Our Media Glass House researchers often complain about reporters and news outlets rushing to judgement about crimes and those who allegedly commit them.

News Crap Australia’s daily broadshit in Brisbane, The Courier-Mail, was at it last week in stories it ran about the tragic death of young tourists in Laos, including Australians, who were believed to have succumbed to methanol poisoning.

Much of the local police investigation so far has focussed on the possible source of the booze allegedly tainted by methanol that was consumed by those who died and those who became seriously ill.

The main picture above shows how the Courier identified the distillery that may or may not have made the liquor in question. Well, “may or may not” are our words. The heading “Death factory shut down” leaves little or no room for doubt as to where those who run Brisbane’s monopoly daily up at Bowen Hills think the blame lies.

No need for a pesky police investigation to determine if the factory was indeed involved in any way in the deaths.

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One might think that our national broadcaster is a cut above a tawdry Murdoch tabloid when it comes to such matters, but one would be wrong.

In the USA police have been hunting a suspect in the fatal shooting of a major health insurer.

They have, at the time of writing, been relying on CCTV from various sources to track a man they suspect of the crime.

Below is how ABC News Online reported the police search.

Once again, no need for the pesky red tape of a thorough police investigation before declaring the man in the CCTV screencap – or anyone who looks like him – guilty as hell.

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Provoking reader outrage with stories about governments wasting your money is a very popular tactic employed by many media outlets.

News Crap Australia goes further and seems to specialise in provoking reader outrage with stories about Labor Party governments wasting your money. Here’s one that ran in its Sydney turdbloid The Daily Telegraph last week.

It expressed outrage that the federal government would spend taxpayers’ money on floral arrangements and to engage a popular Australian singer for “an exclusive event” – even “a party” – at which readers were told Prime Minister Anthony Albanese “wined and dined” world leaders.

It turns out that the “exclusive event” was a special summit in Melbourne back in March attended by leaders from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). (below)

Our MGH teams advise that Australia is not a member of ASEAN but in 1974 our nation became what’s known as a dialogue partner to sort of be besties with the ASEAN member countries which has enabled us to talk to them all on issues such as trade and investment, economic development, and security.

All very important one might think in an era and a region where a certain rather large non-ASEAN Asian nation continues to throw its weight around.

But such facts matter little, actually not at all, when the opportunity for quick anti-Labor outrage presents itself to the Murdoch media.

As our MGH teams point out, Right on queue Peter Dutton’s spokesperson on “government waste” James Stevens was quoted in the story saying it was “remarkable and insulting that while Australian families are struggling to put food on their dinner table, Anthony Albanese is putting $20,000 of flowers on his”.

Our MGH teams easily found information online showing that the special summit lasted three days, and as well as leaders’ meetings, it also featured a business forum, a small business conference, an emerging leaders’ dialogue, a climate and clean energy forum, and other events.

As usual, the Murdoch media never attempts to explain to readers such details, preferring to cite only (literally) headline figures that provoke reader outrage.

In addition, buried in the story our MGH researchers found a line in the Albanese Government’s response to the News Crap Australia reporter’s request for comment which noted: “Expenditure on the Summit was in line with similar sized events, including the 2018 ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in Sydney.”

That’s 2018 when someone called Malcolm Turnbull who led something called the Liberal Party hosted the event. (below)

As if we need to tell you, the Daily Tele wasn’t interested in publishing any of the 2018 costs.

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