ACMA, media watchdog, says lies by omission at the ABC are OK

This story of Beliaik’s is making waves, cross-posted already at Catallaxy. Through letters and FOI’s he shows that the ABC won’t publish expert stories that don’t fit their personal political beliefs (specifically on climate and corals), and that the main industry “watchdog” is such a puppet they don’t even mind.
 
In February Beliaik tipped off the ABC about breaking news that showed the Karl et al “pausebuster paper” was hyped, broke rules. A former NOAA scientist (Bates) was blowing the whistle on unapproved key datasets, which weren’t archived properly. He also talked about how the key software had conveniently disappeared when the one sole computer it was on, crashed.  Unlike other leading news services around the world, the ABC didn’t report this, even though they had pushed the Karl paper when it came out. Effectively, they hid the counter story from their audience.

When he complained to the ABC the first thing they mentioned was that the story wasn’t covered by other media in Australia. Now I thought the point of a $1b public broadcaster was to cover important things other media don’t, but the ABC (which is the only media outlet here with a dedicated science unit) won’t report on corruption in climate science. Quite probably, other media would have reported it if the ABC had led the way. Can we get that billion dollars back, thanks?

Tellingly, the geniuses at the ABC also effectively claimed that they knew more than Dr Bates and could dismiss his opinion.
Here iJohn Bates bio:

John Bates, Ph.D. in Meteorology, spent the last 14 years of his career at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (now NCEI) as a Principal Scientist, where he served as a Supervisory Meteorologist until 2012. He won the NOAA Administrator’s Award 2004 for “outstanding administration and leadership in developing a new division to meet the challenges to NOAA in the area of climate applications related to remotely sensed data”. He was awarded a U.S. Department of Commerce Gold Medal in 2014 for visionary work in the acquisition, production, and preservation of climate data records (CDRs).

So faced with an expert whistleblower the ABC found a couple of scientists who disagreed, and then admitted  that their job was to robotically repeat what government funded scientists say without question:

Overall, the ABC’s coverage reflects the weight of scientific opinion in this area, which favours the view that global warming is happening and that human activity contributes to this warming.  

So if the government employs 99% believers in a bizarre theory that we can control the weather and they produce meaningless, incompetent and repetitive papers, with code that “disappeared” you won’t hear about it from the ABC. Remind me what we pay them for?

Beliaik reported the ABC to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) whose core reason for existing, they say,  is ” Making media and communications work for all Australians”. 

You might think our publicly funded broadcaster might not be “working” for all Australians if it won’t publish stories telling views that fit with half the population, but you’d be wrong. According to Beliaik that “ACMA ruled that I can’t complain about something that didn’t happen.” Thus lies by omission, and selective, biased editing, is permitted by a network of government funded agencies. It starts with scientists being funded to find a crisis, who selectively don’t publish inconvenient papers. Then that bias is spread by a media outlet that won’t publish expert whistleblower complaints. Then that bias is protected by a media regulator that, by definition, will never rule against overt, unarguable bias by the public broadcaster.

I say whatever we pay ACMA, we want that back too.
– Jo

PS: ACMA Budget here, is that $108m, see p79?

Source: joannenova.com

Government removing documents; signed copy Oath of Office

The Australian Government is a dodgy corporation aggregate at the best of times.

The government quietly removed the link to the Bill of Rights from Western Australia's  State Law Publisher's website, which we put out into the public eye, a while ago.

We also took a snapshot of the Commonwealth of Australia, Governor-General's website in 2016, where it states that a signed copy of the  Oath of Office that Quentin Bryce took is available to the general population.

Upon clicking of that link, there is no such document to be found as seen in the following screen capture:

Just to make sure as of this posting, nearly 3 years later, there still is no live link to the document.

'Nothing to hide, Nothing to fear', right?

Please note that the Queen's Whitlam letters remain a secret, which in reality is a "national humiliation"

Scientology the billion dollar business abusing people, destroying families with full support of the US government?

