ABC propels Dutton’s disinformation dealers

Another day, another barking lie from Dutton and his brazen band of disinformation dealers, now regularly guest-starring on the public broadcaster.

There is no stopping the runaway train of invention that is the Murdoch media, at least not without government intervention — and there appears to be no appetite within the Labor Party to go down that road again.

But the ABC also continues to embrace Dutton’s outright racism, the ongoing deliberate lies about energy and the existence of a Coalition nuclear "plan”, plain old angry rants about the CSIRO and accusations of fueling antisemitism levelled against the Prime Minister. Anyone would think these things were perfectly reasonable — and therein lies the problem.

Opposition leaders should be given the opportunity to offer alternative policies and critique the government of the day, of course. But when an opposition leader seeks only to divide, when their alternate policies are complete fabrications designed to create chaos, they should be called out, not platformed, presented as fact and promoted further.

RAISING FALSE FLAGS

This week, Peter Dutton declared that if elected PM he would not stand in front of the Aboriginal flag.

This alone should have him denounced as the racist individual that he is and unfit to be PM.

Earlier evidence of his outright racist deeds should have been presented alongside his latest diversionary tactic.

Defaming Dutton and Co or calling a racist a racist?

Managing editor Michelle Pini discusses defamatory statements versus inarguable facts in relation to Peter Dutton's hurt feelings over being called out as racist, among other high-profile litigation.

Instead of stepping up, however, the national broadcaster emulated the Murdoch media frenzy, featuring Dutton on repeat declaring:

"I'm very strongly of the belief that we are a country united under one flag, and if we're asking people to identify with different flags, no other country does that, and we are dividing our country unnecessarily. We should have respect for the Indigenous flag and the Torres Strait Islander flag, but they are not our national flags."

Of course, the Aboriginal Flag and Torres Strait Islander Flag were proclaimed flags of Australia in 1995 under section 5 of the Flags Act 1953.

And Australia is not the only country that displays more than one flag — several other countries do so, including members of the European Union, which display the EU flag alongside their national flags.

Australia, however, is the only Western democracy that doesn’t have a Treaty with its Indigenous peoples.

Was this pointed out in the ABC rolling coverage of Dutton's flag falsehoods? Was there any mention of the Flags Act? Did any ABC presenter call out any aspect of Dutton’s bullshit or point out his history of racist deeds? As far as we know, only Laura Tingle had the temerity to call it out. Increasingly, Tingle is the lone voice of reason in the chorus of underwhelming Murdoch-lite news presenters now favoured by the public broadcaster.

'ANTISEMITIC' UN RESOLUTIONS

It is not antisemitic to vote with 157 other UN member states – including all but two of our allies – in favour of an end to the genocide in Palestine. Calling for an end to this is not "abandoning Israel", as Dutton claimed.

Indeed, the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Synagogue fire fuels Dutton's appetite for political point-scoring

Peter Dutton's comments after a recent fire ravaged a Melbourne synagogue imply Labor's stance on Gaza has left Australia 'less safe'.

According to Dutton and co, however, this somehow makes Albanese an "enabler" of antisemitic hate crimes, such as the terrible Melbourne synagogueattack on 6 December. Yet his bizarre accusations are constantly aired on the ABC, often even led by Aunty’s journos.

Interestingly, Muslim hate crimes, such as the recent arson attack on an Islamic school bus in Adelaide, barely rate a mention.

NUCLEAR GASLIGHTING

Dutton’s flag frenzy and antisemitic accusations are of course designed to take the pressure off the fact that he remains unable to provide any solid evidence in favour of or costings for his fabled nuclear policy.

The Coalition’s nuclear energy policy – or lack of it – is, as we have discussed at length, not sustainable. This is why there are no detailed costings. And this is why Dutton repeatedly attacks the truthtellers such as the chief scientific authority in the land, the CSIRO, which has exposed his nuclear plans as not cheap, clean or fast.

Dutton’s nuclear lights are out and no one’s home

Dutton's alternative facts on nuclear energy demonstrate that the Coalition is no longer fit for purpose as a credible opposition, let alone a serious government contender. Michelle Pini reports.

His party’s nuclear policy is simply a diversion, created with the sole purpose of sabotaging renewables so that we can keep on digging up coal ad infinitum, as decreed by the likes of Dutton’s number one fan, mining magnate Gina Rinehart and magnified on a daily basis by Murdoch media and co.

Yet, hardly a day goes by when this outright disinformation isn’t echoed on the ABC.

It’s no surprise, then, given the successful publicity created to date by all these falsehoods masquerading as facts – even from the national broadcaster – that the Liberal Party has again engaged Morrison’s gun disinformation team, creative agency Topham Guerin, to help win the next election using the same falsehoods and "deepfake technology".

As IA's Alan Austin pointed out, analysis of its reportage demonstrates the ABC has, for some time, systematically pushed Dutton's Liberal Party agenda. Sadly, change has not yet appeared on the horizon.

The ABC subtly and systematically pushes a Liberal Party agenda

Typified by a recent article on Gladys Berejiklian's corrupt conduct, the ABC newsroom uses deceptive and nuanced tricks to advance the Liberal Party. Alan Austin reports.

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Follow managing editor Michelle Pini on Bluesky @michellepini.bsky.social and Independent Australia on Bluesky @independentaus.bsky.social.