Australian media are a strange bunch. Give them Andrew Chan, who sent underage drug mules into oblivion and then intimidated them from his own jail cell on death row, and they martyr him. A man who ruined countless lives with one one of the most devastating drugs humanity has ever seen. A drug so devastating that many countries see the death penalty as the only answer.
Andrew Chan was seen by many as a sacred cow. A martyr. A little boy lost in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s the line that the mainstream media went with, and the public bought it hook, line, and sinker. The Australian media went to bat for a man who tried to make a 15 year old, and a 17 year old swallow 114 bags of heroin, and showed no remorse for exploiting children even after his own capture. The Australian MSM campaigned harder for Andrew Chan and his cronies than it has for anyone in recent memory.
So where was the journalistic consistency with Cassandra Sainsbury? Youthful misguided girl gets into financial trouble, is lured into prostitution where she is exploited by old white men, and is then again exploited by the patriarchy as a drug mule (a textbook case of objectification if ever there was one) who looks set to literally be shackled as so many women are figuratively shackled, for the next twenty years, while evil white men on Wall Street gleefully party on the white powder that she attempted to deliver to them, and entertain clients with the scourge that has oppressed the brown people of Colombia.
See what I did there? I just wrote the byline that should have been running in every Australian news outlet. Particularly the left leaning ones. The irony is that you’ll only find it here at XYZ. Even the most conservative among us would give it a pass. Why not? She’s a dumb kid. Not a mastermind. If a concerted media effort with a bit of progressive claptrap helped shave a lot of years off a brutal life-ending (in the sense that her life is over between the prison stint and disgraceful coverage) sentence, so be it.
But something very different happened. I’m still trying to process it. Is it empathy fatigue brought on by years of being asked to care about absolutely everything? Or is it that Cassie committed a far more heinous crime than trying to smuggle a heap of Cocaine out of a third world s**thole? The crime of course being afflicted with white privilege. Blonde hair, blue eyes, the complexion of the family Von Trapp. Cassie ticks none of the identity politics boxes required for bona fide victim hood, and all of the identity politics boxes required to play the villain in 2017.
It seems that even being part of the sisterhood isn’t enough to save you nowadays. When you’ve built up that many white privilege demerit points, nothing’s going to save you. You’d think that of all people who might jump to poor Cassie’s defence, we’d see Clementine Ford step up to bat. Clem sees the patriarchy and resultant rape culture in her Weet Bix. She’s like Jim Carrey in the movie Number 23. It’s everywhere, and if you deny it you’re probably the patriarchy…or a a rapist…or something…
Surely such a cut and dried genuine example of patriarchal oppression should have tweaked her antenna? But the only comment Clem Ford appears to have made on the subject appears to be this mealy mouthed Tweet:
And even this is a copout. It conveniently sidesteps the fact that Cassie was desperate and drowning in debt, and exploited by a bunch of men and instead goes down the ‘prostitution is female empowerment’ route. A few women aren’t forced or coerced into the sex trade, therefore it’s empowering for all women. Or something. Clem has used the same twisted doublethink of ‘a few women choose to wear it’ to frame the Burkha as a feminist statement. Which might explain why she’s devoted quite a bit more column time to Yassmin.
Also note that Yassmin’s employment prospects seem to be of more concern to Ms. Ford than all of the future strong female role models who were killed, maimed, or traumatised in Manchester by what is unquestionably a genuine patriarchy before they had a chance to even pursue their dreams and careers. It has been made abundantly clear to them that they are mere obstacles to be blown out of the way in favour of a murderous ideology with no interest in their equality or career aspirations.
In her silence, Clementine Ford stands in solidarity with her Aussie media brethren who are laughing at Cassie, finding her guilty in the kangaroo court of the MSM, and most bizarrely ‘slut shaming’ her, which is apparently as A-OK as racially vilifying old white men for some reason known only to them. It seems that a hunting tag was issued for objectifying a white, blonde, blue-eyed 22 year old from Adelaide to a bunch of media hacks who’ve been wagging the finger at the rest of us for so long over micro-aggressions and mis-gendering that they’ve developed such pent up rage and bloodlust that it will only be satisfied by the controlled hunt of a hapless personal trainer.
It’s open season in a world gone mad. The same media who are making it not that big of a deal that ISIS just sent nuts, bolts, and nails tearing through a mass of children at a concert (and again making it all about the feelings of people who aren’t even involved) are guiding the hounds that consume their bait away from the wolf of ISIS that has been taking the sheep and instead has them following the scent of a terrified 22 year old fox from Adelaide.
‘Don’t be angry at an ideology that is literally killing your children. Honestly, it isn’t that big of a deal. Don’t forget, we have this very satisfying punching bag over here. She worked in a brothel. What a slut. We even have pictures to prove it. Take a gander. So white of her to think a bunch of headphones wouldn’t arouse suspicion. Totally something that all of the white people would do. Listen to what we’re trying to tell you melonheads. This chick is literally Hitler, and worse than ISIS!’