Australian media such as Channel 9, The SMH and Channel 7 have used Christmas and Christmas day to start promoting the Hillsong Church and Pastor Brian Houston in a positive way even though Brian Houston is still under investigation by NSW police for concealing his father’s sexual abuse of children.
It’s absolutely disgusting and a slap in the face for survivors and without a doubt has either direct or indirect influence by Prime Minister Scott Morrison who has previously used his position to promote Brian Houston and the Hillsong Church.
Why would they promote someone who blatantly perjured himself at the Child Sex Abuse Royal Commission?
The evidence shows there is a clear media campaign running behind the scenes involving at least the Seven West Media owned Channel 7 and the Nine Entertainment owned Channel 9 and The SMH to polish up the reputation of Hillsong Church and Brian Houston. It could be argued that those media companies should be charged along with Brian Houston for trying to conceal his crimes.
What makes the conspiracy so obvious is the fact only a few weeks ago it was a scandal in all the media that Scott Morrison tried to take Brian Houston to Washington while he was under investigation by NSW Police and the White House said no. Then out of the blue, some of the old media have started promoting Hillsong and Hillsong is not even a mainstream Church as they only have 34,000 followers in Australia compared to other Churches who have hundreds of thousands if not millions.
The SMH reported on the 19th oo December 2019: “For those wanting a more spiritual experience, celebrate the reason for the season at Believe, Hillsong Church’s Christmas spectacular.” (Click here to read more) What The SMH should have said is: to avoid being fraudulently ripped off don’t go to Hillsong Church’s Christmas scam and if you do make sure you don’t leave your children alone.
I sent emails to 3 journalists who published / broadcast stories on the subject which were Angus Thompson at The SMH, Amber Laidler at Seven and Mike Dalton at Channel 9. Mr Thompson and Ms Laidler haven’t responded, although Ms Laidler, SWM Chairman Kerry Stokes and SWM CEO Ryan Stokes sent read receipts confirming they had read the email.
Mr Dalton emailed me and said: “questions concerning content in Nine News, should be directed to Sydney News Director, Simon Hobbs.” I emailed Mr Hobbs and he hasn’t responded.
The email I sent to Angus Thompson is below and the emails to the two others were similar.
From: SHANE DOWLING
Sent: 26 December 2019 13:42
To: angusthompson@smh.com.au
Subject: Media request – Hillsong Church
Hi Angus
I have a couple of questions for an article I am writing. In your article you published on Christmas day titled “Catholic Archbishop warns against ‘identity politics’ and ‘narcissism’” you mentioned Hillsong Church where you said at the end of the article:
- Why would you mention Hillsong Church given it is such a small Church?
- Did Scott Morrison’s association with Brian Houston and Hillsong have any influence on your decision to add Hillsong to the story?
- Did you write that about Hillsong or did your editor add it at the end?
- Are you aware that Hillsong Church founder Brian Houston is currently under investigation by the NSW Police for concealing his father’s rape of children?
- Do you know why both Channel 9 News and Channel 7 News also quoted and filmed Hillsong Church in their 6pm shows on Christmas day?
Can you please respond by 5pm today in case I have any follow-up questions.
Regards
Shane Dowling
If any of the journalists do respond to the emails I sent them I will update this article or publish another article with their responses. While it is obvious the journalists have been directed by management to add Hillsong Church and Brian Houston to their articles this time, from now on, any journalists writing about Hillsong and Houston will need to take ownership of why they are supporting them given they should now know are aiding and abetting crimes. Saying management told them to do it won’t cut it from now on.
The evidence of the media campaign is below. It’s well-known the Hillsong Church has been using a PR consultant to try and hide the criminal conduct of Brian Houston and keep him out of jail. It is also well-known that Scott Morrison does what he can to help the Hillsong Church and Brian Houston. Nine Entertainment Chairman Peter Costello has strong links to both Scott Morrison and Hillsong. And Kerry Stokes will use Seven for any purpose if he thinks there is a dollar in it for himself.
