Porter drops defamation action against ABC

[bender]

Former Attorney General Christian Porter has dropped his defamation action against the ABC this afternoon.

[megan]

May 31, 2021 18:03:31 GMT 10 bender said:

Former Attorney General Christian Porter has dropped his defamation action against the ABC this afternoon.

The ABC must have had more evidence on him than he thought . 🤣🤣 The sooner this numbskull is voted out of Pearce the better .

[caskur]

He's a creep. Caught trying to cheat on his second wife. I hope she divorces him and takes the lot.

I'm mean aren't I?....lol

[megan]

May 31, 2021 18:44:39 GMT 10 caskur said:

He's a creep. Caught trying to cheat on his second wife. I hope she divorces him and takes the lot.

I'm mean aren't I?....lol

Nope , I’ve nursed his Dad , even he isn’t too fond of him 🤣

[ponto]

The court did not back his motion of having the ABC evidence blocked, he knew then he couldn't win his case and backed out.

[Gort]

An ABC spokesperson said the broadcaster stood by the importance of the article but would update it with an editor's note.

The editor's note states that the ABC did not intend to suggest Mr Porter had committed the alleged offence.

"However, both parties accept that some readers misinterpreted the article as an accusation of guilt against Mr Porter. That reading, which was not intended by the ABC, is regretted," the editor's note reads.

www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-31/abc-christian-porter-discontinue-defamation/100179392

[ponto]

And now we know why Porter potty drop his case...to protect his boss.

Does highlight ScoMo has a nutty Christian darkside.


ABC bosses block Four Corners episode linking PM to QAnon figure

Zoe Samios 2 hrs ago

|




ABC management has knocked back an upcoming Four Corners episode by prominent journalist Louise Milligan about the relationship between Prime Minister Scott Morrison and a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy theory, a decision that could be seen as an attempt to dampen tensions between the national broadcaster and the federal government.



Four Corners staff were expecting the episode to run this Monday following weeks of delays, but staff were informed on Thursday it would not go to air following a decision by managing director David Anderson. The decision comes just days after Industry Minister Christian Porter decided to drop defamation action against the ABC and Ms Milligan over the reporting of a historical rape allegation.





Multiple ABC sources told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age the episode was blocked after news director Gaven Morris "upwardly referred" it to Mr Anderson for final approval. The sources said the story was originally set to run in May and had been approved by the company's legal department and head of investigations, John Lyons. Questions about the episode were put to the Prime Minister's office earlier in the week.



The QAnon conspiracy theory centres on discredited claims about an international paedophile ring involving politicians and celebrities. The Guardian reported in 2019 that a family friend of the Prime Minister is a key follower of the movement. The Age and Herald has not seen any evidence of a relationship between Mr Morrison and a QAnon supporter and does not suggest that one exists.



An ABC spokesperson said the public broadcaster does not comment on upcoming Four Corners episodes.



"The ABC did not ‘pull' a story from broadcast. Any suggestion to the contrary is misleading and mischievous," the spokesperson said. "All ABC content is subject to the same rigorous editorial decision making processes before being published. The decision to publish is only made once all requirements, including editorial and legal requirements, have been met and it is appropriate to do so."



The episode could still air at some point in the future.



The ABC sources, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorised to comment publicly on the matter, said the decision was made days after Mr Morris received a call from the Prime Minister's office. The call was about a range of matters including Four Corners' episode about Mr Porter and the upcoming episode about Mr Morrison, the sources said. A spokesman for the Prime Minister declined to comment.



Another ABC source told the Herald and The Age that the Four Corners team had asked political editor Andrew Probyn to question the Prime Minister on their QAnon story at his press conference in Canberra on Thursday. When contacted, Mr Probyn declined to comment. At the press conference, Mr Probyn did not ask about Qanon, but instead about the Victorian lockdown.



ABC sources said there are growing tensions inside the organisation about Four Corners' activist approach on certain stories and reluctance to be subject to standard editorial direction.



Mr Anderson's decision has occurred during a tumultuous week for the ABC. Mr Porter dropped his defamation action against the ABC on Monday. But the settlement deal was followed by an exchange of barbs between the parties as they disputed the details. Mr Porter strenuously denies the allegations.



Mr Anderson, who is the "editor-in-chief" of the ABC, is expected to appear before a parliamentary committee next week to face questions about the settlement of the defamation case.



The case has sparked a fresh wave of ABC criticism from a range of Coalition figures, including former Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger who said the ABC's bias was out of control.



Board director Joseph Gersh said earlier today editorial decisions were made by the editor-in-chief, and editorial staff.



"The ABC has to be frank and fearless in what it does, in holding those in power to account and it has to do so consistently with its charter and editorial policies, and the board can't interfere," Mr Gersh said. "Would I prefer a world in which these allegations were never made? Yes. But that's not my choice. And nor is it my role as a board member to stop the ABC acting professionally in the pursuit of its obligations to the public."

