We all saw footage of the disturbing behaviour of neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell, who shouted at the Victorian premier, Jacinta Allan, this week as she was holding a press conference at Eades Park in West Melbourne.
If you were watching Sky News Australia a little later on Tuesday you would have heard a lot more from Sewell, including a “Heil Australia!” with what looked like a half salute.
Sewell gave an impromptu press conference outside the Melbourne magistrates court before he was charged with violent disorder and affray over an alleged attack on Camp Sovereignty. Sky’s cameras filmed it and the channel put the clip to air, either live or as live, minutes later.
He made a number of inflammatory and false statements, including that Australians do not have the right to protest. He said Australians “are fed up with immigration” and politicians are corrupt and are only serving lobbyists and the banks.
He ended with a threat: “When people like me take power, these people are going to be punished for the crimes they’ve committed against the Australian people. Heil Australia! Have a nice day.”
After a 90-second uninterrupted rant, which went unchallenged, Sky returned to the studio presenter who awkwardly said: “OK, we’re going to take a short break now, but coming up next …”
We’ve asked Sky if the broadcast was a mistake and if they would air the disturbing footage again.
A Sky News Australia spokesperson told Weekly Beast: “These statements made prior to a court appearance in the Melbourne magistrates court were broadcast in one live bulletin in response to a breaking news story about the premier of Victoria. They were not rebroadcast.”
Baseless theory promoted
News Corp’s most popular website news.com.au (with an audience of 12 million) on Friday published an almost-2,000 word article at the top of its site giving credence to a conspiracy theory that Sewell and the National Socialist Network (NSN) are paid actors rolled out at an opportune time as a “useful tool for the Labor government”.
“Paid actors”, sometimes referred to as crisis actors or false flags, have a long history in far-right conspiracy theories, especially surrounding mass shootings such as Sandy Hook.
The piece was based on a speech in the Senate by the South Australian Liberal Alex Antic, who suggested that the appearance of Sewell and his mates were “straight out of central casting”. The clean cut and preppy-looking men had appeared “right on cue”, the conservative senator said. While most of the people marching on Sunday were “everyday Aussies” who were “expressing their frustration over the terrible state of the country”, Antic said, the black-clad mob were “odd”.
There’s no evidence to support Antic’s claims but news.com.au thought them worth prominently airing with the headline “Explosive neo-Nazi theory floated in senate”.
The editors of news.com.au have been approached for comment.
Hard sell
Two of the ABC’s most credible journalists have been used in a scam video about erectile dysfunction, with their faces and voices appearing to promote a product.
In the fake video posted by the former ABC News Breakfast host Michael Rowland, Radio National’s Dr Norman Swan appears to be promoting a trick which will help you to “make love for two hours every night”. “Again, strong erections are not a fantasy,” the host of the Health Report purports to say. “They are a reality, and it’s closer than you think.”
Rowland posted the video on Instagram on Friday to warn people about the scam, adding some appropriate humour. “If you come across it in your social media feeds please report it! It’s more than a bit stiff for @norman.swan and I …”
Press council knuckle rap
The Australian has been rapped on the knuckles by the Australian Press Council for publishing an article in January which used the terms “gorillas of Gaza” and “black-hearted Arabs” when describing Palestinians.
The investigation came after complaints that the terms used in Alan Howe’s feature “World waits to hear fate of little Kfir, Israel’s youngest hostage”, suggested that all Arabs and all Palestinians in Gaza were collectively responsible for the actions of Hamas.
According to the APC, The Australian’s defence was that the language reflected “the anger, grief and horror felt by many at the grotesque nature of the October 7 attacks and the ongoing plight of those still held hostage” and referred to Hamas, and not to all Palestinians. The phrases were a pointed play on words, the News Corp publication said. “These are plainly rhetorical flourishes aimed at a terrorist group and the people who enabled or supported their actions.”
The council found that the article implied that Palestinians in Gaza “are collectively responsible for the 7 October atrocities and the fate of the hostages” and breached the principle which states publications need to avoid “substantial offence, distress, or prejudice”.
“In this context, the Council considers that a reasonable reader would consider the terms ‘gorillas of Gaza’ and ‘black-hearted Arabs’ are not solely directed at Hamas, but to all Gazans.”
Howe told Weekly Beast: “News readers are mostly smart, informed Australians who like to keep it that way. The Press Council has a sneeringly dismissive view of the readers’ intelligence that I do not share. My column clearly referred to those Gazans who had invaded Israel on October 7, 2023 and who shot dead, blew up, incinerated, tortured, stabbed, raped and sodomised the innocents they found there while kidnapping children they later tortured and manually murdered.”
‘Gutter journalism’ faces the fire
The Victorian Liberal party deputy leader and former Australian tennis star, Sam Groth, has made good on his threat to take legal action over News Corp stories which claimed Liberal colleagues of Groth’s were questioning how he began his relationship with his wife, Brittany.
The Groths filed a defamation claim against the Herald Sun on Friday after hiring the top silk Sue Chrysanthou SC.
The concerns notice issued in July said the articles were worse than “gutter journalism” and demanded they be taken down. The Herald Sun did not budge. Its editor, Sam Weir, said: “We stand by our reporting on a matter of public interest, covering important issues which could have a major impact on Victorian politics in the lead-up to an election.”
The Groths allege that the two articles and social media posts constitute a serious invasion of Brittany’s privacy under new tort laws, which came into force in June.
The first case management hearing has been set down for 30 October and the case is being touted as the first major test of the privacy laws.
Ted talk
Murdoch outlets often go out of their way to kick the ABC but this week’s effort by the Daily Telegraph was a standout.
“Star of ABC TV show arrested at airport over trans comments,” screamed the headline.
If you clicked on the story you discovered the subject was not an ABC star and the show was not even an “ABC TV show”.
The story was about the writer of the British TV show Father Ted, Graham Linehan, who was arrested at Heathrow because of three social media posts on transgender issues.
A Channel 4 sitcom, Father Ted was broadcast in Australia on Channel Nine in the 1990s before the second and third series were picked up by the ABC.
Not so cool
Nine’s Brisbane radio station 4BC broadcast an editorial by its host Bill McDonald about Senator Fatima Payman’s unusual speech to parliament in which she used generation alpha slang while trying to make a point about AI.
But the online article about McDonald’s critical editorial was headlined “Gen Alpha slag in the Senate? Fatima Payman strikes again”.
But no one intended to call her a slag. It was supposed to be “slang”.
“Due to an unfortunate and inadvertent typographical error, for a short time today a headline appeared on 4BC’s website regarding Senator Payman that contained a derogatory term,” Nine said.
“This was an editorial mistake, and the article was immediately removed as soon as we became aware of the misspelling.”