I wrote an article on the 7th of September 2019 titled “PM Scott Morrison, his mate Peter Costello, the $700,000 fundraising scam at Channel Nine and what the Old Media haven’t reported” which gives a lot more details on why Peter Costello is supporting both Scott Morrison and Brian Houston.
On Christmas day Channel 9 and Channel 7 broadcast news reports for their 6pm News programs quoting and filming Hillsong Church and Pastor Frank Houston. I watched the Nine broadcast on the internet that was shown in NSW, as per the below video, and immediately Tweeted that Nine CEO Hugh Marks should apologize. I later found out Channel Seven had also run a similar story which is also below. There have been some comments on social media that Channel 10 also did the same, but I have not found the video.
All the stories at Seven West Media and Nine Entertainment were meant to be about the messages the Churches were saying and promoting on Christmas day and its well-known that many of those Churches regard Hillsong Church as scammers so they were probably embarrassed to be associated with them.
The Channel 9 story is below:
Brian Houston infamously once said to a survivor that it was his fault his father, Frank Houston, sexually abused him because he had tempted his father. That is consistent with Brian Houston and the Hillsong Church having so far refused to sign up to the National Redress Scheme to pay compensation to survivors of the paedophiles in their church.
The Channel 7 story is below:
Hillsong Church is really just a fraud that uses a multi-level marketing type scam to make its founders multi-millionaires.
Jenny Morrison, Scott Morrison and Brian Houston at Hillsong Church on Tuesday night (9/7/19)
There can be no denying that Brian Houston covered up his father’s crimes because he has admitted it on TV as per the below video.
The SMH haven’t always been puppets for the Liberal Party. That seems to be a recent problem since Peter Costello led Nine took over. In an article titled “Praise the Lord and pass the chequebook” from 2005, before The SMH was owned by Nine Entertainment, they wrote:
“The quickest way to degrade the gospel,” says Costello, “is to link it with money and the pursuit of money. It is the total opposite of what Jesus preached. These people have learnt nothing from the mistakes made by the American televangelists.”
That was a quote from Reverend Tim Costello who ironically is the brother of Nine Entertainment Chairman Peter Costello who all the evidence points to being the man who ordered CEO Hugh Marks and staff at the company to support Brian Houston. Below is Peter Costello at Hillsong Church in 2005.
Former federal treasurer and current Nine Entertainment Chairman Peter Costello at Hillsong Church in 2005. Nine Entertainment owns Channel 9 and papers such as The SMH and The Age etc.
Other recent articles on this website that give a good backgrounding to what is happening with the Hillsong Church cover-up are “NSW Police confirm PM Scott Morrison’s mate Hillsong’s Brian Houston still under investigation for concealing paedophile father” and “NSW Police refuse to deny PM Scott Morrison has interfered in the investigation into paedophile protector Brian Houston“. Now some of the old media are in full swing trying to cover it up.
And that’s how Scott Morrison and the Hillsong Church stole Christmas. It’s meant to be a time of giving, but for them, it was all about repairing their reputation and putting pressure on the NSW police not to charge Brian Houston. They couldn’t care less about the survivors and there was no mention by Houston in Nine’s or Seven’s stories about Hillsong finally signing up to the National Redress Scheme and paying compensation to the survivors of Brian Houston’s father’s sexual abuse or survivors of other paedophiles in the Hillsong Church.
If Houston was charged it would not only do a lot of damage to the Hillsong Church but also Scott Morrison which would drag out for years because there would be a court case and if found guilty then jail and finally Houston being deported back to New Zealand once his jail term finished. That’s why there is a huge effort at the highest level to make sure Houston isn’t charged.
The Directors and CEO’s of Nine Entertainment and Seven West Media should issue an apology to all survivors.
I was meant to be having time off to start writing a book but this story was too big to sit back and not write and for obvious reasons a lot of other media are not going to write about it because they wouldn’t be allowed to by their management so somebody had to. A positive is that this story will fit well with the book and possibly get its own chapter.
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