The vendetta by the criminally tainted News Corporation against an as yet uncharged MP, Craig Thomson, is a breathtaking display of bald-faced hypocrisy. Senior correspondent Barry Everingham reports.
The hypocrisy of the Murdoch top-selling Melbourne rag is mind boggling.
Let me explain.
Following Craig Thomson’s speech on the floor of the House of Representatives, The Herald Sun in one fell swoop became the hapless man’s prosecutor, judge and jury.
Their team trawled the streets, lanes and gutters of Melbourne seeking Thomson haters, interviewed them and then ran their venom through the newspapers pages.
It is impossible to believe the “paper” didn’t find one Melburnian to defend the MP — the truth is their comments just didn’t get a run.
Then to add insult to the myriad of pages devoted to the matter — the front page was devoted to a photo-shopped picture of Thomson with a “Pinocchio” nose.
Now, this paper is the very poor relation of the once so admired London Sunday Times — which has gone almost to the gutter since it was purchased by News Ltd.
Only this week, Dame Stella Rimmington – the highly regarded and totally respected former heads of MI5, one of Britain’s intelligence arms – dropped the following on ABC Radio National.
She was telephoned one Saturday night by a Times reporter telling her there would be feature on her in the next day’s edition of the paper and warning her if she commented adversely the editor had a copy of some of her medical reports which they said would be published.
Let me reiterate: the Sunday Times and the Herald Sun operate under the News Limited banner.
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Of course, the local Melbourne rag is also a poor cousin of the UK paper, News of the World, which disgraced the very name of journalism by hacking the phone of a dead girl and giving her parents hope she still lived.
And the UK arm also employed the woman Rupert himself said “all he wanted was to look after her”, the egregious flame haired dragon Rebekah Brooks, who herself is grabbing headlines right now.
The Herald Sun is Australia’s biggest seeling newspaper and employs Andrew Bolt – not as the comedian he is, but as a “serious” commentator; this is the same man who was lambasted by a judge for writing racist clap trap for which his newspaper had to apologise.
Tony Abbott’s relentless attacks on Craig Thomson illustrates the Bible bashing Opposition Leader’s quaint brand of Christianity – he goes for Thomson but is strangely silent when it comes to Sophie Mirabella, who is understood to be facing her own Calvary.
Abbott’s obsession with Thomson is overtaking his role in Parliament — he, of course, has no policies and, in a way, the Thomson matter is heaven sent.
I’m not commenting on what Thomson said in Parliament – I’m not a judge or a jury – but I have to say, I agreed with him totally when he looked at Abbott and correctly described him as disgrace to his office and to the Parliament.
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