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Recently, miffed by its coverage of the US election and its aftermath, I wrote to The Australian:
Dear Editor, a suggestion: The cabal of your anti-Trump correspondents should get together each evening to stick pins in an effigy of Donald Trump. That might get the bile out of their systems and allow them to produce decent copy fit to read.
If you’ve noticed the newspaper’s drift to the port side of politics, you guessed it — The Australian didn’t publish my comment but, of course, I had zero expectation it would. The paper is becoming a left-of-centre rag. True, it has some decent writers. I enjoyed reading Gerard Henderson and Caroline Overington this morning. True, too, it is better than the alternatives, which is why I reluctantly still buy it.
It will also be interesting to see where the paper goes when Trump isn’t around for the hacks to get stuck into. What is clear is that it is on a pathway to leftism with the occasional dissident voice for appearances sake. Once leftists have infiltrated and reached an influential level they hire their own. That has been the history of universities, schools, public broadcasting, most of the mainstream print media and public services. The Australian, I fear, is just one more domino. Rupert won’t live forever.
By the way, I am not convinced that socialism per se is behind the movement to close down conservative voices. Socialism in practice produces an intolerance for counter views. First comes socialism then comes fascism. Right now, it seems as though the process has been short-circuited. I put it down to post-modernism and its attendant disregard for the concept of objective truth.
When there is no objective truth, my agenda can become the truth and your opposition lies. And, lies cannot be allowed to pollute the air waves. Liars can be cancelled in good conscience.
Thus, those who express the view that women must have XX chromosomes are liars and should be shunned. Those who don’t accept that free speech becomes hate speech when it offends someone of a minority group are liars. Those who believe it is discriminatory and racist to favour someone because of their skin colour are liars; unless the skin colour is white, in which case they are in good standing.
It goes without saying that those who support Donald Trump are deluded beyond belief and white supremacists and racists to boot. They surely can be marginalised out of existence. Twitter’s Jack Dorsey & Co are on the job.
I don’t know when exactly, and why, rigorous open debate in the robust pursuit of objective truth became passé. While this explanation might not be all there is to it, I do think that the absence of belief in God, once it reached critical mass, played a part.
It’s that old business of whether a tree did in fact fall in an impenetrable forest if no one heard or saw it fall. I happen to know that God knows and that therefore objective truth is out there. If God isn’t around, you can be as adamant as you like about whether that tree has fallen. No one can set you right. Maybe XY women can beat the pants of XX women in sports, and that’s fine. They’re both women don’t you know.
At question, it seems to me, is whether societies which no longer value the singularity and objectivity of truth can hold together. It is intrinsically divisive to admit to versions of the truth. It is even more divisive if a dominant group insists on its version and penalises those who disagree with any part of it. Look at the reaction to J K Rowling’s view on transgender women competing in women’s sports. Purges are in the wings and on the way.
There is a unity in civil and open debate when the antagonists appreciate that they might be wrong in whole or at least in part. What does being wrong mean? It means that your case is not in accordance with the truth. If there is no objective truth, you’re never wrong. Have look at Richard Dawkins and John Lennox for how debates should be conducted. Below is a ten-minute preview.
I want to end with Trump. Because he has been dehumanised by the powers that be, he will be fair game for unending persecution when he leaves office. My advice, pardon everyone in sight on your side. Resign on Tuesday morning and have Mike Pence pardon you and your family before the day is out. These people with a monopoly on truth, have no God, no morality. Mercy and forgiveness are not in their kit bag.
Some welcome and accurate comments here Peter, this silencing and purging of Trump and Conservatives is Fascism 101 and yet our major supposedly conservative newspaper in the form of the Australian is looking more and more like Pravda every day. So much for their commitment for the truth, it’s more like go along to get along
Soon it will become a crime to mention Election Fraud and probably Trumps name as well, if Conservatives want to survive they will need to do something quick smart or China won’t need to conquer the US any more, they’ll just need to formally make it one of their regular provinces.
‘There is no objective truth’, they say. Tell me about it. Conceive me if you can – a lunch with two lesbian feminist Green voters. “There is no such thing as right or wrong”, one informs me. “A thing is right of it is right for you and it’s wrong if it’s wrong for you.” “So”, I asked – When Hitler murdered millions of Jews and others, was that right or wrong?” “It was right for him because he believed it was right.” I leaned across the table and smacked her face. “Why the bloody hell did you do that?” “Because it was right for me. You can’t complain. More baked potatoes dear?” I said to her girlfriend. Not even the baked rice custard restored her spirits. (What’s that bit about casting pearls in front of swine?) As for Hitler, I live today as I have lived for sometime now – as if I am in an enemy occupied country – and the enemy was within all the time. And Stupidity is it’s name, but it flies under the banner of a ‘Progressive, Tolerant, Inclusive World.’ Which means – facism pretending it has manners.
This is why Quadrant is so important. If it wasn’t for Quadrant, does anyone think that the injustice done to Cardinal Pell would have been properly documented? If not for the Persecution of George Pell published by Quadrant, the lasting record would mostly comprise books by Louise Milligan, Melissa Davey and the Marrs, a leftwing quartet. If it wasn’t for Bitter Harvest, the lies, omissions and distortions of Dark Emu would stand. Books by Mervyn Bendle and Hal Colebatch also come to mind. Apart from Quadrant, there are very few publishers willing to push back against what Stuart Lindsay’ recent described as “the Left’s stifling overlordship of every aspect of Australian cultural and political life”. Quadrant may have been defunded of public money by the Left-captured Australia Council, but it hasn’t been silenced.
