“Fake News” is much more – and much more insidious – than just outright making stuff up. In fact, the most damaging fake news is not when the media straight-out lies. “A truth that’s told with bad intent,” as William Blake wrote, “beats all the lies you can invent”. Misleading headlines and slanted reporting are the ‘truths’ the media try and tell us with bad intent.
A particularly egregious case in point comes from Australia’s billion-dollar taxpayer-funded leftist behemoth, the ABC.
Despite endlessly boasting that they are “Australia’s most trusted news source”, the ABC has an embarrassing track record of fake news. In fact, even their own “Media Watch” flagship is acquiring a notorious reputation for misleading and biased reporting.
The ABC went full fake news when it reported on ASIO chief Mike Burgess’ recent annual threat assessment.
Burgess explicitly stated that:
Violent Islamic extremism of the type embodied by the Islamic State and al-Qaeda and their offshoots will remain our principal concern.
Tens of thousands of Islamic extremists travelled to the Middle East to join AQ-aligned groups and ISIL, including from countries which weren’t previously known as sources of Islamic extremists. And as we all know Australians joined that movement.
There are now more Islamic extremists from more countries active in more places than ever before.
aspistrategist.org.au/asio-director-generals-annual-threat-assessment/
So, what does the taxpayer-funded broadcaster report?
Neo-Nazis among Australia’s most challenging security threats, ASIO boss Mike Burgess warns.
Neo-Nazis are emerging as one of Australia’s most challenging security threats, according to the country’s top intelligence chief.
abc.net.au/news/2020-02-24/asio-director-general-mike-burgess-neo-nazi-threat-rising/
Simply repeating a lie doesn’t make it true. Despite the ABC saying so twice, Burgess never said that. Their headline and lede are entirely fake. Nowhere in Burgess’ speech does he say those words, or indeed anything remotely like that.
Yes, Burgess does say that “the extreme right-wing threat is real and it is growing”, but he goes on to explicitly contrast it with the much bigger threat of Islamic terrorism.
While these are small in number at this time in comparison to what we saw with foreign fighters heading to the Middle East, any development like this is very concerning.
aspistrategist.org.au/asio-director-generals-annual-threat-assessment/
Of course, Burgess is right that any new development in extremism, of any kind, is concerning. Burgess is right to note that right-wing extremism is a threat. As Brenton Tarrant showed, it is a very real threat. Burgess would be derelict in his duty of delivering a threat assessment if he didn’t acknowledge this distressing fact.
But that does not justify the ABC in peddling blatant fake news with a fabricated headline.
The giveaway that should set every discerning reader’s bullshit alarm blaring is that the ABC carefully omits a direct quote in its headline and lede. A direct quote (indicated by quote marks) has to report exactly what the subject said. When a supposed quote is reported without quote marks, then the media are free to make up whatever spin they want.
Burgess’ assessment is very clear that Islamic terrorism is ASIO’s “principal concern” – but the ABC buries that fact five paragraphs deep, clearly banking on the fact that most readers will never read that far.
The ABC are deliberately deceiving the taxpayers who pay for it.
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