{"id":57368,"date":"2015-05-04T12:00:04","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T11:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=57368"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:24:43","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:24:43","slug":"cowardly-firing-of-australian-state-funded-tv-journalist-highlights-the-wests-real-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/05\/cowardly-firing-of-australian-state-funded-tv-journalist-highlights-the-wests-real-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"Cowardly Firing of Australian State-Funded TV Journalist Highlights the West\u2019s Real Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

A TV sports commentator in Australia, Scott McIntyre, was summarily fired on Sunday<\/a> [26 Apr 2015] by his public broadcasting employer, Special Broadcasting Services (SBS), due to a series of tweets he posted about the violence committed historically by the Australian military. McIntyre published his tweets on \u201cAnzac Day,\u201d a national holiday \u2014 similar\u00a0to Memorial Day in the U.S. \u2014 which the Australian government hails<\/a> as \u201cone of Australia\u2019s most important national occasions. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than dutifully waving the flag and singing mindless paeans to The Troops and The Glories of War, McIntyre took the opportunity on Anzac Day to do what a journalist should do: present uncomfortable facts, question orthodoxies, highlight oft-suppressed views:<\/p>\n

**********<\/p>\n

Scott McIntyre <\/a><\/em>\u2714 @mcintinhos <\/a><\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The cultification of an imperialist invasion of a foreign nation that Australia had no quarrel with is against all ideals of modern society.<\/em><\/p>\n

8:39 AM – 25 Apr 2015\u00a0 \u00a0900 Retweets <\/em><\/p>\n

**********<\/em><\/p>\n

Scott McIntyre\u00a0 <\/a><\/em>\u2714 @mcintinhos <\/a><\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Wonder if the poorly-read, largely white, nationalist drinkers and gamblers pause today to consider the horror that all mankind suffered.<\/em><\/p>\n

8:39 AM – 25 Apr 2015\u00a0 540 Retweets <\/em><\/p>\n

**********<\/em><\/p>\n

Scott McIntyre\u00a0 <\/a><\/em>\u2714 @mcintinhos <\/a><\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Remembering the summary execution, widespread rape and theft committed by these \u2018brave\u2019 Anzacs in Egypt, Palestine and Japan.<\/em><\/p>\n

8:40 AM – 25 Apr 2015\u00a0 547 Retweets <\/em><\/p>\n

**********<\/p>\n

Scott McIntyre\u00a0 <\/a><\/em>\u2714 @mcintinhos <\/a><\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Not forgetting that the largest single-day terrorist attacks in history were committed by this nation & their allies in Hiroshima & Nagasaki<\/em><\/p>\n

8:40 AM – 25 Apr 2015 937 Retweets <\/em><\/p>\n

**********<\/p>\n

Scott McIntyre\u00a0 <\/a><\/em>\u2714 @mcintinhos <\/a><\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Innocent children, on the way to school, murdered. Their shadows seared into the concrete of Hiroshima. <\/em><\/p>\n

8:41 AM – 25 Apr 2015\u00a0 777 Retweets <\/em><\/p>\n

**********<\/p>\n

Almost instantly, these tweets spawned an intense debate about war, the military and history, with many expressing support for his expressed views and large numbers expressing outrage. In other words, McIntyre committed journalism<\/em>: triggering discussion and examination of political claims rather than mindless recitation, ritualistic affirmation and compelled acceptance.<\/p>\n

One outraged voice rose high above all the others: the nation\u2019s communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, who quickly and publicly denounced McIntyre in the harshest possible terms:<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Scott McIntyre\u00a0 <\/a><\/em>\u2714 @mcintinhos <\/a><\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Innocent children, on the way to school, murdered. Their shadows seared into the concrete of Hiroshima. pic.twitter.com\/DQOGXiKxEb<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Malcolm Turnbull\u00a0 <\/a><\/em>\u2714 @TurnbullMalcolm <\/a><\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Difficult to think of more offensive or inappropriate comments than those by @mcintinhos<\/a>. Despicable remarks which deserve to be condemned.<\/em><\/p>\n

