A new phenomenon was launched recently on Australian Satellite/Cable TV
It’s an extra free channel that seems to be modeled on the USA’s C-SPAN. Usefully, will run some of the American C-SPAN content.
I stumbled on it by accident and watched a couple of times last week. Once I caught a Parliamentary debate; on another occasion, I saw what seemed to be a Climate Change conference.
American Australia Association: Triple-A rated friendship?
Last Saturday morning, Australia-time, A-Pac showed highlights from the Frank Lowy Tribute Dinner, organized by the American Australian Association. It featured an all-star cast.
I missed the first speaker, but switched on just in time to hear him thanked (“thanks Malcolm!”). From the context, I inferred it must have been Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s Federal Opposition leader.
Alan Jones, a leading shock jock of the Australian airwaves, was doing the thanking. A few years ago, Jones was embroiled in a grubby controversy over ‘Cash for Comments’ (CFCs), but weathered that storm remarkably well. Mr Jones has an extremely thick skin, possibly unequalled since the days of Tyrannosaurus rex.
Mr Jones, I realised, was compering the whole show. How appropriate.
Rupert Murdoch: as Aussie as A-PAC
He introduced Rupert Murdoch, who needs little introduction. Mr Murdoch gave a lengthy eulogy about Mr Lowy’s remarkable rags-to-riches life, starting in 1952 when he arrived ‘penniless’ in Australia.
It’s a pity Rupert didn’t discuss the 1940s. I was hoping to hear how the great spinner would decribe Frank Lowy’s activities in the 1940s, when he served the nascent Israeli State as a ‘commando’ in both the Haganah and the Golani Brigade.
Frank Lowy, man of the night, then took the stage to loud applause. Frank thanked the audience for honouring him, then delivered a homily about American leadership from World War Two to the War on Terror (oddly enough, he missed out The Nakba). He shared platitudes about the road to world economic recovery. Frank, we discovered, is an optimist.
Frank Lowy: Don't mention The Nakba
He was then given a 400 year old American pen.
The Vice Chancellor of Sydney University spoke next. His main role seemed to be gushing about US-Australian relations. He followed with equally lavish praise for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whom he described as a ‘Statesman’.
Mr Rudd’s speech followed. Sporting a huge black tie and black suit, Rudd looked like he might be speaking at a funeral. To be fair, his presentation did have substantive content. Alluding to FDR, he spoke of the need to create a rational basis for renewed confidence. That he said, is what his Government is doing. He praised Barak Obama, whom he described as a “great new US President”, for taking a similar approach.
“America remains a force for good in the world”, said Mr Rudd. Then he said it again, word for word. “America remains a force for good in the world” I wondered if he’d go for the hat-trick. Is this a form of magic, based on wishful thinking? (Say it enough and it might turn out to be true.)
Rudd spoke with anticipation of the forthcoming G-20 conference in London. Then he gave a personal tribute to Frank Lowy: “To have emerged from the Horror, the Absolute Horror, of The Holocaust…” Again, not a word about The Nakba. Perhaps Mr Rudd was poorly briefed?
Back on stage came CFC Jones, to introduce the Royal Australian Navy Band who dished up an interlude of jaunty military music culminating in ‘God Bless America!’
After that, a number of recipients of the Sir Keith Murdoch Educational Fellowship received awards on stage. It’s an educational swap scheme that seems to be modelled on Rhodes Scholarships. A few of the scholars spoke briefly about their work, some of it very interesting.
American Australian Association: black ties and white lies
After nearly two hours, the show eventually drew to a close. As I reached for the off switch, I realized what was up next: the very same program… played all over again, rather like Mr Rudd’s ‘Force for Good’ mantra. Just in case we missed it the first time…
The entire performance illustrates why Australia’s media regulations are really a joke in bad taste.
Certainly we do need something like C-Span here – on at least one channel. It’s great this channel will carry some of the C-SPAN material direct from the USA. It’s reasonable this particular event was covered too. Why not?
But more generally, what hope is there that the new channel will deliver more real diversity of viewpoints? It’s run by the Australian News Channel which owns and operates Sky News. In other words, it represents yet more media consolidation. It’s not a counter-balance to the News Corp Empire. It’s more of the Empire. Not good enough, Mr Rudd! No complaints from you Mr Turnbull, I presume? Why not?
Who will make decisions about what to cover and what gets left out on A-PAC? The same folk who already have excessive media power, presumably. That means we’ll have occasional servings of Sarkozy and Gordon Brown – but Putin or Chavez will be a rarity. Same old bias.
I hope the new channel proves me wrong. But I doubt it. A quick look at the A-Pac Charter does nothing to dispel my concerns.
A-Pac: (AIPAC with a lying 'I')
This is the public interest channel Australia gets when we’re not getting a public interest channel. Vested interest, packaged as philanthropy. As usual.
Such a thing is all too predictable in a society where media emperors and senior politicians piss in each others pockets.
In Australia, they’re not even discrete about this type of behaviour any more. I just watched them do it on TV.
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FOOTNOTE: No-one said a word about Gaza at Frank Lowy’s Tribute Dinner – not on A-PAC, anyhow.
That’s not surprising. In the 1940s, as previously mentioned, Lowy was a commando with the Haganah and the Golani Brigade. He is, shall we say, rather biased on the issue of Palestine.
The Golani Brigade has a notorious history. Kawther Salam, an exiled Palestinian journalist based in Austria, did this less than flattering profile in 2006: The Golani Unit: Israels Finest Psychopaths
We can probably wait until hell freezes over before a perspective like that is aired on Fox News, Sky, The History Channel, A-PAC or any of Australia’s other conformist and heavily biased broadcast mass media.
As this chronology shows, both the Haganah and the Golani Brigade were very active during the Nakba. One wonders at which of these landmark events in the dispossession of the Palestinians was Frank Lowy present?
Heavily redacted, this material would make a good feature story for Mr Murdoch’s News Corp. Perhaps a blockbuster Hollywood movie will be next?
Zionist Bias: easy when you exclude other views
POSTCRIPT: When researching this article, I missed an important recent post by Margaret Simons on Crikey: A-pac hits the airwaves, beats ABC to the punch
Her article gives some inside insights I hadn’t known about before – in particular the counter-bid by the ABC to provide a similar service.
While two new public affairs channels would provide greater diversity of content than one channel alone, Australians may already have a view on the the amount of real diversity of viewpoint presented by the public broadcaster: the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
I’d give it the same rating as the BBC: great for gardening shows, some fine comedy shows and reliable on the weather. But on Israel and Palestine?
I’ll just say that anyone hoping to hear the truth about President Ahmadinejad’s words when he reportedly said Israel should be “wiped off the map” might have to wait as long on when tuned into the ABC as they would on Sky News. (Forever?)
See the Following letter and subsequent correspondence in MediaLens:
