What’s wrong with this article?
Moses Apostaticus recently penned an excellent article for The XYZ, outlining the hypocrisy of mainstream media referring to alternative news sources which contradict their regressive left narrative as “fake news” and made a good educated guess at the motivations underpinning this new line of attack:
“The mainstream media has been exposed as having absolutely no credibility. Their shilling and lying for Hillary was so obvious and so outrageous that even the leftist normies have stopped reading them.”
When it comes to misleading information, this ABC article provides us with two howlers in real time. Here is exhibit A:
“Concern is growing that future Australian elections could be influenced by the rise of fake news on social media.
“Facebook is the latest online company to announce measures to crackdown on false news reports, which were prevalent during the recent US presidential election.”
“Examples included a bogus claim that the Pope had endorsed Donald Trump’s candidacy.”
As you will see from this screenshot of the first page of a Google search, the SEO team have been hard at work making sure everybody knows that the Pope did not, in fact, endorse Trump. Thus, this ABC article carries with it the assumption that people likely to vote for candidates who oppose their regressive left narrative never double-check a report’s authenticity.
Big assumption.
Moreover, this is a great example of what XYZ’s Eh?nonymous was talking about in “Sinful pride loses elections for the left.” If the ABC had bothered to keep up with the “fake groups” on social media they are so concerned about, they would have noticed that supporters of Donald Trump, and conservatives in general, are not particularly fond of the current Pope. They would notice that the Pope these days is viewed as just another SJW who has infiltrated a former foundational institution of Western civilisation and replaced Biblical teachings with leftist ideology. The axiom “Is the Pope a Catholic?” has become a little obsolete. More to the point of this story, as this screenshot of a Google image search of “pope wall meme” will attest, Trump supporters are well informed of the Pope’s political opinions regarding one of Trump’s cornerstone policies, and have made their feelings clear on the matter..
So to summarise this howler, the ABC has cited, as an example of fake news influencing the outcome of an election, an article about the Pope endorsing Donald Trump, when in fact Trump supporters, who are a pretty cluey and resourceful bunch, understand the Pope’s real political views, and have pilloried him mercilessly for his hypocrisy in decrying Trump’s plans to build a border wall, when in fact he lives behind a giant wall.
Thus, the impact of a fake news story about the Pope endorsing Trump on the outcome of the US Presidential Election is doubtful at best. We should expect better from the ABC.
Exhibit B:
One of the “experts” quoted in the article is Nicholas Reece, “a public policy expert at Melbourne University”:
“Some of these fake stories are attracting huge audiences online, we’ve got the data to prove that,” he said.
“Many of these stories attract vastly bigger audiences than actual real news stories.”
Who is Nicholas Reece? From the Melbourne University webpage:
“Nick has considerable experience in both politics and policy making having worked as a senior adviser to an Australian Prime Minister and two Victorian Premiers. He has also served as secretary of the Australian Labor Party in Victoria.
“Nick is a director of the street newspaper The Big Issue and a director of the men’s health movement Movember.”
(I applaud his work with Movember, although if he cucks it up, we’re gonna have words.)
But hang on, he’s served as secretary of the Victorian ALP? And which Australian PM did he work for? This article from Crikey from June 13, 2012, discusses the move of one Nick Reece (why does he use a different first name, now?) who has left his position on the staff of Julia Gillard, to work at Melbourne University. The article expresses confidence that Julia Gillard can win the next election, and makes only passing reference to Reece’s involvement in a “dirt unit” which it said only had anonymous claims on ABC radio to back it up. In fact, these anonymous claims received back-up, and a weasel-worded justification from Gillard herself, just days later, as reported in the Daily Telegraph on June 15, 2012, along with the hilarious insistence that the revelation of Reece’s involvement in a dirt unit briefed with the task of digging up information on conservative politicians, had nothing to do with his resignation.
Lucky we’re getting this crackdown on fake news…
So to summarise this second howler, in an article on “fake news,” an issue which has leapt to the front pages of mainstream media flagships since the election of a conservative politician in the US, and in which concern is raised that special interest groups such as those opposed to Halal certification could use fake news to mislead the public, the ABC has failed to reveal the fact that an expert it quotes was the chief political advisor for a left-wing politician. It thus presents the opinions of an establishment regressive leftist as though they are unbiased.
As we seem to be saying a lot these days, this is a prime example of why so few people trust the mainstream media any more, and why alternative media exists. People are sick of being lied to by mainstream media, and we are sick of the mainstream media’s bias being presented as unbiased.
As for the ABC, I would like to reiterate, on behalf of all of us at The XYZ: where’s our $500 million?