I do agree, so much! The Australian has been a sensible paper for the last few years, since we discovered it
We had read The Age from time immemorial, as had our parents. Holidaying away from Victoria sometimes The Age wasn’t available so we bought The Aus instead. This was before the days of easy internet access. And there was so much more to read. It wasn’t political, just interesting stuff. So we changed our subscription for daily delivery.
We have really enjoyed The Aus but now begin to notice an increasing leaning to the left, anti-Trump in particular
Please stay balanced! – . The cardinal Pell saga was so important and I fear a similar story would not happen again.
Alison
And I thought it was just me. Something is seriously wrong in there. The editorial, Greg Sheridan, Cameron Stewart. Dreadful. Have no idea and been to long in the bubble.
Peter, you might find this interesting. Ruperts got his hands full.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/01/fox_news_reportedly_considering_top_executive_firings_over_their_postelection_ratings_collapse.html
Peter: I share your disappointment about The Australian’s drift to the Left, but I still buy and read it, because it publishes writers such as Gerard Henderson and Henry Ergas, In Perth, where I live, the West Australian contains waffle, though recently they have taken to publishing Gemma Tognini, a rising star who writes occasionally for the Oz.
For anyone not of the Left, TV is largely a waste of time. Q & A and The Drum are not worth watching. The Project is all about the brilliant wit of its presenters, other current affairs programs are tabloid TV, all about heartless bureaucrats, dodgy tradesmen etc. I have never watched Sky News, so I can’t comment on it.
Apart from Quadrant, Catallaxy and Jo Nova, I haven’t found many Australian websites of interest. In recent years I have discovered numerous British and American websites, and read them in preference to our own newspapers. Occasionally I watch podcasts put out by the Hoover Institute, with Peter Robinson as presenter, I wish that there was an Australian equivalent.
“… post-modernism and its attendant disregard for the concept of objective truth.”
*
Yes, it’s a funny, unstable old world without the mooring of objective truth. America has a historical, philosophical leaning towards this strange idea. William James and John Dewey developed “pragmatic truth” more than a century ago. Throw Dialectical Materialism, in which subject and object modify each other over time, into the mix and Hey Presto! you have the fantasy land inhabited by the Democrats—and the Victorian parliamentary Labor Party.
It’s a wonderful, happy and diverse land of rainbows, unicorns and airborne pigs. But dissent must be ruthlessly suppressed in order to keep the current “consensus” on truth viable.
Can anyone recommend ANY Australian newspaper for conservatives. i was about to take out a subscription to The Australian, but now I hesitate. I wonder if we wrote to the editor of the Australian and asked them why they have drifted to the left, what they would answer?
A further bad sign. I subscribe to the Telegraph ((UK). Whenenever lefties pen a column, the readers pile on, in force, on the conservative side. The top section of the letters’ page in yesterday’s Australian newspaper (18 Jan) had seven letters on Trump. All anti-Trump. All! Maybe the newspaper and its readership are both drifting left.
Good piece Peter, and I’ve seen what you’ve seen in the Australian. People I know who read it are conservative but the media have done a good job on President Trump, to the extent that the only ones who are vocal on the issue are anti Trump. I always look to the ones who say nothing and when I quietly mention to them that I’m actually a supporter of President Trumps policies they usually come out quietly as also liking him. I should say that I’m also a reader of the UK Telegraph over my breakfast at the village Inn I stay at when visiting, and also notice that you’ll find more people there responding as you mention in writing in to the papers, maybe because it gives them an outlet, as they are much less gregarious, and more reserved in their personal contacts than most of my fellow Queenslanders. I like the little county village and farming people I know there, and find that they really don’t like what’s happened and is happening to their England, and they pretty well all voted for Brexit, so I get along well with them.
Like Arthur B., I live in WA and am disgusted with much of the coverage of the West Australian; it is noticeably further left than before the current editor, Anthony De Ceglie, took over. But, in addition to Gemma Tognini, Paul Murray (a former editor) is usually worth reading. He, like most of the world, was very disappointing in his outlook on covid; but, in most other areas, he somehow keeps his head when all about him are losing theirs. His piece in Saturday’s paper, “Tyranny of Tech Titans’ Attack on Free Speech,” was an amazingly good analysis to be in the regular media. In less than two pages, he explained the current US situation better than the pages and pages that had been written in the West in the whole week before. Murray’s no Trump fan (neither am I), but he can see that Trump is not Hannibal Lecter, and that there are far greater dangers than the current US president.
Looking at the UK Telegraph, the photo of Trump on the What Now article had oranged up hair and oranged up complexion.
I’ve never thought that a good sign for even handed reporting.
“Rupert won’t live forever”.
.
I think his influence has waned greatly in recent time, and “the newspaper’s drift to the port side of politics” is in good part down to the influence his daughters-in-law from hell have on their husbands.
Ditto on The Australian: drifting to port. They’ve started censoring conservative-leaning comments for no good reason. For example, once, in response to a comment by China’s Deputy Head of Mission Wang Xining, who criticised Australia for the White Australia Policy, I simply asked “What’s wrong with the White Australia Policy?” Censored.
I really knew The Australian had lost it when they published an article by Troy Bramston, at the height of the statue-toppling craze in the US, which supported and justified the vandals. Some opinion diversity is one thing, but is it really necessary to publish a viewpoint that promotes the vandalism of public property?
Peter, you are not alone in having your comments on The Australian rejected.
Some of my recent comments together with the moderator’s decisions:
More evidence of the anti-Trumpism of Newscorp. Greg Craven has joined the Trump pile-on together with Cameron Stewart, Greg Sheridan and Paul Kelly – REJECTED
The Salem Witch Trials again under presiding judge Cameron Stewart – REJECTED
This once conservative newspaper has taken a sharp turn to the left and joined the pile-on of Trump, in line with their US counterpart – REJECTED