying maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea to hand so much power and control to a man who showed such contempt for Australia and its ordinary people.

They stand for no-one: boaties, tradies or "financial types"

These recent advertisements on Southport bus shelters (and all over the Gold Coast) are visual pollution. Murdoch's failing fortunes are writ small in his abysmally crap 'Gold Coast Bulletin', it is getting desperate and facing the axe as he tries to get his tabloid filth behind a paywall. These ads are indicative of that desperation but they can only be a good sign:

Think about it.

The Murdoch press is advertising for you to read them and advertise with them.

Wouldn't that be a sign of desperation?

Yes.

The bulk of advertising in the Murdoch press appears to be courtesy of mega corporations and local, state, and federal government.

Considering that advertising expenditure is tax deductable, and that it's your taxes that are being given to Murdoch to run his disgraceful war on your democracy - it's not very healthy - and certainly not "for you".

So how would you stop such a psycho organisation who claim "it's just for you" when in fact the opposite is true?

Action: Like an internet troll, urge everyone to ignore them and above all do NOT interact with them. Do not write to them, do not click on them, do not write for them, do not talk to them, do not link to them, do not advertise with them and, most of all, tell their advertisers what you think of them (politely and in calm detail, of course).

April Fools

Contemplating whether or not medical staff at the new Gold Coast Hospital will be allowed to have a durrie on site is not news. It's mean, small minded, tawdry class war.

Page 5 of this week's 'Gold Coast Sun' (we've blocked the subject's identity)

No quotes from nurses or doctors are included in what is becoming an all too familiar example of the Murdoch press' campaign against universal health care, but the caption to the accompanying image of a person lighting up says: "Nurses want a chance to inhale without leaving the grounds."

We reject the closely aligned ideological agenda of the Murdoch press and that of the government and opposition at Federal, State and Local levels - especially when there are no alternative newspapers.

For instance, this fascist propaganda endorses Moncrieff Federal MP Steven Ciobo's proposition to use prison labour to clean the supposedly litter ridden M1.

Page 7, this week's 'Gold Coast Sun'

Evidently a handful of rubbish on the highway is more worrying to Ciobo (and last week Albert MP Margaret Keech) and the Murdoch Press, than concerns about the environmental and health impact of the recent fuel leak in Miami.

Speaking of pollution, fascism, propaganda, Murdoch and public services:

... MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN: The information super highway was foremost on everyone's mind at Yirrkala school, where every child was given a laptop computer, branded an XO.

Fifteen hundred XO laptops have been distributed in the past year to children in remote schools across Australia.

The project's being driven by a not-for-profit organisation called One Laptop Per Child, which plans to distribute 400,000 laptops to children in remote schools over the next five years. That's going to cost $200 million.

RANGAN SRIKHANTA, ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD: Now that cost is a drop in the ocean in terms of the total spend in terms of education right across Australia, but it can have a monumental impact if we really do reach each of these children.

MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN: The One Laptop Per Child organisation was formed in the United States five years ago to create an affordable educational device for use in developing countries.

JOHN HARTIGAN, CHAIRMAN, NEWS LTD: Well, the first thing that happened several years ago was that Rupert Murdoch put seed capital into the whole program of rolling it out of the Massachusetts media lab and that started a process that, one was exciting, but who would believe that we'd finish up in East Arnhem Land handing them out today. ...

Action?

Never give up.