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posted by martyb on Thursday August 16 2018, @01:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the railing-against-racists dept.

The state of Victoria, Australia has banned broadcasting of Sky News from the underground loop stations in Melbourne's train network.

The ban comes after Sky (owned by Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp) broadcast an interview with far-right activist Blair Cottrell. Cottrell, the leader of the United Patriots Front, has convictions for arson, burglary and racial vilification, has advocated violence against women and has called for portraits of Adolf Hitler to be hung in school classrooms.

Victoria's transport minister, Jacinta Allen, has defended the decision against claims of censorship, stating that "Hatred and racism have no place on our screens or in our community." ... "If people want to watch Sky News in their own homes, they can do that to their heart's content," she said. "Any material that uses our public transport assets to promote itself needs to be appropriate."


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Thursday August 16 2018, @03:32PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday August 16 2018, @03:32PM (#722247) Journal

    what made this interview controversial is that the interviewer didn't challenge him at all. He just called Cottrell "mate" and had a nice chat for ten minutes while Cottrell spewed his nastiness with no pushback.

    Very FoxNews like. Thanks for clarifying that.

    It would be a good point here if this guy (Cottrell) had expressed anything particularly new in this interview that he hasn't said many times before.

    He apparently did NOT. His rhetoric here was the standard crap he spews all the time and has in multiple prior interviews that are widely available.

    That can actually reinforce my point. Sometimes being able to cite multiple instances is useful. For example, some people criticize Comcast for its customer service. But I might counter by pointing out that Comcast has award winning [billfixers.com] customer service [pcmag.com] winning [cnet.com] numerous [consumerist.com] awards [theverge.com].

    Just to realize who we're dealing with here

    You make that very clear. I agree there is a point where there is more than enough media attention.

    I think this was one of Trump's tactics, whether intentional or not. For more than a year leading up to the 2016 election, Trump was headline news every day because he somehow managed to say things more outrageous than the previous day. As we should know by now, there is no bottom. People who support him, like Cottrell, will continue to support him. Especially if led there by inches instead of miles. The vast majority might not want Nazi pictures in classrooms, but they are willing to go there little by little, bit by bit, without even realizing it.

    So yeah, there is a point where enough media and linkable sources are enough.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
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