Scams come in all shapes and sizes and in many different formats.

In the modern era, they can be from simple text messages purporting to be from a bank, pointing to a malicious website to businesses specifically designed to rob their 'customers' the likes of sophisticated ponzi schemes.

One of the greatest scams of the 20th Century was a business idea concocted by a Lafayette Ron Hubbard called Scientology, where the problem of its abused 'customers' is that it got full support of the United States government.

The tax dodging premise of the business called Scientology got its approval when the US government acknowledged it as a 'church' in October 1993.

Since Lafayette was a so called 'science fiction' writer, by the same token a group of like-minded people sympathetic to Gene Roddenberry should be able to call their business a church.

The literal meaning of the word church is that of a building used for public Christian worship, where the business called Scientology is promoting false advertising, as it calls itself a church or 'Church of Scientology' where there are no actual ties to Christianity.

As governments and war machines (an implication may be that the two mentioned entities are not the same) alike have known for millennia strength is in unity, where a healthy society has its roots in a strong healthy family unit.

Religions stemming from that cheeky fella called Abraham, together with other ancient beliefs from other cultures focus on a healthy family unit, whereas the business called Scientology does the exact opposite.

Mental, emotional, physical and financial abuse is common practice within Scientology, as reported by 'whistleblowers' Leah Remini and Mike Rinder, in their exposé Scientology and the aftermath, released in Nov 2016, aired on Australian television in Feb 2019.

The problem there for the victims within the business called Scientology, is that it's supported by the US government with little / not enough law suits or criminal charges brought forward, where in Australia, this kind of action would warrant something is called a royal commission.

What's worse is that the business called Scientology falsified official US military documents to further the false narrative of Lafayette's service, where the US government has not taken any action against this fraud, therefore indicating to its citizens that it supports this kind of behaviour.

So far; Scientology:1, Victims:0*

* - Maybe a few did get hush money.

On Her Majesty's Service: Police Courts and Tribunals, but not any more

Remember the good ol' days?

• When 'rascals and outlaws'* roamed this land, which incidentally they still do.

• When the colonists in power disregarded the rule of law, and the imperial government had to remind them by installing the Colonial Laws Validity Act in 1865.

• When the actions of those in authority were under Her/His Majesty.

Well not any more.

Do you receive letters from those in authority that they're acting under Her Majesty?

Of course not, why would you?

The corporation aggregate rules this land now.

So hand over ALL your cash to which ever ABN you're contracted to, because austerity is the name of the game now.

Please note that the above scan was watermarked, so that people like Jayden O'Connor under the banner of the GAP (Great Australian Party)  do not claim the work of others, as done with the research into the removal of the Bill of Rights from Western Australia's State Law Publisher, to be their own.

* China's reference to Australia.

Victorians disarmed again, this time after NZ shooting

To the world outside of the colony, it may seem that the people inhabiting Victoria Australia are a bunch of wild gun toting crazies itching for a shoot 'em up style of living.

After all weapons were taken from them, oops sorry, 'government buy back', after the mass shooting in Tasmania, i.e. Port Arthur in 1996.

Now after a mass shooting in New Zealand, there will be a gun ban in Victoria.

Victorians would be aware that a lot of criminals posses guns, as opposed to the 'good people', so this gun ban would be next to useless.

How did the gun buy back go after the Port Arthur tragedy?

How many criminals ACTUALLY handed in their guns?

You know the ones who had sawed off shotguns/rifles or serial number scrubbed handguns taking them to police to 'cash in' on the deal.

Professional driver, professional asshole

(A Star Track driver taking up two lanes when he should be using only one)

Some people who think they're a 'freeman on the land' may believe they have a right to be on the King's highways and byways, where that may have been true once upon a time (the 'travelling part, and not the 'freeman' BS, silly), but since the corporatisation of this country, people's so called rights have been taken away and transferred to privileges, benefits and services.