[pim]

Now that’s interesting Ponto. Crikey’s been running with this story about Scotty from Marketing and the head honcho of the Australian chapter of QAnon since October 2019. I’ve done C&Ps of this story each time Crikey has published on it. Here’s the link:

newstalkback1.proboards.com/post/121879/quote/8157


A screenshot from a video that purports to show Tim Stewart, a promoter of the far right QAnon conspiracy, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison

[matte]

[Stellar]

Oh yes! Prue would get rid of all the cockroaches at the ABC. And not before time!! First of all sack that sm irking, sn iggering loony Paul Barry. Is there anyone uglier on the tube? I doubt it. 

See what you have to do to get those two words accepted?  

[caskur]

Jun 4, 2021 11:29:12 GMT 10 Stellar said:

Oh yes! Prue would get rid of all the cockroaches at the ABC. And not before time!! First of all sack that sm irking, sn iggering loony Paul Barry. Is there anyone uglier on the tube? I doubt it. 

See what you have to do to get those two words accepted?  

I wrote on Prue's twitter wall once and she loved what I wrote... I was defending her on something but when she attacked Greta's environmental protest I didn't agree with her on that. Overall, she is very sensible though.

The right aren't usually bending on certain subjects. The right support corporate welfare and the left want to save the wicked world with the working persons money.

[Gort]

Jun 4, 2021 11:29:12 GMT 10 Stellar said:

Oh yes! Prue would get rid of all the cockroaches at the ABC. And not before time!! First of all sack that sm irking, sn iggering loony Paul Barry. Is there anyone uglier on the tube? I doubt it. 

See what you have to do to get those two words accepted?  

Saw this one the other day and thought it was very apt!

[pim]

Jun 4, 2021 11:29:12 GMT 10 Stellar said:

Oh yes! Prue would get rid of all the cockroaches at the ABC. And not before time!! First of all sack that sm irking, sn iggering loony Paul Barry. Is there anyone uglier on the tube? I doubt it. 

See what you have to do to get those two words accepted?  

Wasn’t Paul Barry on 60 Minutes in another life? See? There’s plenty more where he comes from. And they’re from the commercial media sector too! Paul Barry began his contract on Media Watch in 2013 when Jonathan Holmes finished his stint as presenter. So he’s either coming to the end of his contract or his contract has been renewed.

So wow! Quite a little nest of ABC haters have crawled out of the woodwork on this thread. And what on earth have they got against Norman Swan?

[pim]

Crikey’s been talking about QAnon and the PM for 18 months. Now the ABC has self-censored, Australia is finally catching on

Is there a potential security threat and what, if any, action has Australia’s security services taken?

David Hardaker 4 June 2021 Crikey


ScoMo and QAnon buddy

For close to 18 months the prime minister has done his level best to keep his relationship with a QAnon family friend out of the public domain. Now, courtesy of an ABC decision to halt a Four Corners investigation from airing on Monday night, the news is everywhere. It was even on Seven’s Sunrise this morning. Crikey has been reporting in detail on the relationship between Scott Morrison’s wife, Jenny, and her best friend Lynelle Stewart, whose husband, Tim, became at one point Australia’s most prominent QAnon adherent, as measured by Twitter followers.

The Morrisons and the Stewarts are long-term family friends going back to when the two couples were married almost 30 years ago, but Morrison is no longer an ordinary suburban bloke and Sharks fan. And Lynelle has been paid by the taxpayer as a government-employed helper for Jenny, working at Kirribilli House. So the relationship is fair game for public scrutiny — although it is one that most of the mainstream media has dodged for close to two years. The key issue is the potential security threat and what, if any, actions Australia’s security services have taken. On that we have precious little information.

Stewart family expressed concern

Earlier this year Tim Stewart’s sister, Karen Stewart, told Crikey that the Stewart family was so worried that it had reported its concerns to “the authorities”. The concern was driven by a series of tweets supporting the violent storming of Capitol Hill in January after Donald Trump lost the presidency. The Stewarts believed Tim had tweeted under the since-deleted Twitter account Spies Like Us (@realstealthspy). Crikey also published evidence of Tim and his 22-year-old son, Jesse, in discussion with US QAnon figures during the height of the Trump-induced madness. The 90-minute discussion was via a QAnon online channel, the Patriot Voice, with the Stewarts given special billing as Australian guests under their Twitter names Burn Notice and Negan_HQ, respectively. Yet despite the family’s evident anxiety about how far Tim Stewart had gone down the rabbit hole, the prime minister’s office had no comment.

