It has been a huge week for the corrupt, criminal and scandalous conduct of the Australian mainstream media being exposed. This has led to Channel 10 issuing an apology to former ICAC commissioner David Ipp, Fairfax Media suspending Paul Sheehan who is one of their senior journalists and News Corp’s Andrew Bolt doing a double backflip worthy of receiving an Olympic gold medal.
The below individual stories are bad enough by themselves but when you pool them together it shows a very sad state of affairs with the quality of Australia’s mainstream media. Lies, deception and deceit of the highest order is an everyday occurrence.
The Channel 10 and Adam Walters bribe by Charif Kazal – Mr Kazal meets NSW Premier Mike Baird
In 2011 Mr Charif Kazal was found to have acted corruptly by ICAC when he bribed NSW government official Andrew Kelly. (Click here to read more)
Channel 10 were fully aware of this as they ran a story on the 10/5/2015 where they interviewed Charif Kazal. This is where the actions of journalist Adam Walters and Channel 10 becomes scandalous.
On the 22/2/16 the ABC’s Media Watch program exposed the fabricated story by Channel 10 journalist Adam Walters accusing the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption of defaming and lying about Sydney businessman Charif Kazal. (Click here to watch the show or read the transcript)
Adam Walters claimed that ICAC’s allegations against Mr Kazal were baseless and false and Channel Ten news reader Sandra Sully said: “Charif Kazal was eventually cleared by the corruption watchdog but not before he was dragged through the mud.”
The allegations weren’t baseless and Mr Kazal was never cleared by ICAC. He was in fact found to be corrupt and Media Watch pointed out any basic internet search would have shown this. What’s worse is Channel Ten only had to search their own archives given the story they ran last year on the 10th May 2015 (see below video) which states that Mr Kazal had been found to have acted corruptly by ICAC and had lost his appeal in the NSW Supreme Court.
.
So why the scandalous story lying in an attempt to defend Charif Kazal by Adam Walters in the below video? Money has clearly changed hands which Media Watch alludes to in their story.
.
Former ICAC Commissioner David Ipp threatened to sue Channel Ten if they did not apologize. An apology quickly surfaced and Channel Ten said:
SANDRA SULLY: Channel 10 accepts that the assertions regarding Mr Ipp are entirely false and inaccurate. In fact ICAC found that Mr Kazal engaged in corrupt conduct, and that those findings have never been overturned. Channel 10 unreservedly retracts the statements made during the broadcasts regarding Mr Ipp and apologises to him for any harm caused to him. — Channel Ten, Eyewitness News, 25 February, 2016 (Click here to watch)
Channel Ten’s, Adam Walters’ and John Choueifate’s kick-back
In 2007 Adam Walters, Channel Ten’s news director John Choueifate and former Ten reporter John Mullins set up a media relations/spin doctoring company called CMW Media.
In 2010 CMW Media was employed by Charif Kazal. In responding to further allegations of corruption the SMH reported the below in 2010:
”They have not received favourable treatment from the authority – far from it,” said a spokesman for the Kazal family, the former Channel Ten news reporter Paul Mullins. (Click here to read more)
So there is a previous money trail leading from Charif Kazal straight back to the journalist Adam Walters and Channel Ten’s news director John Choueifate. It is not too hard to work out that the old money trail has been re-established.
What makes it worse is that the Kazal’s have a history of threatening people including former Fairfax journalist Linton Besser and his family. One has to wonder why Channel Ten haven’t sacked Adam Walters and John Choueifate.
NSW Premier Mike Baird and his mate Charif Kazal
It is interesting that NSW Premier Mike Baird had a private meeting with Charif Kazal only two weeks ago just after the Channel Ten story but before the Media Watch episode above.
Charif Kazal, the Sydney businessman found to be corrupt by the ICAC over his business dealings in the Rocks has met with Premier Mike Baird to discuss his case being re-examined by the inspector of the corruption watchdog.
Mr Kazal met with Mr Baird last week to discuss his claims that the ICAC had suppressed exculpatory evidence that he believes would have changed the outcome of the ICAC investigation.
A spokesman for the Premier said: “Mr Baird met with Mr Kazal in his electorate office in his capacity as MP for Manly. A member of Mr Baird’s electorate office staff will write to the Inspector of the ICAC, informing him that the meeting took place.” (Click here to read more)
It is clearly inappropriate for the NSW Premier to have a secret meeting with someone who has been found to be corrupt and to have bribed a government employee. I wonder if Premier Baird was offered anything? And has Mike Baird had meetings with any other people that ICAC have found to be corrupt?
Charif Kazal claims he wants a Royal Commission. If that happens he’ll either have to bribe the Commissioner or he’ll end up in jail.
