Politics The Hangar Politics Thread

[Ben the Gooner]

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/fairfax-chief-greg-hywood-blasts-news-corporations-speculative-lies-20140609-39sys.html#ixzz34Bqp6xv2


Let's hear it for Fairfax everyone. 1, 2, 3, awwwwww.

Character assassinations on the Prime Minister, libel against the Treasurer and slander against one of the biggest football clubs in the country.

Poor Fairfax.

 

[Doss]

Considering News Limited's efforts at various points recently, they're in no position to sling mud.

None of the main players in the mainstream media are.

 

[eth-dog]

Character assassinations on the Prime Minister, libel against the Treasurer and slander against one of the biggest football clubs in the country.

Poor Fairfax.

The PM is the worst in our history. Don't blame them for that one bit

 

[Doss]

In your opinion, Eth.

And let's please not turn this into an argument about Australian politics.

Save it for more appropriate threads please.

I just find it amusing that either News or Fairfax think they're in any position to take the moral high ground over each other at present. They're not.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

Whatever you think about Abbott, it's pretty clearly a Fairfax lead character assassination of him and his family.

 

[yaco55]

Whatever you think about Abbott, it's pretty clearly a Fairfax lead character assassination of him and his family.

Is it any difference to the News Limited attacks on Gillard and the ALP ?

Newspapers take sides and its reflected in their writings.

 

[Whispering_Jack]

Whatever you think about Abbott, it's pretty clearly a Fairfax lead character assassination of him and his family.

PM's character being assassinated by major newspaper... Sounds familiar...

 

[rines]

Is it any difference to the News Limited attacks on Gillard and the ALP ?

Newspapers take sides and its reflected in their writings.

Yeah.. love that Abbott is now crying foul.. he lead the most disgusting political attack politics ever seen in this country.. that dragged the Prime Ministers office into an 18 month long smear campaign that made people feel it was ok (irrespective of your political leanings) to call the leader of our Country a bitch etc etc.. and to use her dead father in some lame attempt at shock jock antics..

Abbott is reaping what he started.. and may the s**t rain down on him until the end of his days..

The truly shocking part? The papers aren't even making up lies about him, like they did against Gillard.. he daughter really did get a 'plucked from the air' free pass at higher education.. and the other one a plum post in the foreign office..

Not the time and place.. but pot.kettle.black.

 

[theboxmike]

Yeah.. love that Abbott is now crying foul.. he lead the most disgusting political attack politics ever seen in this country.. that dragged the Prime Ministers office into an 18 month long smear campaign that made people feel it was ok (irrespective of your political leanings) to call the leader of our Country a bitch etc etc.. and to use her dead father in some lame attempt at shock jock antics..

Abbott is reaping what he started.. and may the s**t rain down on him until the end of his days..

The truly shocking part? The papers aren't even making up lies about him, like they did against Gillard.. he daughter really did get a 'plucked from the air' free pass at higher education.. and the other one a plum post in the foreign office..

Not the time and place.. but pot.kettle.black.

It was actually freaking disgusting by the media. I hate 95% of media personalities just a bunch of scumbags with an agenda.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

Yeah.. love that Abbott is now crying foul.. he lead the most disgusting political attack politics ever seen in this country.. that dragged the Prime Ministers office into an 18 month long smear campaign that made people feel it was ok (irrespective of your political leanings) to call the leader of our Country a bitch etc etc.. and to use her dead father in some lame attempt at shock jock antics..

Abbott is reaping what he started.. and may the s**t rain down on him until the end of his days..

The truly shocking part? The papers aren't even making up lies about him, like they did against Gillard.. he daughter really did get a 'plucked from the air' free pass at higher education.. and the other one a plum post in the foreign office..

Not the time and place.. but pot.kettle.black.

Sorry, you're quite right. Abbott's daughters deserve all the abuse they're getting.

#FAIRFAXrespect

 

[Whispering_Jack]

Sorry, you're quite right. Abbott's daughters deserve all the abuse they're getting.

#FAIRFAXrespect

Yes, that's what she said...

 

[Old Campaigner]

Sorry, you're quite right. Abbott's daughters deserve all the abuse they're getting.

#FAIRFAXrespect

If they're going after the one with the dodgy scholarship then its fair game imo.

 

[Jade]

If they're going after the one with the dodgy scholarship then its fair game imo.

We really need to stop encouraging/accepting the horseshit activity of the Australian media.

So Frances got a scholarship from a private university.

Big ****ing deal. Her Dad's the ****ing Prime Minister for christ sake. I know damn well that I pull every lever I possibly can to get ahead in life.

 

[Pweter]

Yes, Abbot had one of the biggest political muck raking campaigns ever seen executed. Now the shoe is on the other foot and the muck raking continues but this time he's on the receiving end.

The sad thing is if this were my kids acting like this they'd be told to pull their heads in and not be so ******* stupid. My kids are 3 and 6 years old.

And people wonder why society is heading down the frightful path that it is.

 

[rines]

Sorry, you're quite right. Abbott's daughters deserve all the abuse they're getting.

#FAIRFAXrespect

No, that wasn't what I was saying. Abbott had NO issue in dragging Gilliard and her whole family into the muck for the three years he was opposition leader. My point was that, now the shoes is on the other foot, he is trying to claim the family is 'protected'.. try telling Mathieson that.. whom Abbott mentioned no less than 183 times in the election campaign...

Abbott opened this disgusting, horrible and downright wrong door.. my point is that he can't shut it now just because it doesn't suit him.

My personal preference would be for the whole lot to get the boot and we can start again... media included.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

No, that wasn't what I was saying. Abbott had NO issue in dragging Gilliard and her whole family into the muck for the three years he was opposition leader. My point was that, now the shoes is on the other foot, he is trying to claim the family is 'protected'.. try telling Mathieson that.. whom Abbott mentioned no less than 183 times in the election campaign...

