Disinformation News

Amongst the various items on last nights BBC2 Newsnight was a report by Nick Bryant on racial violence in Australia, aimed at Indian students. It appears that there have been at least 97 reported attacks on students from the sub-continent who are studying in Australia, which has resulted in demonstrations by Asian students demanding that the government take action to halt the violence.

The situation has become a serious issue in Australia, not only in terms of social order, but also due to the fact that there are considerable numbers of Asian students studying in Australia and the fees they pay allegedly have a significant impact on the Australian economy, at least that is what what the politicians and media claim. (Does that sound familiar to you?).

Apparently, Asian students are not only flooding into Britain to “study” at sundry institutions calling themselves “colleges”, but the same phenomenon exists in Australia, leaving one to wonder what exactly is being taught in the 300 universities and over 45,000 colleges in India.

The cringe beset (and indeed cringe inducing) Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has stepped into the issue, assuring the protesters that his children “absolutely love Bollywood movies” and adding the somewhat Anglophobic aside that, were it not for the “wonderful” cuisine of India, Australians would have been condemned to “100 years of eating English food”.

The item went on to interview a number of victims and victims advocates and covered the issue in some detail, however, one detail was noticeable by its absence, and that was any clear description of the actual perpetrators.

Despite this, Nick Bryant made what appeared to be a deliberate attempt to imply who they might be, by referring to the old “white Australia” policy, which existed up until the 1970's, and which he said left Australia with a historical reputation for racism. This reference was clearly intended to leave the viewer with the impression that these racist attacks were being perpetrated by those same “white Australians”, if that was not his intention, why make such a reference?.

However, if any Newsnight viewer did come away from the programme believing that these attacks were being carried out by blond Australian surfers, no doubt battering their victims with tinnies full of Amber nectar, as BBC2 apparently wanted them to believe, they would be sorely mistaken and indeed misled.

Unfortunately, had anyone not convinced by Nick Bryant’s broad hint wanted to find out the truth, the usual sources of information would not have been much help. Wikipedia, which includes a lengthy report on the attacks, is similarly bashful when describing the attackers. A single reference to “reports” of attackers being variously described as “white, Aboriginal, Asian, middle eastern and Pacific Islander” actually linked to an Australian news article which states amongst considerable liberal angst that overwhelmingly the attackers were, in fact not white.

Lets guess that Wikipedia doesn't expect people to check their links?

In fact to obtain any clear description of the perpetrators, it is necessary to turn to the foreign press, much of which is by no means as reticent. Here are a few examples:

Times of India 12 June 2009: Headline: Indians in Australia say Lebanese youths behind attacks
China Post 15 June 2009: “Indian students took to Sydney's streets in droves last week for three night-time protests sparked by a particularly vicious assault blamed on young Lebanese men”
Rediff News: 11 June 2009: headline “Indian students allege Lebanese students attack them”

No ambiguity, hints and innuendo there but that was not the Western Media.

Average media profile of non-white crime suspect

We have all become used to the news media trick, which Ann Coulter describes as “to lie by omission” most often used to describe a non-white crime suspect in a manner best illustrated by the picture above, or by the recent Daily Mail report on the race riots in US prisons where by the (deliberate?) failure to mention the words “black” or “Hispanic” the report leaves open the possibility that the racial violence was white on black. In fact, no whites were involved, but I wonder how many Mail readers realised that.

However, the Newsnight report went further, by introducing the irrelevant issue of the White Australia policy, without qualifying it as the Sydney Herald report did, the reporter, Nick Bryant, was linking what he would describe as “white racism” with these attacks, whist, as a reporter, he must have known that the perpetrators were overwhelmingly, and quite probably entirely, non-white. To suggest that he did this unconsciously, at the very least stretches credibility.

Most viewers are not like me, their ears are not attuned to what is not said, and they will bother to check the truth, or otherwise, of what they are being told, and that is what liars like the BBC depend on.

This is a further example of disinformation and misrepresentation by our leading, and state funded news organisation, in an honest society they would not be allowed to get away with it. Sadly, in our society, they will.