Fierravanti-Wells says SBS mouthpiece for terrorism
Tuesday October 31st 2006, 8:23 pm

From The Aus:

We don’t peddle porn, says SBS

By Samantha Maiden

October 31, 2006 01:00am
The Australian

image: University of Wollongong
NSW Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells

SBS, the multicultural broadcaster, was accused yesterday of going soft on terrorism and peddling pornography.

NSW Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells lashed SBS officials, also accusing the broadcaster of “siding with” Australian terror suspect David Hicks.

[…]

However, SBS managing director Shaun Brown rejected her claims. “I don’t accept your assertion that it’s porn,” he said. “We do not broadcast porn.”

SBS telecasts a range of programs with strong sexual content including Stripperella, an animated series whose main character, voiced by Pamela Anderson, is a stripper named Erotica Jones.

Senator Fierravanti-Wells also raised concerns about the broadcaster’s coverage of terrorism, saying it had an “equivocal attitude to terrorism”.

She said a radio broadcast in which Hezbollah was referred to as a “so-called terrorist organisation” was unacceptable.

“Given what we know and given what we’ve heard for years and years and years, how can SBS still refer to Hezbollah as a so-called terrorist organisation?” she asked.

“It really is typical of the sort of stuff you are promulgating. The basic assertion that I am making is SBS is siding with Mr Hicks.”

She also raised concerns about SBS staff fundraising for the Greens and working for al-Jazeera, which she said had been described as the “mouthpiece for the Muslim brotherhood”.

The standard of justice in the free world is swift and transparent arraignment and trial. David Hicks has been held without charge or trial by the US government for 5 years. This is why Hicks is newsworthy. A news editor need not have an axe to grind with the US or Australian gov’ts to justifiably report on the unjust nature of his detention.

Remember, Hicks hasn’t been so much as accused of anything. For balance, should he be named up as a terrorist? This is how John Howard and Philip Ruddock want David Hicks described in the press. Mamdouh Habib was routinely referred to by the Howard government and subsequently by News Ltd as a ‘terrorist.’ Habib is presently engaged in a defamation lawsuit against News Ltd for that reason.

Similarly, I have no idea why a responsible broadcaster like the ABC persisted in calling Jack Thomas ‘Jihad Jack,’ the moniker bestowed upon him by the Australian commercial press (which may have had some gov’t help with that nickname) and also used overseas. Apparently ‘Jack Thomas’ wasn’t foreign or ‘Muslim’ enough to alarm the population.

The ABC and everyone else stopped using the term as soon as Thomas was exonerated. Thomas, through having his convictions quashed on appeal, was technically never convicted- so you can’t call him a ‘terrorist,’ but for months, he was ‘Jihad Jack’ in most Australian media… with the exception of SBS, unless they were referring to other news stories about him. The problem is that you can’t ‘put the genie back in the bottle.’ Responsible news ops simply don’t make sensationalist leaps that will come back to bite them.

People who haven’t been charged with a crime should not be identified by any news op as anything at all, unless by employment description or residential location.

An unbiased description of David Hicks is ‘taken prisoner by the US military in 2001 and held for 5 years without charge or trial in the US military’s Gitmo base.’ There’s not much more for a newsie to say, else than to explore the reasons why Hicks is still in US custody, inclusive of the ‘military commissions’ which were found to be unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court.

That’s also how SBS reports on Hicks.

Where’s the bias?

The new ‘balance‘ apparently means ‘tipping the way of the party in power or we cut your funding.’

…roll on the 2007 polls.

-weez


9 Comments so far
Leave a comment

Connie’s an absolute looney! Not to mention quite paranoid too.
If you get a chance, be sure to read the Hansard, she’s also good for a laugh too 😉

Comment by Rooster 10.31.06 @ 8:51 pm

Thanks for the Hansard link, Rooster. F-W is indeed off the rails. How do ppl like this get elected in Australia? If F-W got what she wanted, ABC & SBS would look a lot more like Fox “News.”

Comment by weez 11.01.06 @ 6:04 am

IKhwanweb is the Muslim Brotherhood’s only official English web site. The Main office is located in London, although Ikhwanweb has correspondents in most countries. Our staff is exclusively made of volunteers and stretched over the five continents.

The Muslim Brotherhood opinions and views can be found under the sections of MB statements and MB opinions, in addition to the Editorial Message.

Items posted under “other views” are usually different from these of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Ikhwanweb does not censor any articles or comments but has the right only to remove any inappropriate words that defy public taste

Ikhwanweb is not a news website, although we report news that matter to the Muslim Brotherhood’s cause. Our main misson is to present the Muslim Brotherhood vision right from the source and rebut misonceptions about the movement in western societies. We value debate on the issues and we welcome constructive criticism.

Comment by Fared Mohammed 11.01.06 @ 10:16 pm

Fared, thanks for stopping by.

The point of my post wasn’t really about the Muslim Brotherhood, rather more about one rogue Australian senator who has accused SBS, the Australian multicultural broadcasting service, of inherent bias toward Muslim issues at the expense of non-Muslim Australians.

In fact, if SBS didn’t cover Muslim issues in Australia, no one would. What Senator F-W wants is all negative coverage of Muslims. If the bias isn’t tilting toward her political party, she reckons it’s tilting against them.

If you want to educate someone, Sen F-W would be a good person to start with. It’s not like racists like her and her ‘Liberal’ party will actually listen, but it would give her some clue that she’s not preaching entirely to the converted.

Comment by weez 11.02.06 @ 8:59 am

Yep I think the big indicator about W-F is her own bias, Al Jazeera is ok for Condy to appear on, but it isn’t anywhere good enough for neo-Connie.
It would be nice if pollies actually had to have some type of education before taking on a portfolio – clearly ignorance and bias such as WF’s can only come from a lack of knowledge.
Nobody respects her, her own peers think she’s a joke, she won’t last long.

Comment by ab 11.07.06 @ 1:27 am

‘neo-connie.’

Heh. Nice one.

Comment by mikey 11.08.06 @ 11:47 am

“Nobody respects her, her own peers think she’s a joke, she won’t last long.”
Any information you can point us to to illustrate that point? I can’t stand that woman, and details about her peers thinking the same would make great reading.

Comment by Ross 11.09.06 @ 1:11 pm

Having worked with people in SBS, I can say that the people there work in a real multicultural environment. You have people from so many countries from the tape library to the newsroom. They have to deal with foreign issues and foreign news. That responsibility in reporting is great and I think they do a great job on reporting the issue, not an agenda. Human Rights Watch classifies Hezbollah as: “Hezbollah is an organized political Islamist group based in Lebanon”. I don’t agree with indescriminant firing of rockets at civilians, but I wanted to point out that America’s classification of hezbolla is not the view of neutral international bodies. I think it takes balls to report against the politicised view that was implanted into the media. Instead of scolding SBS, they should be praised. Its not the job of the media to toe the party line.

Senator Fierravanti-Wells is doing the same trick Howard does with the ABC. Charging them with being partisan in their reporting when the issue clashes with the Liberal’s political views.

Comment by Strike 11.10.06 @ 8:58 am

Yes, SBS is truly mulitcultural, by treating Australians of Indian or Hindu origin with utter disrespect, introduce the Kumb Festival of the Hindus in a distasteful manner.

SBS folks — go try doing this with religions that are intolerant and see what you get. Dont worry — You can make fun of Hindus to your hearts content.

Comment by Srinivas 01.28.07 @ 8:34 pm



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