MEDIA SHAME FILE
Outlet: ABC News
Headline: Fundraising website GiveSendGo defends decision to host Australian ‘Whites-only’ community campaign on platform
Summary: It’s really important that you understand what journalist Hannah Murphy has done here. This is a perfect example of a reporter (or editor – she may have just been told to do it) simultaneously trying create a story and achieve a preferred outcome – the cancellation of a fundraiser she doesn’t like.
Noticer News reported on the Senate inquiry into “right wing extremist movements” and a submission from the Counter Extremism Project (CEP), a New York-based “international” NGO set up by former US government officials.
The ABC did not.
Instead, Ms Murphy chose to approach GiveSendGo based on the claims made by the CEP and ask why they were allowing Thomas Sewell to raise funds for a White Australian community on their platform.
This is a slimy tactic journalists love, because it allows them to twist and control the narrative no matter what response they get.
Note the sneaky phrasing – “in response to the CEP’s submission, GiveSendGo co-founder Jacob Wells told the ABC” – to mask the fact that the GiveSendGo co-founder was actually responding to her.
What the ABC really wants is for GiveSendGo to panic and delete the fundraiser. Then they can report on the story they’ve created, pat themselves on the back, and take the credit. No-one will dare criticise them for it (except us).
If they get no response, they do the story anyway, and get one of their rent-a-quote far-left “extremism experts” to say how terrible the situation is: “Fundraising website GiveSendGo under fire for hosting Australian ‘Whites-only’ community campaign on platform” or something similar.
If GiveSendGo stand by their principles, they use the story as a vehicle to attack them and the fundraisers, using the CEP’s claims to support the story, which is exactly that they have done in this case.
Note the biased language used in describing GiveSendGo to the reader:
GiveSendGo is a Christian crowdfunding website, which has previously been used to host fundraisers against vaccine mandates and for people involved with the January 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
It found popularity during the pandemic, as a platform that would “not take one side or another politically”.
“Attack on the capital”, “against vaccine mandates”, the placing of “not take one side or another politically” in scare quotes. Bear in mind too that the average ABC reader leans left and is anti-Trump, pro-vaccine mandate, and pro-cancel culture.
The reporter goes on to add a “debunking” paragraph showing that the CEP has profiled left-wing groups once in the past, but does not mention that those groups do not get a dedicated topic page on the CEP website, unlike far-right extremist groups.
Nor did the reporter add balance to the story by reporting on the Australian Christian Lobby’s criticisms of the inquiry, and she does not appear to have approached Mr Sewell for comment.
Curious also that she refers to Mr Sewell as “New Zealand-born” in the story, when the ABC never highlights the country of birth of non-White subjects unless absolutely necessary. In this article, for example, they call an Indian a “Tasmanian cricketer” and never mention his nationality.
Key quote: “In response to the CEP’s submission, GiveSendGo co-founder Jacob Wells told the ABC he did not believe the project was apolitical.”
Subtext: “GiveSendGo supports evil racists, they should be shut down”
