Vale the Press Council. Caves in to anonymous pressure campaign

The Australian Press Council has bowed to the Zionist lobby and abandoned its mission to defend free speech by denigrating cartoonist Cathy Wilcox. Michael West And Kim Wingerei.

Yesterday, the APC, a self-proclaimed defender of freedom of expression, decided to accept the complaint against it. SMH/Age cartoonist Cathy Wilcox’s depiction of how Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israel lobby pressured the Government to establish a Royal Commission into anti-Semitism.

The council found that the cartoon “encoded anti-Semitic tropes” and that “the publications failed to take reasonable steps to avoid causing serious offence, distress and prejudice”.

Once again, it is (mostly) unknown men behind the scenes who attack freedom of expression in the name of “social harmony” by sowing division and fueling community anger at the behest of a foreign nation in the midst of a genocidal war.

hung to dry

MWM He is aware that the Press Council receives a large number of anonymous complaints. Cathy Wilcox was never allowed to know the identities of her accusers and was not called upon to defend herself when she was accused of being an anti-Semite on social media.

Its publishers, who had already given in and apologized, were invited to comment. Left out to dry by his own management at Nine Entertainment, Wilcox was also subjected to a smear campaign from the Murdoch press throughout January.

In his apology, SMH “Independence should never be compromised,” he said, emphasizing how cartoonists’ work appears in opinion pages because that’s what cartooning is: the artist’s view, the first impression of major news events.”

But here we are: they have backed down and the APC has abandoned one of our most famous cartoonists in favor of a powerful, secretive lobby group that is attacking him with a mass grievance campaign. They bowed to a secret foreign lobby group advocating Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the very people Wilcox mocked in what should have been an award-winning cartoon.

Could the irony be any brighter?

The Murdoch media, whose cartoonists regularly skewer the underdogs – indigenous Australians, immigrants and powerful women like Grace Tame – is leading the charge to discredit a brave cartoonist loved by many.

While they targeted their hateful images at the powerless, Wilcox targeted the powerful.

‘Disturbing’ cartoon

Astroturf laid bare

What Wilcox’s cartoon did so cleverly was highlight how the sport of astroturf works. His was a classic political cartoon.

After the Bondi massacre in December, Netanyahu went so far as to blame our Prime Minister for the murders. In the cartoon, the astro was playing drums on the grass, with celebrities, athletes and politicians who support Israel shouting for the Royal Commission.

Below the field, Murdoch, Segal, Howard and others continue the charade.

At the time of writing, neither the APC nor MEAA independent members have commented on the decision. MEAA’s January article condemning the attacks has been removed from its website.

MWM APC chairperson Bronte sent several questions to Adams and the council asking for their stance on Israel lobby pressure and whether the APC had made any effort to address false narratives put forward by the Israel lobby in Australia that led to genocide (e.g. “40 babies beheaded”). We also asked what percentage of their funding comes from the Murdoch press.

We haven’t received a response yet.

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