Abbott opened this disgusting, horrible and downright wrong door.. my point is that he can't shut it now just because it doesn't suit him.

My personal preference would be for the whole lot to get the boot and we can start again... media included.

So News Ltd's attacks on Gillard justify Fairfax's attacks on Abbott?

Surely of all people Essendon fans are able to realise how ******* grubby it all is, on both sides of politics.

But nah, let's pick and choose when we criticise the media. The character assassination on Hird is disgraceful, it's absolutely appalling that Tom's birthday party is surrounded by a media pack etc. etc., but the Abbott family? Fair game right?


And for what it's worth, the opportunities that the Abbott girls have aren't at all out of the ordinary for a private school like Monte.

 

[Jade]

So News Ltd's attacks on Gillard justify Fairfax's attacks on Abbott?

Surely of all people Essendon fans are able to realise how ******* grubby it all is, on both sides of politics.

But nah, let's pick and choose when we criticise the media. The character assassination on Hird is disgraceful, it's absolutely appalling that Tom's birthday party is surrounded by a media pack etc. etc., but the Abbott family? Fair game right?


And for what it's worth, the opportunities that the Abbott girls have aren't at all out of the ordinary for a private school like Monte.

What this bloke said.

Seriously, if anyone should know how disgracefully the media behaves it should be us.

My god the beat up over that scholarship. It's a private school FFS.

 

[carnthedons]

So News Ltd's attacks on Gillard justify Fairfax's attacks on Abbott?

Surely of all people Essendon fans are able to realise how ******* grubby it all is, on both sides of politics.

But nah, let's pick and choose when we criticise the media. The character assassination on Hird is disgraceful, it's absolutely appalling that Tom's birthday party is surrounded by a media pack etc. etc., but the Abbott family? Fair game right?


And for what it's worth, the opportunities that the Abbott girls have aren't at all out of the ordinary for a private school like Monte.

Yep. Thundersillys the lot of them. They live and breath on misery and bringing people down. Doesn't matter if it's Tony Abbott, Germaine Greer, Richard Dawkins or George Pell.

Plenty of people get perks based on who they know. That's how the world works. It's not fair but whatever.

 

[Ben the Gooner]

In other words, Fairfax are a bunch of slanderous scrubs, and defending their slanderous scrubbiness when it's directed at one target but decrying it when it's directed at another says more about you as a person than anything else.

 

[theboxmike]

What this bloke said.

Seriously, if anyone should know how disgracefully the media behaves it should be us.

My god the beat up over that scholarship. It's a private school FFS.

I think the main problem people have is that she got special privileges despite being no better than the average student.

Oh well whatever good luck to her I guess. I know most parents would do that same, doesn't make it right though.

 

[Jade]

I think the main problem people have is that she got special privileges despite being no better than the average student.

So what? I know I'd take any advantage given to me if it suited me to do so.

She's not leeching from a government school, it's privately owned. It's a beat up, plain and simple.

 

[theboxmike]

So what? I know I'd take any advantage given to me if it suited me to do so.

She's not leeching from a government school, it's privately owned. It's a beat up, plain and simple.

Like I said just because we would all do it doesn't necessarily make it right.

 

[GUMBLETRON]

My god the beat up over that scholarship. It's a private school FFS.

It's also a bigger violation of the spirit of campaign finance law than the one that saw the Premier of NSW resign. We have rules about private interests providing material benefit to politicians and their families for good reason. In this case, the provider of the benefit is known to have lobbied the recipient about higher education policy changes that would directly benefit her, and, surprise, those are the sorts of changes the government is now proposing. So no, don't give me this horseshit about it being irrelevant muckraking.

 

[Old Campaigner]

And for what it's worth, the opportunities that the Abbott girls have aren't at all out of the ordinary for a private school like Monte.

Its the revelations that she got the scholarship from a director who was lobbying the government at around about the same time, that none of the other students knew that the scholarship even existed, and the fact that the only other recipient of that scholarship in previous years was the daughter of one of the directors that bothers people. That's not good fortune, that's corruption and cronyism.

 

[Jade]

It's also a bigger violation of the spirit of campaign finance law than the one that saw the Premier of NSW resign. We have rules about private interests providing material benefit to politicians and their families for good reason. In this case, the provider of the benefit is known to have lobbied the recipient about higher education policy changes that would directly benefit her, and, surprise, those are the sorts of changes the government is now proposing. So no, don't give me this horseshit about it being irrelevant muckraking.

It's not irrelevant. The behaviour of media in Australia is scarily relevant.

But it's still horseshit muckraking.

Probably my only (and very minor) complaint here is that the scholarship was not declared - however I don't really care. There is no accusation that Frances Abbott was not deserving of a scholarship.

The wailing I hear relating to this issue can basically be distilled as such:

1) She may not have been the best candidate for the scholarship.
So? Privately owned, privately funded. How a student is selected for a privately owned and privately funded scholarship is entirely up to the organisation in question.

2) Other students didn't know about the scholarship (and therefore could not compete for it)
Again, so? They can award the same scholarship ten times next year, or not at all for the next decade entirely at the whim of the powers that be; and do so without advertising the fact if they see fit.

3) But they lobbied Tony Abbott and/or the Liberals! Outrage! OUTRAGE!!
Yeah...... should be lynched. Come on.....

Are we seriously trying to suggest that the daughter of the opposition leader (of the time) should be excluded from any potential opportunity that comes her way if the benefactor is also politically active?

Now I would agree that the scholarship should have been publicly disclosed by Tony Abbott, but that oversight is not even worthy of a slap on the wrist IMO.

I repeat - horseshit muckraking; and I'm horrified how easily the population of this country is taken in by it.