Just when you thought the Indonesian crisis couldn't get much worse for Tony Abbott and the Liberals, their chief pollster and strategist has let rip with a racist tweet. Matthew N. Donovan reports.

AUSTRALIA'S self proclaimed "most successful" Liberal pollster and strategist Mark Textor has taken to Twitter with a racist slur seemingly directed at Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natagelawa.

The tweet reads:

@markatextor: "Apology from Australia demanded by a bloke who looks like a 1970's Philipino (sic) porn star and has ethics to match. #Fairfax demands appeasement."

..........

He seems insensed that the ABC and The Guardian Australia are "left wing". Seemingly upset they haven't been absorbed by News Corp Australia? I mean Rupert Murdoch only has 70% of the media singing from his song sheet at present.

News Corp Australia is not so much a news service as a tool with which the American citizen Murdoch wields his influence. There is no clearer example of this than The Australian.

Every single person I know who has worked with Murdoch assures me my assessment of him is true. But will you get this from the likes of Mr Textor? Nope.

The last 3 years led to some of the most vitriolic news coverage we have ever seen. Not a peep from Tories. Not a whimper.

In fact, I vaguely recall the News Corp Australia press going appoplectic when media reforms to hold them to account were floated. I'm sure Mark and fellow Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) lovers were among them.

All of a sudden freedom of the press is a travesty?

Tony Abbott has clearly bungled this Indonesian situation. Australians are embarrassed. It is a tough issue but his diplomatic abilities are as horrific as expected. He has no tact and no ability to show genuine contrition, understanding or remorse.

His efforts to appear as such are painfully forced and makes Indonesia, as it makes me feel, like they are being lectured by the "adults".

The Indonesian Government has withstood Abbott's shameless "grandstanding" for years as he sought to draw them into his political quest for power. I think they have been more than patient with him.

http://www.independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/mark-textors-racist-twitter-rant,5914

The entire Liberal (CONservative) Party is full of thugs, ruled by thugs with thuggish policies... No grace, no redeeming features, especially if they are not tax deductible... And these morons get elected on the sole premise that being a negative thug is being positive...

Tony Abbott is a thug...

You know Tony Typhoon is on the ropes when the merde-och stable-nags are in unison trying to convince their gullible readers that Labor is still sinking... So they plaster heaps of crap on a hapless Nathan Rees to tell us that this is Labor at work... Sleaze is the headlines but really the sleaziest of them all is Andrew Bold who attacks the ABC with virulence for having the gall to exit and that "our ABC is crushing free enterprise".... Go away Andrew, you're a disgrace, even to your employer Mr Murdoch who sucks the teats off of the ABC by publishing the ABC books... I know there is not much money in books these days... But as the ABC salaries have been published by your indecent paper, why don't you tell us how much your earn. Some people have suggested you suck about 500K for doing an execrable job at the merde-och press and possibly another 200K for doing an execrable job on Channel Ten...

And the usual crappologists, like Devine and the others are pushing the barrow... They are worried that Tony Typhoon will have to go to a double dissolution to get his "repeal of the carbon tax" through and they know it won't be easy to make the public swallow Tony a second time... So they shove shit as much as possible on Labor for no good reason. They even blame Labor for Tony's predicament and they blame Labor for Tony mucking everything since he touched the levers...

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australias-reputation-in-indonesia-hits-new-low-20131123-2y2k2.html

Meanwhile the chief-rabid shockjocker of the merde-och press, Andrew Bolt, is blaming Labor for trying to sink Tony's fantastic "boat policy" which now seems to involve not tow back to Indonesia because whatever, but to tow back the boats in a roundabout way to Xmas Island without telling anyone about it...

Yep that's the headline:

No-no... Bolt does not look investigative in the picture... He looks somewhat deeply vicious and sarcastic... Beware, Bolty, the wind might change and that silly look could stay on your face, for the rest of your life — would have said my mother...