The governments of each state have been handing over driver licences to all sorts of garbage that realistically should not be on the road, with regards to their incapacity to comprehend the road rules and causing dis-ease among other travellers.

As usual the people in government don't give a stuff whether the person truly has the mental or physical capacity to be behind the wheel, where what counts is that the cash is handed over for the licence, taxes paid and lots and lots of fuel is used (high tax content) for the government to profit from.

On the back of a donkey one week, and behind the wheel in Australia the next.

For those of you who like stickers:

 

Australia: the surveillance state in action

Australia has been a 'surveillance state' for quite some time, where the general population is oblivious of this fact.

Nowadays people are enticed/conned into conducting their business via one of the most prolific data generation devices around, that being their mobile phone.

The physical medium of the myki card is an unnecessary expense to the corporations, where a much more logical and progressive way of monitoring people's movements is via their mobile phone, a device which they pay for themselves, sponsoring their own surveillance.


This data will also be available to others who gain access to your mobile phone, be it via apps or just 'plain vanilla' hacking.

As usual most people will embrace this new monitoring technology, also discounting any debate or concerns as 'conspiracy theories' no doubt labeling any opponents as nutters.

See article from 24 Mar 2019, by The Age publication of the headline:

Melbourne commuters able to use myki on their mobile phones from Thursday

Melbourne commuters will be able to use their Android smartphones to pay their public transport fares from Thursday.

But iPhone users will have to wait to join the digital transport revolution with the State Government unable, so far, to strike a deal with Apple.

Users of Google-powered Android phones will be able to buy tickets with their device from Thursday after paying with Google Pay with a minimum top-up of $10.

This will remove the need for carrying a physical myki card when catching a bus, tram or train in Melbourne or regional Victoria.

The move comes after a trial of 4000 users delivered an 80 per cent satisfaction rating on the system.

The new ticket option is available to most Android users, as long as their phone runs Android 5.0 or higher and has a built-in NFC wireless chip for contactless transactions.

This might seem like old news to Sydneysiders, who have had alternatives to using an Opal card since last year, but in some ways Melburnians are better off.

Sydney uses an “open loop” ticketing system, which means you can tap on with your contactless credit or debit card instead of an Opal card. This trick works not just with physical bank cards but also with any gadget which can mimic a contactless credit card, like a smartphone, watch or wristband.

Meanwhile, Melbourne uses a “closed loop” ticketing system which, until now, has limited public transport users to tapping on with a physical myki card.

As of Thursday, they’ll also be able to tap on with a smartphone, but only if their phone can mimic a myki card. The ability to mimic a credit card isn’t enough.


This might seem like splitting hairs, but it actually makes a big difference to how the two cities’ ticketing systems work.

The biggest practical difference is that, at least for now, iPhone owners can swipe their phone to board a train in Sydney but not Melbourne.

This is due to the difficulties in striking a deal with Apple to use the iPhone’s NFC wireless chip, something which Australia’s major banks can attest to.

Apple locks down the iPhone’s NFC chip so it can only be accessed by Apple’s own apps like Apple Pay.

This means any business which wants to offer contactless transactions on the iPhone needs to go through Apple, with the tech giant typically demanding a slice of the action.

If your bank supports Apple Pay, then you can use your iPhone as a credit card to get on a Sydney train today.

But to get on a Melbourne train your iPhone would need to mimic a myki card, which means Public Transport Victoria needs to strike a deal with Apple.

Almost half the Victorian population (45 per cent) uses iPhones, according to data from the International Data Corporation.

The Victorian Government has been in discussions with Apple since at least May last year but has so far apparently unable to strike a deal to bring the tech giant on board the new initiative.

In PTV’s defence, only a handful of public transport systems around the world are onboard with Apple so far. Only a few of these actually let you create the local equivalent of a closed loop myki card, while the others simply treat the iPhone as a credit card.

The government says it discussions with Apple are ongoing.