When Barack Obama pontificated about “the curated media”, he said more than he knew. What Obama was tacitly admitting is that the legacy media are self-appointed gatekeepers of the public sphere. With the typical arrogance of the left, Obama assumed that the public must be taken in hand like a flock of sheep (his choice of word was telling: “curate” is derived from the Latin word meaning “to take care of”).
The legacy media see themselves in the flattering image Obama held up for them: the custodians of public knowledge. It’s up to them, they arrogantly decide, to decide what we the plebs are allowed to know.
And what we are allowed to know is only what serves the powerful interests of the left-elite.
Joe Biden lied about his and his odious son’s dealings in Ukraine? Twitter will take you down for reporting that. Hundreds of violent riots burning dozens of American cities? They’re “peaceful protests”, you deplorable.
In Australia, a bombshell dropped on the Cardinal George Pell saga this week was met with a stony wall of silence from the taxpayer-funded broadcaster – despite the ABC’s years-long obsession with Pell.
The ABC was criticised last week for not covering the latest corruption revelations from the Vatican linking the demotion of powerful Sardinian-born Cardinal Angelo Becciu to the transfer of $1.1m cash to Australia, a transaction three Italian newspapers and The Times of London tied to the failed Victorian pedophile case against Cardinal George Pell.
Make no mistake: this is big. Pell has been traduced with incredible venom by the ABC. The fact that his pursuit and trial by Victorian authorities stank to high heaven of an orchestrated witch-hunt has never been acknowledged in the slightest. When Australia’s highest court unanimously overturned the conviction, ABC journalists refused to concede that they had been wrong, instead grumbling and muttering darkly that the High Court had somehow been “bought”.
Now, faced with incredible revelations from Rome that millions of dollars were paid to a bank account in Victoria during Pell’s trial, ABC journalists are simply refusing to even report it.
One senior ABC journalist, ABC RN Religion and Ethics Report host Andrew West, did stand against the groupthink at the national broadcaster[…but] the ABC’s gatekeepers on the Pell story, Media Watch host Paul Barry and Pell pursuer Louise Milligan, made clear on Twitter last week that they believe there is nothing newsworthy in the latest chapter in the decades-long saga. Milligan expressed displeasure journalists were even covering the story.
Like Victorian premier Daniel Andrews, the ABC simply cannot, will not, admit that Pell was wrongly accused and convicted.
The idea Pell could in fact be the victim here just does not fit the preconceived narrative at the ABC, which struggled in April even to report fairly and accurately the unanimous 7-0 High Court overturning of Pell’s conviction. Several senior staff at the time tweeted that the High Court decision did not mean Pell had been found innocent. It most certainly did[…]
Andrew West summed up in a couple of sentences why ABC editors should ensure journalists are assigned to look carefully at the latest allegations out of the Vatican’s ongoing financial scandal.
“A lot of threads though are being pulled together. Whether they come together naturally is another question … the … effective sacking of Cardinal Becciu the return to Rome of Cardinal Pell … and now the recalling to Rome of the Vatican Envoy to Australia, Adolfo Tito Yllana …” West said[…]
For those who have followed the Pell saga there is another point: allegations Pell was being targeted by Vatican enemies for his role in trying to sort out the church’s financial troubles actually predate his formal charging by Victoria Police.
This story has a long way to run yet. At the moment, it’s somewhat similar to the early stages of the Watergate scandal: journalists (except for the ABC) have stumbled onto something that has threads reaching into the darkest spots of the corridors of power. Who the millions were paid to by Becciu, and why, is yet unclear. But, clearly, some journalists (not at the ABC) have been digging and uncovered more skeletons than they can let on about yet.
[Andrew] Bolt said on-air that he had seen documents concerning the acquisition of a house. He has not named the buyer of the house but did say he was surprised the person would have had enough money to make the purchase. This column is aware of social media connections between the buyer and the selling agent.
Bolt, Pell’s high-profile defence counsel Robert Richter QC and legal academic Mirko Bagaric, dean of law at Swinburne University, have all called for an investigation of the latest claims, at the very least by AUSTRAC, the federal government’s anti-money laundering agency.
Just don’t expect to learn anything about any of this from the ABC.
For their billion-plus of taxes that are ploughed every year into the public broadcasting behemoth, Australians deserve much, much better.
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