The Daily Telegraph’s shameless promotion of the NSW Liberal Party in the lead-up to the 25 March state election continues with more unquestioning exposure of voter-friendly promises by Premier Dominic Perrottet gracing the Sydney turdbloid’s front page and large swathes of inside news pages.
Yesterday the Saturday Tele spruiked a plan by Perrottet to give locals the chance to let his government know how they want it to spend the funds levied on property developers undertaking major projects. (main picture)
The page-one splash was fleshed out on the Tele’s double-page spread of state election news (below) which conspicuously failed to contain any story about any Labor Party initiative but did manage to run yet another big picture of the Liberal Premier in action.
Our Media Glass House researchers have suggested that might better be expressed as the Liberal Premier’s inaction.
They argue that “inaction” fits the bill, and not just for the bland picture accompanying the story.
Our researchers point out that the Tele’s “exclusive” says the government is right now sitting on “$3 billion in developer contributions, which will be unlocked as part of the new process”.
Readers can no doubt imagine how the story would have read if a long-serving Labor Government had been sitting on $3 billion that might have already gone out to the door to deliver better local infrastructure.
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The state election coverage in the Saturday Tele did manage to squeeze in a story about the Albanese Government’s plans to change superannuation tax rates for a handful of multi-millionaires gaming the system.
Our MGH teams suggest it’s a way for News Crap Australia to leverage any anti-Labor sentiment that might have arisen from the super changes.
And speaking of tax, squeezed onto its front page another pro-Perrottet item earlier this week declaring that a returned Liberal-National Party government would not be lifting state taxes. (below)
The implication of course is that Labor would. This was reinforced in the full story inside running as part of the Tele‘s election coverage (below) which also carried yet another apparently mandatory big pic of the Premier in another pro-government item.
The inside story noted that the Shadow Treasurer Daniel Mookhey had also stated that Labor would not raise taxes either.
But that commitment was qualified by a line from NSW Treasurer Matt Kean who said Labor could not be trusted on tax.
That must have been enough justification for the Tele to run yet another free advertisement for the Liberals.
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Wednesday saw yet another “exclusive” story in the Daily Tele about a Perrottet Government initiative designed to win votes at the coming election.
This time it was a story about extra funds to fight youth crime – a hot-button political issues in all jurisdictions. (below)
The term “exclusive” long ago lost its original meaning. It no longer signifies a story ferreted out by an industrious reporter.
Whenever it appears in a News Crap Australia publication it usually means a story handed to one of its turdbloids or its national broadshit The Australian by a political party for its own purposes.
Sure, both sides of politics do it, but has News Crap no shame?
Our MGH teams point to the Fox News scandal in the US to answer the question which they are certain our readers have already answered themselves.
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When News Crap Australia’s turdbloids aren’t acting as the ad agency for the Liberal Party, they’re usually servicing another very important client – News Crap Australia.
A prime example is offered in today’s Sunday Mail in Brisbane which carries a front-page story spilling onto page 6 (below) based on an interview with former Queensland premier Campbell Newman who expresses his fears about the “youth crime wave” across the state.
The entire story is designed to promote a Sky News “special report” on youth crime airing on the pay TV channel tonight. It even carries badging telling would-be viewers the time the show will be broadcast on the News Crap Australia-controlled channel.
There’s also a write-off line at the end of the story to provide another reminder.
But, as always, there is no disclosure of the commercial link between the turdbloid and the pay-TV channel.
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To end this edition of our Media Glass House our researchers have offered up an example from the BBC (below) showing how careful news websites need to be so they don’t avoid confusing readers – or inadvertently confirming their political prejudices.
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