But dear Andrew, Labor has nothing to do with sinking Abbott's boat policy... Abbott himself has been drilling big holes in the bilges... He built a policy out of straw... His sails got blown away by the intelligence services and the "shipping news" information blackout is breached by the Indonesian media that is far freer than the media in Australia — because the media in this country follows Uncle Rupe's dictum (I was going to say rectum, but that would have been impolite)...

SPIES, SLEAZE AND SALARIES. WHAT DOES THE PUBLIC HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW?

Stories about spying, ABC salaries and a politicians private life have left people asking where to draw the line between what is private and what is in the public interest.

Juanita Phillips: It’s been revealed that Australian spying in Indonesia went all the way to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The ABC and The Guardian Australia have obtained top secret documents showing spies monitored the President’s mobile phone as well as phones belonging to his wife and senior ministers. 

— ABC News, 18th November, 2013

Hello I’m Paul Barry. Welcome to Media Watch. And what a tumultuous week it’s been.

The revelation that Australia spied on Indonesia’s President and his wife in 2009 has not only set off a huge row with our next-door neighbours.

It has also provoked a storm of outrage from conservative commentators, with attacks like this , from News Corp Australia’s indefatigable Andrew Bolt.


WHAT self-serving, malevolent shysters - deliberately damaging Australia and blaming Tony Abbott for it. Who are these hypocrites who betray Australia, peddle a traitor’s leaks and demand we surrender to Indonesia, just to destroy a Prime Minister they hate? Let’s start with the clowns. 

— Herald Sun, 21st November, 2013

The chief clown Andrew Bolt had in mind was the ABC’s managing director, Mark Scott.

But the traitor word has also been getting a workout with a number of the ABC’s critics. 

So what exactly did this treason involve? 

In case you missed it, here’s part of last Monday’s ABC News report. 


Michael Brissenden: The surveillance targets also included senior figures in his inner circle and even the President’s wife Ani Yudhoyono. On the list of targets is the vice president, the former vice president, foreign affairs spokesman, security minister and information minister ...

Michael Brissenden: This page shows how the Defence Signals Directorate monitored the call activity on President Yudhoyono’s Nokia handset in August 2009. CDR is Call Data Record. CDR can monitor who’s called and who is calling but not necessarily what was said. But this page shows that on at least one occasion Australian intelligence did attempt to listen in to a conversation. 

— ABC News, 18th November, 2013

Those slides were part of powerpoint presentation ... leaked to The Guardian by American whistleblower, Edward Snowden.

He’s the man who set off a big fight between the US and Germany last month by revealing that America had spied on Chancellor Angela Merkel. 

So, knowing how much damage the indonesian revelations could cause, should the ABC and The Guardian Australia have kept them quiet? 

Alan Sunderland, head of policy at ABC News, says no .


“The ABC believes it is clearly a matter of significant public interest for there to be appropriate disclosure and discussion about the nature and extent of intelligence activities ...”

“The ABC believes it is not in the public interest to suppress or ignore important and difficult issues on the grounds that they may have repercussions ...”

— Crikey, 19th November, 2013

Read Alan Sunderland’s response to Media Watch’s questions 

Mark Scott also defended the story in parliament last week telling senators the public has a right to know what our spies are up to and perhaps how badly their secrets are kept. 

And Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief of The Guardian Australia, echoed that in a statement to Media Watch . 


In Australia, there is ... a clear public interest for there to be a debate about the kinds of intelligence activities that take place, or have taken place, in the name of the Australian people. A meaningful debate is impossible without reliable information and, if you believe in the importance of a free press, a responsible news organisation has a duty to inform that debate, even if that means raising difficult and uncomfortable questions.

— Katharine Viner, Editor-in-chief, The Guardian Australia, 22nd November, 2013

But Conservative commentators have attacked the story en masse. 

Andrew Bolt, Alan Jones, Chris Kenny, Miranda Devine, Rita Panahi and David Flint have all weighed in with vehement criticism of the ABC and The Guardian Australia, with Bolt as so often leading the charge. 