12:11 PM – 25 Apr 2015 440 Retweets <\/em><\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Turnbull isn\u2019t just any government minister. He runs the ministry\u00a0that oversees SBS,<\/a>\u00a0McIntyre\u2019s employer.\u00a0The network\u2019s funding comes\u00a0overwhelmingly<\/a> from the government in which Turnbull serves: \u201cabout 80 per cent of funding for the SBS Corporation is derived from the Australian Government through triennial funding arrangements.\u201d Last year, the government imposed significant budget cuts<\/a> on SBS, and Minister Turnbull \u2014 who was credited with fighting off even bigger cuts \u2014\u00a0publicly told them<\/a> they should be grateful\u00a0the cuts weren\u2019t bigger, warning they likely could be in the future.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a\u00a0craven\u00a0SBS executive, nothing scares you more than having your journalists say something that angers the mighty Minister Turnbull (pictured, right, with Prime Minister Abbott). Within hours of Minister Turnbull\u2019s denunciation of McIntyre, SBS\u2019s top executives \u2014 Managing Director Michael Ebeid and Director\u00a0of\u00a0Sport Ken Shipp \u2014 tweeted a creepy statement announcing<\/a> that McIntyre had been summarily fired. The media executives proclaimed that \u201crespect for Australian audiences is paramount at SBS,\u201d and condemned\u00a0McIntyre\u2019s \u201chighly inappropriate and disrespectful comments via his twitter account which have caused his on-air position at SBS to become untenable.\u201d They then took the loyalty oath to the glories of Anzac:<\/p>\n

SBS apologises for any offence or harm caused by Mr McIntyre\u2019s comments which in no way reflect the views of the network. SBS supports our Anzacs and has devoted unprecedented resources to coverage of the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landings.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSBS supports our Anzacs<\/em>\u201d \u2014 and apparently bars any questioning or criticism of them. That mentality sounds like it came right from\u00a0North Korea, which is to be expected when a media outlet is prohibited from saying anything that offends high government officials. Any society in which it\u2019s a\u00a0firing offense for journalists to criticize the military is a sickly and undemocratic one.<\/p>\n

The excuses offered by SBS for McIntyre\u2019s firing are so insulting as to be laughable. Minister Turnball denies that he made the decision even as he admits<\/a> that, beyond his public denunciation, he \u201cdrew [McIntyre\u2019s comments]\u00a0to the attention of SBS\u2019s managing director Michael Ebeid.\u201d The Minister also issued a statement endorsing McIntyre\u2019s firing, saying that \u201cin his capacity as a reporter employed by SBS he has to comply with and face the consequences of ignoring the SBS social media protocol.\u201d For its part, SBS laughably claims McIntyre wasn\u2019t fired for his views, but, rather, because\u00a0his \u201cactions have breached the SBS Code of Conduct and social media policy\u201d \u2014 as though he would have been fired if he had expressed reverence for, rather than criticism of, Anzac.<\/p>\n

Notably, McIntyre\u2019s\u00a0firing\u00a0had nothing to do with any claimed\u00a0factual inaccuracies\u00a0of anything he said. As\u00a0The\u00a0Washington Post\u2019<\/em>s Adam Taylor noted<\/a>, historians<\/a> and even a former prime minister<\/a>\u00a0have long questioned the appropriateness of this holiday given the realities of Anzac\u2019s conduct and the war itself. As Australian history professor Philip Dwyer documented<\/a>, McIntyre\u2019s factual assertions are simply true. Whatever else one might say, the issues raised by McIntyre are the subject of entirely legitimate political debate, and they should be.\u00a0Making it a firing offense for a journalist to weigh in on one side of that debate but not the other is tyrannical.<\/p>\n

Part of this is driven by the\u00a0dangers of state-funded media, which typically neuters itself at the altar of orthodoxy. In the U.S. the \u201cliberal\u201d NPR is, not coincidentally, the most extreme media outlet for prohibiting any expressions of views that deviate from convention, even\u00a0firing two journalists<\/a> for the crime of appearing at an Occupy Wall Street event. \u00a0Identically, NPR\u00a0refused (and still refuses) to use the word \u201ctorture\u201d<\/a> for Bush interrogation programs because the U.S. government denied that it was; its ombudsman justified this choice by arguing\u00a0that \u201cthe problem is that the word torture is loaded with political and social implications for several reasons, including the fact that torture is illegal under U.S. law and international treaties the United States has signed.\u201d We\u00a0can\u2019t have a media outlet doing anything that might have \u201cpolitical and social implications\u201d for high government officials!<\/p>\n

The BBC is even worse: its\u00a0director of news and current affairs, James Harding, actually said<\/a> that they likely would not have reported on the Snowden archive if they were the ones who got it <\/em>(which, just by the way, is one big reason they didn\u2019t). Harding\u2019s\u00a0justification for that extraordinary abdication of journalism \u2014 that there was a \u201cdeal\u201d between the source and the media organizations to report the story as a \u201ccampaign\u201d and the BBC cannot \u201ccampaign\u201d \u2014 was a complete fabrication; he literally just made up claims about a \u201cdeal.\u201d<\/p>\n

