Do some research before you howl

Do some research before you howl

News Ltd’s resident banshees Angela Shanahan and Miranda Devine had a whack at the LGBTI community last week about Toowoomba GP David van Gend being reported to the Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland over an article in the Courier-Mail in June, in columns so similar they could have copied from each other in class.

Both held up van Gend as a martyr whose inoffensive views on the definition of marriage had seen him dragged before a star chamber by the rainbow mafia.

Neither Shanahan or Devine thought it worth mentioning that van Gend wrote the article as a spokesman for the Family Council of Queensland, an umbrella group for organisations including Family Voice Australia — formerly led by the Reverend Fred Nile.

Neither did they mention that van Gend claimed that homosexuality was a “potentially treatable psychological condition”, and that same-sex couples having children would amount to “a new Stolen Generation”.

Devine needed more martyrs so she bundled in Bill Muehlenberg and Australian Christian Lobby chief Jim Wallace for good measure.

Wallace, who turned to Twitter to attack the Australian Muslim community and same-sex marriage on Anzac Day this year, was caught out by this paper in 2009 claiming that pedophiles were mostly gay — while Muehlenberg is a man literally obsessed with homosexuality.

This year he has published a screed attacking the gay community at least once a week.

In a June article headed ‘Targeting and Recruiting Children’, Muehlenberg wrote, “Homosexuals cannot reproduce, so the only way they can continue is by recruitment. And there has been a sad history of older homosexuals recruiting younger people into their orbit”.

The tolerance of the anti-gay camp was shown in spades in the comments on Devine’s blog on The Daily Telegraph website.

“Thanks Miranda – it’s about time that someone said what a lot of us think but [are] unable to say because of the ridiculous laws governing anti-discrimination and those prisseys [sic] running this act,” wrote Beastmastaer of Sydney.

“If I call them faggots or dykes, there is every liklihood [sic] that I will have the A-D hit squad after me.”

“If the poofters win and marriage becomes just another word for sexual relationship, I will divorce my wife and create a new word for our relationship,” wrote BGCOOMA of Cooma.

“How about rights for threesomes, hetrosexuals [sic] and guys that want to marry their dog and cat for a bit of beastiality [sic],” wrote Gay Abandon of Brisbane.

It is a sad indictment of the culture at News Ltd that comments containing those slurs would be published by a daily newspaper in 2011.

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9 responses to “Do some research before you howl”

  1. Well said !!

    “It is a sad indictment of the culture at News Ltd that comments containing those slurs would be published by a daily newspaper in 2011”

    EXACTLY ! Could not agree more !

  2. Wayneo- When slavery was abolished in the U.S., many did not want freedom & wanted to remain slaves, they could not imagine or see themselves as having equality & freedom.
    Marriage equality will grant us the freedom to choose if we want to get married in a government registry office like any other tax payer. Some will, some won’t, but we will have full freedom of equality with all our life-path options wide open. Not only that, but country after country are now granting full equal civil marriage (and others who tried the failed aparteid civil union experiement are now dismantling that & granting full equal rights in civil marriage too). It’s not something we have to imagine anymore- we can now see marriage equality in action all over the world, except in the vice grip of Gillard/Abbott that Australia is under at the moment. We need more Greens votes to explode their closed “homophobia pact” wide open.

  3. Facts do not come into propaganda. Shanahan and Devine have written in formula consistent with a particular type of propaganda. It is aimed at stimulating emotional, attitudinal and behavioral cues in efforts to persuade. The ‘sponsor’ of such pieces may considered the ACL., or in this case Van Geld and affiliates. Shanahan and Devine probably euligise Goebbels nightly when genuflecting before retiring to bed.

    The Herald Sun has a long history of utilising propaganda, as indeed Murdoch tabloids globally.

    There is a prominent move by News Corp. shareholders to exorcise the Murdoch family from News Corp.; Rupert as CEO., and family members on the Board. In the US. legal action is being taken concerning the artificial inflation in circulation of the ‘Wall Street Journal’; News Corp misinforming shareholders of the true worth of the publication. In Europe shareholders are aghast at the phone hacking debacle.

    Rupert must be a nervous man, especially in light of his second choice of heir, James potentially doing time. A sad state of affairs for an 85yo.

    There is a dichotomy with Rupert; with his entertainment wing positive Gay characters are not uncommon, however there is also Fox News.

    I ponder where Shanahan and Devine might hide with the evaporation of the Murdoch name from News Corp. should there be a push from the new overlords for journalists to actually engage in journalism. Only then might they have an inkling of what it is actually like.

  4. I kinda agree with some of the coments.. Marriage is not a gay thing. It’s a heterosexual thing and because we have different relations doesn’t mean that they have to be secondary. It seems that all we are trying todo is our very best to look and sound like our hetro counter parts… That’s not something I want….

  5. Unbelievable they talk about being in fear of anti-discrimination well we people of Tue gay community fear for our lives from violence to public persecution and unequal right to be free citizens of this country it saddeneds me to think that there are still people who have so much hate for a group of people this how it starts then we end up with camps and forced brain washing

  6. sometimes the comments that get published on here are offensive too… but its called ‘freedom of speech’ and ‘open debate’

    i just find it amazing that these hill-billy bigoted redneck banjo playing inbreeders can actually read and write!

  7. Great article.

    It is my view that the more they speak out and show their true colours, the faster we will be equal.

    Any normal person who see how disgusting these comments are and it reinforces to me why we need to continue to fight for equality.

    Go Gay marriage!
    x

  8. The Fairfax newspaper the Bordermail recently ran the headline “Gays bad for children” and “Homosexuality- a life of sex and drugs”.

    So gay hate is not exclusive to the Paper Knight Rupert Murdoch, and at least he does try and make up for it with Modern Family.

    We need laws that make hate speeches a criminal offence.