Andrew Bolt: Now they would have known, they must have known, in fact I think they’re revelling in it, that this would damage our relationship with Indonesia.

— 2GB, Nights with Steve Price, 18th November, 2013

But the strange thing about Bolt’s attack was that he actually agreed it was news, a scoop in fact. And he said… 


Andrew Bolt: I tend to agree with you, you were quite strong on this. You couldn’t criticise The Guardian Australia and the ABC for reporting it ... 

— 2GB, Nights with Steve Price, 19th November, 2013

So if it was right to publish, why on earth was Bolt so angry? Apart from the fact that it seems to be his default position. 

Bolt’s barrage was based on a belief that the whole thing is a plot to sink Tony Abbott and scupper his policy on asylum seekers. 

And the Tele’s Miranda Devine clearly agreed . 


This is the end game for the bleeding heart Left and its media enablers: to prevent the Abbott government from fulfilling its election promise to “stop the boats”.

— Daily Telegraph, 20th November, 2013

Paul Sheehan in the Fairfax press also added his voice , saying the spy story was aimed at Abbott and his policy of stopping the boats, and claiming it had been held back to ensure maximum damage. 


ABC and Scott get what they asked for: humiliation for all

The Guardian had possession of the security leak for months. Nothing happened while Labor was in power.

— 2GB, The Sydney Morning Herald, 21st November, 2013

The Guardian Australia says this is absolutely not true. 

Although Edward Snowden did leak his documents months ago there are mountains of them and it’s taking time to work through the pile. 

As editor Katharine Viner tweeted last week to Miranda Devine when she levelled this same charge: 


@mirandadevine We got the material in the last few days. US team v carefully going through thousands of Snowden documents, v lengthy process

— Twitter, 19th November, 2013

Viner followed up with a statement to Media Watch which affirmed


The story only emerged the week before we published, and as such is in no way politically motivated.

— Katharine Viner, Editor-in-chief, The Guardian Australia, 22nd November, 2013

Now what strikes me as extraordinary about this allegation—that the ABC and Guardian would sit on a story for five months to embarrass Tony Abbott—is anyone could seriously believe it. 

And writing in the Age, my predecessor Jonathan Holmes, was almost as shocked 


... to anyone who has worked in a serious news organisation, no matter what their political stripe, the scenario is utterly ludicrous.

— The Age, 23rd November, 2013

What’s also amazing is that the conservative commentariat has managed to turn this spying story into an attack on Tony Abbott.

Do they also believe the Guardian UK is trying to bring down President Obama by reporting that the US eavesdropped on German chancellor Angela Merkel? 

It really does beggar belief. 

But clearly the culture wars are again in full swing. And the ABC is the prime target 


On air and off, the ABC spares no expense on its stars

— The Australian, 20th November, 2013


Nice money, if you can get it

— The Australian, 21st November, 2013


The ABC of inequity: salaries show some are more equal than others

— Daily Telegraph, 21st November, 2013

In between lulls in the spying scandal, and calling for the ABC to be stripped of its Asia Pacific satellite TV service, News Corp Australia’s papers have been agitating about ABC salaries, despite the fact that people in commercial radio and TV typically get paid far far more. 

And naturally Andrew Bolt has weighed in here too . 


Bloody Bloody ABC hypocrites

The ABC seriously thinks what it pays its stars is a bigger secret than what our spies do to protect Australians. 

— The Herald Sun Online, 20th November, 2013

Now I’m not sure how interested the public is in what we earn, but I certainly wouldn’t argue that taxpayers have NO right to know. 

Last week the Daily Telegraph asked me ‘in the spirit of openness’ to tell them what I earned and I said I’d be happy to do so, if Andrew Bolt revealed his salary too. 

Sadly, we’re still waiting for a response on that one. It seems he’s a lot less open than I am. 

But on consideration I’ve decided to go it alone. My salary is coming up on the screen. If you’re shocked just avert your eyes. 

Your turn next Mr Bolt. I bet yours is bigger than mine. 

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read more: http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3898709.htm