But his reasoning shows how neutered state-funded media inevitably becomes. Here\u2019s one of the biggest stories in journalism of the last decade,\u00a0one\u00a0that sparked a worldwide debate about a huge range of issues, spawned movements for legislative reform, ruptured diplomatic relationships, changed global Internet behavior, and won almost every major journalism award in the West. And\u00a0the director of news and current affairs of BBC says they likely would not have reported the story, one that \u2014 in addition to all those other achievements \u2014 happened to have enraged the British government to which the BBC must maintain fealty.<\/p>\n

A different aspect\u00a0of what the Australia firing shows is the scam of establishment journalists in defining\u00a0\u201cobjectivity\u201d to mean:\u00a0\u201caffirming societal orthodoxies.\u201d Journalists are guilty of \u201copinionating\u201d and \u201cactivism\u201d only when they challenge and deviate from popular opinion, not when they embrace and echo it (that\u2019s called \u201cobjectivity\u201d). That\u2019s why John Burns was allowed to report on the Iraq War for\u00a0The\u00a0New York Times<\/em> despite openly advocating for the war (including after it began<\/a>), while Chris Hedges was fired for having opposed the war<\/a>. It\u2019s why\u00a0McIntyre got fired for criticizing Anzac but no journalist would ever get fired for heaping praise on\u00a0Anzac, even though the two views are equally \u201cbiased.\u201d That\u2019s because, as practiced, \u201cjournalistic objectivity\u201d is compelled\u00a0obeisance\u00a0to the pieties of the powerful dressed up as something noble.<\/p>\n

But what is at the heart of McIntyre\u2019s firing is the real religion of the supposedly \u201csecular West\u201d: mandated worship not just of its military but of its wars. The\u00a0central dogma of this religion is\u00a0tribal superiority<\/em>: Our Side is more civilized, more peaceful, superior to Their Side.<\/p>\n

McIntyre was fired because he committed blasphemy against that religion. It was redolent of how NBC News immediately organized a panel to trash its own host<\/a>, Chris Hayes, after Hayes grievously sinned against this religion simply by\u00a0pondering,\u00a0on Memorial Day, whether all American soldiers are \u201cheroes\u201d (a controversy that died only after he offered some public penance<\/a>). The church in which Americans worship\u00a0this religion are public events such as football games<\/a>, where fighter jets display their divinity as the congregation prays.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Z_DPWJy4xcU<\/p>\n

This <\/em>is the religion \u2014 of militarism and tribalism \u2014 that is the one thriving and pervasive in the West.\u00a0The vast, vast majority of political discourse about foreign policy \u2014 especially from U.S. and British media commentators \u2014 consists of little more than various declarations of tribal superiority:\u00a0we are better and our violence is thus justified.<\/em>\u00a0The widespread desperation<\/a> on the part of so many to believe that Muslims are uniquely violent, primitive\u00a0and threatening is nothing more than an affirmation of this religious-like tribalism. And nothing guarantees quicker and more aggressive excommunication than questioning of this central dogma.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u00a0why Scott McIntyre was fired:\u00a0because he questioned and disputed the most sacred doctrine of the West\u2019s religion. In a free, healthy and pluralistic society, doing so\u00a0would be the defining attribute of a journalist, the highest aim. But in societies that, above all else, demand unyielding tribal loyalty and subservient adherence to orthodoxies, it\u2019s viewed as an egregious\u00a0breach\u00a0of journalism and gets you fired.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Just by the way, bestowing McIntyre with a free expression award would be actually meaningful and would take actual courage, since the speech for which he was punished is actually unpopular in the West and offensive to numerous power centers. That<\/em> is when defenses of free speech are most meaningful: when the prohibited\u00a0speech is most\u00a0threatening to, and thus most maligned by, those who wield the greatest power.<\/p>\n

_____________________________<\/p>\n

Email the author: glenn.greenwald@theintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 firstlook.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A TV commentator in Australia, Scott McIntyre, was summarily fired on Sunday [26 Apr 2015] by Special Broadcasting Services on \u201cAnzac Day,\u201d a national holiday that marks the anniversary of a military action by Australian and New Zealand forces in WWI, due to a series of tweets about the violence committed by the Australian military.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}