In my darker moments of despair, I have found myself wondering at the weakness of the Australian journalists ( the ABC's in particular) and their apparent inability to be anything other than stenographers for the government of Australia. I have previously written about the curious synchronicity between Australian legacy media reporters and the CIA backed versions of official events.
So I wasn’t at all surprised by the lack of sympathy for Julian Assange when he had Internet access cut by the Ecuadorian government. I didn’t expect anything other than a cursory mention. I was however gobsmacked by the gleeful celebration of ABC “journalist” and President of the Melbourne Press Club, Michael Rowland who felt it necessary to tweet this
Some cursory investigation would have led Rowland to understand that Assange had been silenced due to his support of a democratically elected politician in Catalonia.
Apparently celebrating the silencing of political dissent is perfectly acceptable for virtue signalling ABC journalists like Rowland. When questioned by a fellow journalist about his celebration of the silencing of Assange, Rowland and his fellow ABC comrades chose to sneer at Assange’s credentials as a journalist rather than address the apparent throttling of dissent.
I was left wondering what possible motivations could lead a reporter to publicly voice such an opinion and not have at least some doubts about the censorship of political opinion. I’ve come up with several possibilities – none of which lend weight to Rowland’s credibility.
Firstly, Rowland may be part of what Elizabeth Vos recently described as the faux left media – fair weather friends who were happy to support WikiLeaks while the leaks supported their “cause” only to turn on them when the leaks weren’t as friendly. If so, this calls into question Rowland’s claims to be a journalist, regardless of how many degrees he has.
Secondly, Rowland may actually believe (as many ABC journalists choose to do) that Assange is in league with the Russians and plotted to bring down their preferred Presidential candidate. If so, Rowland betrays himself as lacking analytical skills, only willing to parrot the narrative coming out of certain channels in Washington.
Rowland certainly wouldn’t be alone in this regard – an award-winning journalist, Sally Neighbour offered chilling insight into the ABC mindset when she tweeted “Assange is Putin’s bitch and we all know it.”
This would be true also if Rowland’s chief objection to Assange is founded in the sexual assault allegations levelled at Assange by Swedish prosecutors. Allegations that a real Australian journalist by the name of John Pilger has shown to be politically motivated.
https://soundcloud.com/radiosputnik/julian-assange-was-set-up-for-obvious-reasons-journalist/s-evOXx.
Pilger’s views are uncomfortable for legacy media outlets and they try to ignore him as best they can. In short, Pilger’s honesty does not fit the approved narrative.
The above reasons are to some extent understandable, as would the very human shortcoming of professional jealousy. There is another reason, however, that needs to be considered, as it does for many journalists happy to support the establishment in all its extravagant cruelty and overreach.
Frankly, the tweet is what you’d expect to be coming from a CIA related account – someone like the serial liar and propagandist John Brennan for example, but a journalist sticking the boots into a publisher being denied free speech? It’s enough to have conspiracy theorists going off the deep end.
I don’t think Rowland or any of his ABC comrades are working for the CIA – not knowingly in any case, but nevertheless, their presentation of facts reflects their roles of gatekeepers rather than journalists.
Australian journalists as a whole are very reluctant to criticise America or the CIA. It gets very hard to tell whether this is by professional accident or design. By this I mean, it could simply be a case of not wanting to commit professional suicide by actually being journalists and asking pertinent questions or something of a more sinister nature.
Rowland spent five years in Washington as an ABC correspondent. His views were no doubt influenced by many of the establishment legacy media journalists that he was working with at the time. As a foreign journalist paid to report news, he should be aware of the dangers of being influenced by “well-meaning” US nationals. The corruption of legacy media within the United States is well demonstrated by the stories that they choose not to cover as much as the stories that they do. The US media campaign against Assange and WikiLeaks has been relentless and merciless. Strangely, no-one within Australian legacy media seems interested in asking why. Rowland goes a step further – he is actually cheering against Assange.
The question for him is - is he tweeting his opinion (which betrays his own bias) or the opinion that he is “encouraged” to promote? I don’t know the answer, but for Rowland to cheer the silencing of someone standing up for the rights of a democratically elected politician has a stench about it that is hard to stomach.
While Rowland and his ABC buddies were quite comfortable sneering at Assange from the comfort of their cushy government jobs, a group of far more talented, braver and well less remunerated journalists, whistleblowers and activists were in the middle of a ten-hour online vigil to highlight the injustice of the continued treatment of Assange.
I listened to every minute of it and I learned more in those ten hours then a lifetime of watching Mr Rowland sitting in front of a teleprompter making pleasant inane conversation about the day’s news will ever deliver.
As the comedian, come news reporter, Jimmy Dore is fond of saying, “and they wonder why people get their news on YouTube.”
I doubt if Michael Rowland cares - if he did he would resign as President of the Melbourne Press Club today.
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My name is Mark Hodgetts. I’m a freelance writer, eking out a crust writing
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