What Mr Kazal does or doesn’t do is not the point of this story. It is how a grubby journalist like Adam Walters and his news director boss at Channel Ten can sell out their profession, the company they work for and ultimately the public. All for a few dollars. Why hasn’t Channel Ten sacked both of them?
Fairfax Media’s false rape claim
In the last week Fairfax Media have had their own scandal to deal with when senior journalist Paul Sheehan wrote a totally false story that was fed to him by a lady who is a compulsive liar. A lady told Sheehan she was ganged raped and Mr Sheehan did not check any facts and or try to verify anything about the story although he said he had.
“When she gave me verifiable facts, they were verified,” wrote Paul Sheehan, in the article that was teased on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday morning.
His column, called “The story of Louise: we’ll never know the scale of the rape epidemic in Sydney”, now carries this correction online: “Many details originally contained in this story were unable to be corroborated to Fairfax Media’s satisfaction. These details, including untested aspersions against an ethnic group and untested allegations of inaction against the NSW Police, have been removed from this story.”
I don’t remember ever seeing a correction quite like this one. Isn’t that corroboration supposed to happen before publication? And what are the “details”, anyway? (Click here to read more)
Paul Sheehan did publish an apology (Click here to read) but Fairfax Media have now suspended Sheehan anyhow. (Click here to read the statement) One would have thought the SMH’s editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir would also be accountable, but apparently not.
Based on the above two stories we can’t trust Channel 10 or trust Fairfax Media. But there is hope you say, what about News Corp? Nope!
Andrew Bolt’s back flip to aid & abet paedophile protector and suspected paedophile Cardinal George Pell
Andrew Bolt has been a big supporter of Cardinal George Pell and defends him regularly. Bolt says the attacks on George Pell is a witch hunt and Bolt ignores the evidence that doesn’t suit him.
Bolt’s attitude changed when George Pell gave the evidence in the below video:
.
On the question of what Pell knew about notorious paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale – his former colleague and housemate – Bolt posed the question that looms large for the commission.
“Is the Vatican’s third-most powerful leader a liar when he says he never knew what Ridsdale … was doing in Ballarat? Or was he just dangerously indifferent to his responsibilities and to the warning signs that children were being raped?”
It followed Pell’s testimony on Tuesday about when he learnt of Ridsdale’s offending. “It’s a sad story and it wasn’t of much interest to me,” he declared, prompting audible gasps. (Click here to read more)
Andrew Bolt had lined up an interview with George Pell on SKY TV which had been reported prior in the media. One has to suspect the interview was threatened with being cancelled by Pell which is about the only thing that would explain the fact that Bolt did another backflip.
And then, in another bizarre twist for the conservative columnist, Bolt on Wednesday appeared to backflip on his backflip, saying on Sky that he thinks he owes the Cardinal an apology for his comment piece. (Click here to read more)
Regular readers of this website would know that when Andrew Bolt isn’t helping his mate George Pell his is aiding and abetting fraud and theft at the HSU. (Click here to read more)
What really happened at the Royal Commission this week:
Cardinal George Pell asked us to believe some extraordinary things this week. Through 18 hours of royal commission evidence, he asked us to believe that he knew nothing of the country’s worst paedophile, despite sitting in the meetings that allowed his offending to be concealed and perpetuated. He asked us to believe that the times were different, that he was incurious, that it was someone else’s responsibility. (Click here to read more)
So we can’t trust Channel 10, Fairfax Media or News Corp. What about a legend in the media like Paul Bongiorno? Nope!
Not only was Mr Bongiorno on the take from unions to tell lies during the Trade Union Royal Commission but he is also a former housemate of Gerald Ridsdale as was George Pell. Mr Bongiorno was a Roman Catholic Priest at the same time as Pell and Ridsdale and attended St Patrick’s College, Ballarat. He sings from the same song sheet as George Pell and says he heard no evil and saw no evil regarding Ridsdale or any of the other Priests.
I wrote about Bongiorno and his handiwork in an article titled “Internet Truth Train runs over journalist Paul Bongiorno who is caught pushing Union lies for $$$” in September last year.
People are worried about new media laws being introduced and concentrating media ownership. But the above post shows that the mainstream media is failing just as much if not more than ever and new media laws won’t change that much if anything because it can’t get much worse than it is. It is up to social media and new media websites like this one to fill the void, which is starting to happen at an ever-increasing pace.
Please use the Twitter, Facebook and email etc. buttons below and help promote this post.
This website is independent and reliant on donations to keep publishing. If you would like to support the continuance of this site, please click on the button below to donate via PayPal or go to the donations page for other donation options. (Click here to go to the Donations page)
If you would like to follow this website, you can by email notification which is at the top right of this page and about twice a week you will be notified when there is a new article.
Thank you for your support.