spin of the week
It’s pretty clear that The Australian has abandoned all pretence of objectivity or neutrality in its news reporting. This headline speaks for itself, really – but the opening of the “story” is just as good:
ACTU president Sharan Burrow has used her influence to blacken Australia’s name…
I had the same reaction when I saw that opening line. And it was on the front page! A tad ridiculous. Clearly they don’t care about being taken seriously as a news source.
i love this:
‘But he argues that Australia has been singled out for special attention in an election year above obvious offenders, with Ms Burrow “hijacking” the ILO forum in an attempt to embarrass the Coalition.’
you know, because clearly that sort of ‘embarrassment’ would be entirely unjustified….
Not to mention that, buried deep in the story (where the average reader might not get to), it points out that:
1) the US and the UK are also on the list
2) Burrow had nothing to do with getting Columbia off the list. It was vetoed by employers somehow.
This implication that Burrow took Columbia off to put Australia on is the most cynical part IMO. Perhaps she killed the unionists in Columbia herself?
Wow, that is really stunning information amongst all the nonsense in the newspapers. Today’s Oz is filled with outraged letters decrying the evil unions for their influence over the country and predicting doom if Labor wins power.