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The former PM blasts what he describes as “scare-tainment”.

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has accused Sky News of “terrifying” people about the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

He told the ABC’s Radio National program that Sky News was creating “anxiety” in the community by constantly talking about what might happen if the Voice was enshrined in the constitution.

Hang on a second. Does Turnbull mean talk of the Voice being used to “punish politicians” and “abolish colonialist institutions”?

That would indeed make people anxious.

Or does Turnbull mean talk of the Voice being used as “a black political force” with the goal of getting white Australia to “pay the rent, pay reparations and compensation”?

Talk like that would obviously terrify Australians.

But wait… that’s not Sky News terrifying the population. Those are the words of the Prime Minister’s own Referendum Working Group member Thomas Mayo!

Truly Frightening

If Sky News has terrified Australians by repeating what Mayo and other Indigenous activists have said about their intentions with the Voice, then I suppose Turnbull is right!

Sky News is guilty of repeating what Yes Campaigners have said, but would prefer to keep quiet.

Turnbull — who is desperate for the referendum to succeed — wants to shut down Sky News because he doesn’t like open debate.

He warned ABC radio listeners that Sky’s new channel devoted to covering the Voice referendum would be a terrible thing.

Interviewer: “Have you watched Sky News’ 24/7 Voice Channel yet?”

Tunbull: “Well it hasn’t really started yet. It’s just getting underway.”

So Malcolm’s not actually seen Sky News’ Voice channel, but he just knows it’s going to be bad.

How does he know?

Well because… US insurrection!!

“This is a global media company whose business model is to promote division and hatred,” he said. “That’s what it’s done so shamefully in the United States. They created the environment that enabled the January 6 attack on the US capital to occur.”

If Sky News is permitted to broadcast opinions about our national referendum, we’ll soon have men dressed in horned fur hats and covered in face paint, strolling through Federal Parliament taking selfies!

“You look at their platform in Australia,” Turnbull said. “It is all about riling people up. We know from what Sky’s been running on their existing channel that they’re promoting lies and creating anxiety and frankly terrifying people.”

Evidently, Malcom doesn’t watch Sky’s “existing channel” either. If he did, he would know that Sky has, and continues to give, plenty of airtime to ‘Yes’ campaigners.

Prominent Sky News host Chris Kenny, whose program airs nightly in prime time, is a member of the government’s Indigenous Voice Senior Advisory Group!

But Malcolm was too busy riling people, trying to terrify ABC listeners about the existential threat that is Sky News.

“It’s just one scare after another. But you see, that’s their business model!”

It seems to me like the only person trying to scare everyone is Malcolm Turnbull.

We can’t let people watch Sky, or they will be waging an insurrection! Turnbull doesn’t think much of Sky or the millions of Australians who watch it on TV and online.

Whose Bias?

If only Sky News was a little more like, well, like the ABC!

“What you try to do on the ABC is present both sides of the argument; give everyone a fair go so people listen to Radio National Breakfast and come away saying i’m well informed.”

Should we look away while Malcolm and the national broadcaster get a room?

Is this the ABC that accused a town hall meeting of 3000 Alice Springs residents of being full of white supremacists?

Is this the ABC that recently had to schedule impartiality training for its journalists?

Is this the ABC that upset thousands of Australians by using the King’s Coronation to bash the monarchy as racist colonisers?

Is this the ABC that typically invites one token conservative to join a panel of progressive lefties on Q&A so that they can be berated before a live studio audience of progressive lefties?

Malcolm loves the ABC because he loves progressive politics. He hates Sky for the same reason that he hates the Liberal Party… it’s typically conservative.

“Sky’s model is very different (from the ABC),” he said “It’s goal is to rile people up. That’s why I call it anger-tainment.”

Malcolm certainly seems riled up. Perhaps he has been watching Sky.

Adverse Effects

Turnbull went on to worry that Sky’s coverage of the referendum would:

“ … run the risk of their being a lot of collateral damage in this country to Indigenous people, to the path to reconciliation way beyond whether the referendum gets the required majority or not.”

Perhaps he should ask Indigenous man and former Labor President Warren Mundine about “collateral damage”.

Mundine, who heads up the ‘No’ campaign and is a regular Sky News commentator, has said he twice thought about ending his life because of the racist vitriol he has received from the ‘Yes’ campaign.

Perhaps Turnbull should ask Indigenous Senator Jacinta Price, a regular on Sky News, if she thinks the path to reconciliation is being imperilled by Sky, or if it is being imperilled by the referendum itself.

And then Malcolm came to his big finale:

“This mob have been the single most influential deniers of the reality of global warming in the English speaking world,” he said. “This is media — or so called — that operates as propaganda. We’ve seen the division and the hatred that they have generated there (in the US). We are concerned that they will endeavour to do the same in Australia.”

Climate change deniers?

I’m not the one who owns a harbourfront mansion while warning about rising sea levels, Malcolm!

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Originally published at The James Macpherson Report.

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Photo: Wikimedia Commons