Admittedly, they help keep New Matilda out jail, so we’re hopelessly biased. But if you’re not following Marque Lawyers’ Twitter account, then you’re missing some of the most sublime burns in the social media stratosphere.
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Lizard apocalypse enthusiast and slug collector, Gerard Benedet.
If the headline is confusing, it’s kinda supposed to be, but only in the sense that a headline is supposed to reflect a story… and this story is confusing. Very, very confusing.
Admittedly, New Matilda is a little late to it, but while fact-checking
a yarn on Warringah Independent Zali Steggall (the woman who ended the
political career of Tony Abbott) earlier in the week, we came across a news
report from Sky News in July this year that, to put not too fine a point on it,
captures brilliantly how low Australia’s least watched, albeit not quite least
trusted, news source has sunk.
It’s the sort of story that would be equally at home at a
1950s Joseph McCarthy red scare parliamentary inquiry.
With a straight face, Sky News reports:
“Advance Australia has claimed a GetUp! activist who
campaigned against Tony Abbott in Warringah is now a taxpayer funded worker in
Zali Steggall’s office.”
Right. That’s a confusing first par, because the function of an opening sentence in any news story is to summarise the most important parts of a story so that people will read on. That lede par, however, didn’t sound very important… or in fact, like a story.
But as it turns out, that is actually the story. Someone who was “reported to be a known GetUp supporter” is now working in Steggall’s office. Hold the presses!
Obviously, there’s a lot in Sky’s story that is thoroughly entertaining: the phrases “known GetUp! supporter” and “one of only 54 members on a, ah, secret chat app” for a start; also the straight face of the news reader while he tries to read something that clearly isn’t news.
But it’s the source of the story – community activist group Advance Australia – that makes this one of the most transparently ludicrous yarns of 2019.
By way of background, the shiny, balding talking head in the
story – the guy with the large brown slug crawling up his face – is the
national director of Advance Australia.
Here’s how
the ABC reported on the group when they crawled out from the political
primordial slime last year:
Its national director
is Gerard Benedet was the chief of staff to former Queensland LNP Treasurer Tim
Nicholls in a previous life.
“We’re not aligned to
any political party,” he told 7.30.
And Sky news is not a bad parody of a news service, nor is it the preferred source for people partial to tin foil and hats… and stocking up on canned goods while awaiting the Lizard Apocalypse.
New Matilda is a small, independent media outlet. We survive through reader contributions, and never losing a lawsuit. If you got something from this article, giving something back helps us to continue speaking truth to power. Every little bit counts.
New Matilda is a small, independent media outlet. We survive through reader contributions, and never losing a lawsuit. If you got something from this article, giving something back helps us to continue speaking truth to power. Every little bit counts.
This is where we’re at now folks… people turn out to protest Donald Trump. Donald Trump supporters turn up to protest the protest… and then spray everyone with bear repellent.
New Matilda is a small, independent media outlet. We survive through reader contributions, and never losing a lawsuit. If you got something from this article, giving something back helps us to continue speaking truth to power. Every little bit counts.
Where Are They Now? is an occasional column in New Matilda which looks at the people behind moments from history that some would rather forget. In this edition, we remember heavyweight party prince Corey Worthington, and his thrashing of lightweight journalist Leila McKinnon.
New Matilda is a small, independent media outlet. We survive through reader contributions, and never losing a lawsuit. If you got something from this article, giving something back helps us to continue speaking truth to power. Every little bit counts.
