If this doesn’t finally get the Government to start defending itself, what will? The Government gives these far-left scum at the ABC free rein to say and do what they like with no consequences. Why don’t they finally, at long last, do something to make the collective at the ABC start to worry that maybe, just maybe, there might be something they might actually lose by behaving the way they do? Facebook you will stand up to but not an organisation that is your most bitter and resolute enemy, and one you fund to the tune of a billion a year.

This is from Bettina Arndt’s latest Newsletter [newsletter@bettinaarndt.com.au]. News Limited is a private sector media organisation so can bend and distort the news as they please. But the ABC is paid for by the Commonwealth down to the last paper clip. Until Andrew Bolt has a 7:00 pm weekly show on the ABC, nothing is going to change and they will keep belting you like the punch-drunk cowards you seem to be. This is what Bettina writes, among much else.

“What we have just witnessed this week in Canberra was … a shameful feeding frenzy by a partisan media determined to take out Attorney General Christian Porter and hence the Federal government….

“For years now, activists have been working hard to undermine the authority of our justice system by alleging rape victims don’t receive fair treatment, that rape is rarely reported, and wrongly asserting that convictions are rare in such cases….

“That’s been the overarching theme right from the start of this latest episode in the Year of the Rape Victim. The protagonists must have been disappointed at the short run of the Higgins affair which fizzled out remarkably quickly, despite the best efforts of feminist commentators to maintain the rage. So our ABC leapt into action leaking news of the upcoming 4 Corners Program based on comments from friends of a deceased alleged victim of a historical rape by a Cabinet Minister….

“No matter that the police then announced the case was closed since there was not enough admissible evidence. And that the alleged victim had withdrawn her initial complaint before she tragically suicided. And that her poor parents had not wanted her to proceed with the complaint, warning their daughter suffered mental illness and expressing concern she might have “confected or embellished” the allegations. And that her accusations against Porter emerged after recovered memory therapy, including hypnotic techniques subject to evidentiary restrictions in Australian courts because of their potential to affect memory.”

Are you that completely blind to what is going on? If you are not for yourselves, who are you for? They will take you down if you don’t start fighting back, and that is without any doubt whatsoever their aim in all they have been doing. If you are going to go down, this is the battlefield I want you fighting on, not some absolute concocted nonsense about what a cabinet minister was doing more than thirty years ago when he was seventeen.

Grew up with my back fence next to the Borden’s Dairy plant in Toronto. Funny Elsie the Cow should come to mind once again all these years later (“LC”, get it?). That the country, the media and our political leaders should be distracted to such an extent by any of this is a disgrace, but this is straight out of the playbook of the left. An absolutely empty issue of no serious consequence – what two staffers were up to in Linda Reynold’s office in 2019, or even more absurdly, what took place in 1988 when the Attorney-General was seventeen. But given foreign policy is beyond most people along with economic policy and the rest of the boring agendas brought before the Parliament, this is what has been brought before us day after day in one front page after another with the sole purpose of costing the Coalition electoral support. If there is a genuine political issue anywhere in any of this, I have still to find out what it is.

And while I agree with all of those who point out that this issue, and the way it has been handled in the media, does put rule of law at risk, I think the core issue is different. We are dealing with a typical effort by the left to hijack the debate into some cul-de-sac where they can show their supposed high moral standards without having to present a single element of a genuine policy agenda. They are against men raping women. Well, so is everyone. But somehow they can present themselves as on the side of the virtuous against the non-virtuous given how slanted to the left the media has now become.

Meanwhile in America, this is what happens: The Cuomo sexual harassment claims appear to follow a disturbing pattern. This, you may be sure, is not from The New York Times, Washington Post or any other American daily with a wide mainstream readership.

Bennett’s allegation of sexual harassment by Cuomo comes on the heels of that of another former staffer, Lindsey Boylan, who published an essay last Wednesday detailing her experiences of inappropriate sexual overtures by the governor, some of them assisted by his staff. Over her several years working as a special assistant to Cuomo, Boylan says she frequently received sexual comments and invitations from the governor.

He would go out of his way to touch her on her lower back and legs. He would comment on female staffers’ weight in front of Boylan and ridicule them about their sexual relationships – a pattern consistent with the comments described by Bennett. He once asked her to play strip poker on a government plane. He had his aides email her boss to ask if she was going to be present at certain events; once, a Cuomo staffer emailed her to tell her, at Cuomo’s request, that the governor thought she looked like a woman rumored to be Cuomo’s ex-girlfriend. “He said: look up Lisa Shields,” the Cuomo aide, Stephanie Benton, wrote to Boylan. “You could be sisters. Except you’re the better looking sister.” Here, too, the governor’s suggestion was not subtle.

This, on the other hand, is what you do get in The New York Times: Examining Tara Reade’s Sexual Assault Allegation Against Joe Biden. The opening para:

Ms. Reade, a former Senate aide, has accused Mr. Biden of assaulting her in 1993 and says she told others about it. A Biden spokeswoman said the allegation is false, and former Senate office staff members do not recall such an incident.

Whether I believe Ms Reade or not is hardly the issue here. The issue is that only those who are inclined to vote for conservative candidates actually care about such matters in deciding for whom to vote. Supporters of the left use such issues only as a means to alienate voters on the right from the people who will actually support a conservative agenda. Nothing Bill Clinton ever did in relation to “that woman” lost the Democrats a single vote among his constituency.

News media, and The Australian in particular, continue its war against the Government with this latest screed: Normal people would be insane to enter politics. This should be an absolutely 100% anti-Labor article but somehow is not. This is why it should be anti-Labor.

“The announcement by Nicolle Flint last Friday that she will depart federal parliament at the next election is not just an indictment of the foul culture that women face in politics. Her decision is a reminder that politics is no longer a sane career choice for many clever, normal people.

“That reality is not just a problem for political parties; it points to a deeper predicament that threatens the good governance of this country.

“Consider what 42-year-old Flint faced.”

And what did she face?

“Vicious intimidation from haters within left-wing groups such as GetUp and Extinction Rebellion.”

But that’s not quite how it’s put. This is how it’s put.

“Consider what 42-year-old Flint faced. Not just vicious intimidation from haters within left-wing groups such as GetUp and Extinction Rebellion but outright hostility from moderates within her own party in South Australia.”

What the actual political issues were that led to these differences I have no idea. This is all of a piece with this, also from News Limited: Malcolm Turnbull calls for inquest into death of woman who alleged she was raped by a current federal minister.

And the sub-head: “Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has called for an inquest into the death of a woman who alleged she was raped by a current federal minister in 1988.”

I find all of this almost totally sinister, an obvious attempt to make voting for The Coalition toxic to women. Politics is a hard business for which there are no rules. That every party is filled with people who believe in Green New Deal idiocies and are terrified by the Chinese flu just makes it harder to find a coherent policy that satisfies everyone.

If Nicolle Flint really represents conservative views, why is she leaving Parliament? Surely it’s not just because a bunch of far-left wackos said mean things about her in public.

This post is really only about the nature of the Australian media at the moment and not really about the issues at hand. This is from The Age/SMH: Linda Reynolds doesn’t deserve criticism: her response to Higgins rape claim was textbook.

On the other hand, this is from The Australian today: PoliticsNow: ‘Really sleazy’ — fourth woman accuses staffer after Brittany Higgins’ rape allegations.

Which seems more even-handed and which seems intent on damaging the Coalition? My only other question is how do we know – in fact, how do they know – that each of these women is referring to the same bloke?