May 15, 2003
PHILLIP ADAMS believes that Sir
PHILLIP ADAMS believes that Sir William Deane was subject to the same forces that are currently undermining Peter Hollingworth:
One of the silliest aspects of the recent brawl? The suggestion, by reactionary commentators, that Lefties have hounded a decent man from high office. When, of course, the Right kept hacking away at Deane.
Sure, Phil. We all remember Deane being smeared as a rapist. And those terrible lies about him burning down the orphanage, and his involvement in the My Lai massacre, and the way he invented earthquakes and cyclones. Meanwhile, Janet Albrechtsen examines the SMH:
The Sydney Morning Herald looks less like a journal of record than a journal of bits of the record - those bits that suit an anti-Howard agenda. With Tanner having led them to the juiciest of stories, they in return faithfully parroted the preferred theme of their new pin-up boy on the "potential for suppression orders to be used by the highest in the land to prevent scrutiny of their actions".
Readers of the Herald's front-page news story on Friday morning were not told the troubled woman first sought a suppression order. They were not told her family wanted the suppression order to remain in force following her suicide. That was relegated to the Herald's website.
There was more one-sided reporting when the Herald reported on Thursday that the Governor-General "was urged to resign" by Briggs, co-author of the Anglican Church inquiry. This was false. Briggs announced on ABC radio's AM later that morning: "I have never made any comment on this." Where is Media Watch when you need it?
Good question.
Posted by Tim Blair at May 15, 2003 11:47 AM