Truth, Lies and Media

We couldn’t go past critiquing Sunday nights Spotlight program which travelled to the UK to watch Pauline Hanson meet the violent racist Tommy Robinson. What could possibly go wrong? Pauline Hanson has now angrily turned on her fawning (ex) mates at the Seven Network, leaking the bigotry laced email pitch they’d sent to One Nation while trying to talk Hanson into meeting Britains hard right grievance magnets The meetings happened. The cameras rolled. Muslims were stereotyped and baited and denigrated. Seven got their interview. But Tommy Robinson was accurately portrayed as a violent crook (wasn’t in the masterplan) and Hanson was condemned for lamenting the end of the white supremacist White Australia Policy and saying she “loves” the brutal idea of mass deportations. And the hour of hate that went to air was not journalism. [from 6:05]Plus how do you report an election when the leading contender is a bloke wearing a rubbish bin on his head? In the UK Monty Pythonesque lunacy descends on the Nigel Farage by-election contest.[from 45:40]

Denis Muller speaks with Andrew Dodd and Matthew Ricketson about their new book “Getting Murdoched”, available now through Hardie Grant Publishing.

Mark Zuckerberg's 'Meta' has had the blowtorch applied by the Royal Commission into Anti Semitism. It appears the tech giant's decision to allow more hate speech on Facebook to appease Donald Trump (and make s+loads of cash) has unleashed more, well, ugly hate speech. Who knew.[from 04:30]We also check in on poor old Karl Stefanovic, now complaining that TV is too "biege" while lamenting how poorly he's been treated for platforming the violent racist Tommy Robinson - all while podcasting from mate Piers Morgan's super-luxury yacht moored in the sparkling waters off Cannes.  [from 17:10]And we went along to the book launch by Malcolm Turnbull of "Getting Murdoched - How The Murdoch Media Wields Power and Punishment" - a read that is simultaneously compelling and terrifying.  [from 37:30]

We’re watching textbook cases of great public interest journalism as The Ages Nick McKenzie takes on the Premier over rampant corruption on the “Big Build” while at the same time Karl the Unemployed platforms a violent crook and tries to convince us he did it “for you.”We also look at the new evidence reported by The Guardian about One Nation “meme factories” supporting claims from Senator Whish Wilson that someone with shiteloads of cash is buying and spreading fake Pauline Hanson posts in an attempt to rig Australian elections.We unpack why a straight talking former Supreme Court Judge Lex Lasry has blasted the media and MPs for ratcheting up the law and order “performative outrage” ..And we honour our unique multicultural TV channel SBS as we return to that breathtaking live moment when Awer Mabil an African Australian Socceroo superstar who arrived as a refugee realises his childhood SBS broadcast hero is asking him a question ..and is suddenly beaming but awestruck and lost for words. 

Australia’s doyens of political journalism invite a journo-hating bigot to the National Press Club and, with 2 honourable exceptions, fail to challenge the hate and falsehoods that follow. Plus .. Senator Whish Wilson reveals the foreign generated flood of AI bots that are behind One Nations meteoric rise as he asks Australia and the media to “wake the fk up.”And Virginia Trioli, the journo who took on Peter Reith and won, leaves the ABC after 27 years.

Donald Trump has delivered “peace with punches” according to a gushing Nine News report from the violent MMA fight in the “claw” on the front lawn of the White House.Not everyone is so keen to pump up the President’s tyres as commercial television (thankfully) but watch as all sides in the Iran peace deal now launch the “all my own work” spin wars. In Perth there’s been another run in with One Nation and the national broadcaster. Access to taxpayer funded MPs should not be “for sale” but an ABC reporter has again been booted out of a Pauline Hanson event after being asked to pay $60 for a ticket. And at Seven it’s a case of “you have a new owner and you’re fired” for 300 staffers. We look at the financial pressures and the human toll as jobs are axed at Channel Seven.Ep

Why have the hard right Murdoch media turned on their golden girl Pauline Hanson?We unpack the savage attacks usually reserved for hated enemies .. as the hatchet job phenomenon known as “getting Murdoched” turns on One Nation and News Corp eats its own.Plus more harrowing stories emerge of rape on an industrial scale meted out to Australian women by Israeli forces .. why can the media only find outrage over Grace Tame getting work on an ABC podcast? And Donald Trump storms out of an interview with NBCs Meet The Press, enraged that the reporter repeatedly reminded him that there is no evidence to support his claims of rigged elections.  

Gina “One Nation” Rinehart is adding “media mogul” to her business card.The mining billionaire has just bought into Southern Cross Media. the owner of the Seven Network - a broadcaster that boasts televisions highest rating news services. Can we now expect Warp 5 migrant bashing, nuclear level climate denying, peak ABC hating and Pauline Hanson back on Dancing With The Stars? Watch this space.Plus we honour the 18 year old American journalism student who stood before the most powerful pro-Trump CBS News executives at a glittering Emmys ceremony and dropped a stunning truth bomb right into their laps.