During the May 2025 Federal Election campaign, the Labor Party were caught secretly paying new media and independent journalists for favourable reporting and I reported on it number of times.
This is an important issue because new media, together with social media, is starting to overtake the old media for influencing voters.
When the new media was caught they ducked and weaved trying to deny it such as Diamantina Media CEO Antony Stockdale changing his story on whether the Prime Minister was paying him to organise podcasts.
Another person who lies about being paid by Labor is Jordan Shanks who publishes the Friendlyjordies YouTube channel.
I came across an article on the Buzzfeed website from 2016 where Shanks was exposed being paid for publishing a video on behalf of the ACTU encouraging young people to register to vote and to vote for Labor.
The ACTU / Shanks video had the proper declaration saying it was “Authorised by D. Oliver, 365 Queens St Melbourne” which is needed on all electoral advertising under Australian laws.
But Shanks did try to hide it.
The Buzzfeed 2016 article is titled “This Viral YouTube Star Has Been Employed For Political Advertising” and says:
Internet comedian “Friendlyjordies” has built a branded video company off the back of lo-fi videos shot in his apartment.
Jordan Shanks, aka Friendlyjordies, uploaded his latest video on Tuesday, a five-minute bit on the importance of enrolling to vote.
But unlike his other viral videos, this one contains an authorisation label at the bottom of the screen in the final seconds of the clip.
Several people noticed the little label which is mandated on all political advertising.
And others questioned what it was all about.
“D. Oliver” is David Oliver, the boss of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, who paid for the viral video as part of the ACTU’s election campaigning.
BuzzFeed News spoke to someone familiar with the project who confirmed the ACTU paid for the political ad and was delighted with the result.
(In the above post on Jordan Shanks’ Friendlyjordies Facebook page it is liked by “Dan Andrews” who is almost certainly the former Victorian Labor Premier)
According to the source, Friendlyjordies came to them with the idea.
“They presented it to us,” said the source, who refused to disclose how much the video cost. “It was compelling. It seems to be going really well.”
But BuzzFeed News can reveal the comedian regularly approaches progressive organisations with a pitch email to make branded video for them.
In the email, Shanks tells a prospective client that he has produced video campaigns for everyone from environmental NGOs and superannuation funds.
“We have the best results in the country when it comes to not only creating awareness but generating engagement and action for causes using online platform,” he said.
One of the clients, progressive lobby group GetUp!, has paid Shanks several times to make branded video for it campaigns.
“It’s him and a mate in his Bondi apartment, shooting videos with a camera he bought from Target,” said a former GetUp staffer.
“At the start I remember he was living on Newstart [the dole].”
With the election getting into full swing, all eyes are on political organisations and the methods they use to get their message out on the internet.
It’ll also be interesting to see whether Shanks’s fiercely loyal audience is turned away from videos that are funded by different political organisations.
When BuzzFeed News spoke to Shanks briefly on Wednesday, he laughed when asked about who else he was planning to work with.
“Well,” he said, “I don’t want to do anything with right-wing organisations.” (Click here to read the full BuzzFeed article) (Buzzfeed News closed it’s operations in 2023 but the article is still on the internet for the moment at least)
Below is a video of the above article:
(Click here to watch the above video on the Kangaroo Court of Australia YouTube channel)
What the above shows is Jordan Shanks has a history of being paid to promote the Labor Party and that was always part of his business plan and that is exactly what he is doing today but he denies being paid by Labor.
Jordan Shanks claims he is now promoting the Labor Party for free. Who makes up lies and trashes the reputations of others for the benefit of a political party for free? Will Shanks now apply to the government for charity status?
I’ll have more on the Labor Party money trail back to Jordan Shanks soon.
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Categories: Kevin Rudd
It called commercial media – that’s how media has been funded in the private sector forever – paid advertising, why the shock horror?
It’s part of a bigger story. Shanks is now being paid by Labor to make up lies about independent journalists who are holding the federal Labor government to account and spread those lies online to undermine those journalists.
Shanks says he is doing it for free yet he has a background of being paid to do it which was part of his business plan. Why has he changed now? Is he now a charity?
Then we have another media company recently being paid by Labor but lying about it which points to Labor wanting the journalists to lie about it to avoid declaring it is paid advertising and to avoid being held to account for paying Shanks to spread lies and misinformation.
Labor are trying to deceive and fool the voters
The shocking fact is that the Friendly Mr. Jordie tries to sell his paid advertising as his personal and unbiased opinion. He has every right to say what he wants, but please tell us the whole story, not just what you want us to believe. He voices his perceptions for payment, which devalues his words for those who want truthful facts.
I like that Shanks exposed Bruz Barralilo & the dirty feds [ persons of interest clown show] however I believe he has sold out & it will definitely come back to bite him. He’s backed the wrong horse here. 🍿
A democracy needs a free and independent press. I can’t see how that could be enforced. I quess the ALP backing new media was because of the bias against them from the billionaires media outlets.
Labor are using new media to spread lies and attack other new media.
Jordies has a real punchable head doesn’t he??
Aussies, RESEARCH from reliable sources and THINK, THINK for yourselves!!
Labor are focused on lying and playing political games with the Liberals and this is what happened during the election campaign. Labor had splashed millions in cash on their election campaign to target voters through a barrage of dishonest and misleading media content against Dutton and the Liberals. From the onset, as Labor opposition leader, Albanese lied about being transparent and bringing Australians with him, it was a deliberate deceptive lie to insult voters.
Be prepared for more corruption that will be exposed against Labor when the media turn on Albanese with his treatment of some journalists. His arrogance by subduing and subjugating some journalists will become viperous, excluding the ABC which he continues to keep on side with huge amounts of taxpayer funding to represent one party, the Albanese Party.
𝑺𝒐 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕!
The LNP seem to have stooges as commentators on Our ABC.
Don’t we all assume everyone’s lying? Its politics and its the PR business. Its like many big business deals there is so much money involved that they could (but I am not saying they do) afford to pay all their opponents 1000s of dollars for their vote. Its probably even tax deductible. It just depends on how big is your brown paper bag. If you look at so many decisions hard you just cant see how taxpayers could possibly benefit. How often do you hear about a project worth billions of government, our money, being spent with the justification of providing a couple of hundred jobs for a few years.