Alston-Goebbels Attacks Radio Free Australia Yet Again
Harold Hark
28 May 2003

The Howard Government, democratically elected by a hoodwinked electorate, has come out swinging against Your ABC yet again, yet again alleging anti-right-wing bias. This time Propaganda and Disinformation Minister Richard Alston-Goebbels is claiming the ABC did the dirty on Georgie and Little Johnny's invasion adventure in Iraq.

Quoting Linda Mottram and John Shovelan on the ABC's AM program of 9 April, Alston-Goebbels presents the following transcription:

LINDA MOTTRAM: "The deaths (of three journalists) undermine the Pentagon's claim that it is waging a compassionate war."

JOHN SHOVELAN: "Oh, the civility of the US military. The daily Pentagon briefing begins with an illustration of its mercy and kindness."

I urge you to click on the above link, because there are lots more juicy comments. If you were running a totalitarian government, you would certainly be alarmed at the tone of these fed up journalists. If you were running a democratic government you would be cheering.

Representing the interests of the Corporate Moloch and its military arm, the Bush Junta, the Howard Government is only to happy to pursue its goal of neutering the voice of the people by claiming it is biased towards freedom and democracy. To Howard and Alston-Goebbels, freedom means adherence to consumerism while democracy is nothing more than a bunch of vowels and consonants slung together in a language foreign to them.

The latest attack comes on the heels of the appointment of conservative apparatchik Ron Brunton to the ABC board to replace Michael Kroger, and the freezing of funds. On their way out of ABC programming as a result, are pay channels ABC Kids and Fly digital.

As always, the despair at such political bastardry is deepened by the lack of a credible opposition. Somehow the Labor Party is going to have to find its soul. It's not like they have to revert to the social heroism of a Whitlam. No political party in the world gives a stuff about the people they serve any more. But Labor could at least return Australia to a nation whose governing party took into account the 90 per cent of the population the Illiberals treat like shit. If they don't, one more win by Howard and Australia will be entrenched as a satellite of Umeruhca for generations. And you can bet that, even if Bush is overturned and the United States becomes a democracy again, loyal John Howard will do a Kim Jong-Il and regard himself as the torch bearer for Bush's crushed Corporate Stalinism.

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