Last year parliamentary hearings also confirmed that Lynelle Stewart was employed through the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PMC). Under questioning from ALP Senator Penny Wong, the PMC’s deputy secretary, Stephanie Foster, told the hearing that all appropriate checks were undertaken, “including the relevant police checks”. Another official said all three staff employed at the prime minister’s Sydney residence had security clearances. Disconcertingly though, the PMC also claimed at the same October 2020 hearings to have no knowledge that Tim Stewart’s Twitter account had been suspended by Twitter or the reasons for it.

Does Tim Stewart wield any influence directly or indirectly on the prime minister? He certainly claimed that he did when it came to Morrison’s 2018 parliamentary apology to survivors of institutional sex abuse. As we reported, Morrison’s speech included a reference to “ritual” sex abuse, when referring to institutional sex abuse. The “ritual” tag was in line with the driving QAnon belief that the world has been overtaken by Satan-worshipping pedophiles. Again, Morrison’s office refused to answer that question.

The Four Corners investigation has been carrying on for several weeks. The program was reportedly deferred a month ago pending further work. Pressure? What pressure?

The decision at the most senior levels of the ABC to block its planned airing on Monday will raise issues of the broadcaster’s editorial independence and whether it has pre-emptively buckled to head off further anger from the Coalition government, already seething over Four Corners’ coverage of Christian Porter. The question is pointed because the program was reportedly cleared by the ABC’s legal department and approved by senior editorial executive in charge of investigations, John Lyons. It was halted after the ABC’s head of news declined to give it his backing and referred the story upstairs.

Consider the timing: at the beginning of the week the ABC emerged from a protracted and bitter court action over whether or not Four Corners alleged the former attorney-general was a brutal rapist. Yesterday senior Liberal figure Michael Kroger savaged the ABC’s chair, Ita Buttrose. She was “a hopeless failure”. Appointing her was a massive mistake. Programs like Four Corners were “political acid in the face of the Liberal Party”. There were people in the cabinet who “regretted” her appointment. She had lost control and should be sacked. Close observers of how power works in Australia will note this was all given a generous run in The Australian.

The Australian also reported that the ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, was prepared to apologise personally to Porter for two tweets sent out by Four Corners’ staffers — an abject, cap-in-hand moment for the boss of the independent broadcaster. The day before that, LNP backbencher George Christensen let rip on the alleged bias of the ABC and called on his colleagues to “strike while the iron was hot” against the broadcaster.

All roads lead to Porter

All these, of course, have one thing in common: conservatives’ anger at Four Corners’ coverage of Porter. In one interpretation, the ABC dodged a bullet at the beginning of the week when Porter withdrew his defamation action. Porter claimed the ABC had been forced to make humiliating concessions as part of the settlement — in truth the humiliation appeared to be all his. Yet amid the claim and counterclaim of who “won” there was a sober truth for the ABC. The ABC’s government enemies will never forgive it for the manner in which it pursued Porter. And then, within days of the settlement, along comes Four Corners again. Reporter Louise Milligan. Again.

At the same time Buttrose finds herself surrounded by fresh government appointments, dropped into the highest reaches of the ABC and privy to its operational secrets. In a press club address she raised her concerns about being excluded from the board selection process which appears to have at least in part favoured mates over merit. And on Monday Anderson is due to return to Canberra for a further grilling on the ABC’s Porter settlement.

[matte]

One journalist at the press conference with the PM after the national cabinet meeting asked the Prime Minister today about the episode of 4 Corners.

The way the journalist put it was something along the lines of: "do you believe the ABC is getting involved in vigilante reporting".

The Prime Minister's response was quite diplomatic, but I personally believe the short answer is: YES.

[pim]

QAnon chief honcho in Australia - and friend

[matte]

The ABC has had it in for Scott Morrison since he became Prime Minister. They have belittled his religious beliefs.

This 4 Corners episode is nothing more than partisan politics, something a so called news organisation, funded by the taxpayer, should not be involved in.

[matte]

I genuinely believe that the ABC in metropolitan areas should be sold off. The big problem with the ABC are the latte sippers who are extremely politically bias.

I am fine with the ABC existing in regional areas and that should be supported.

But the ABC needs to be put on notice to up its game or face the axe. 

[pim]

QAnon chief honcho in Australia - and friend

[ponto]

We need to know about Morrisons links to QAnon and its false narrative that belongs with a dangerous cult.

Conservatives like Morrison and Skynews and Murdoch media love the uneducated because they can be easily manipulated, hate the ABC for telling the truth and they bleat along ban the ABC coz they is biased, because they do not give the loonie people like climate deniers and anti vaxxers air time.

Get rid of the ABC so Murdoch can have his wanted leader like Trump in power....so good onya's for supporting destructive dinosaurs.

For the RW they are against truth in media and want don't let truth get in the way of a good story.

[matte]

There is nothing to the story.

The reason why the ABC won't broadcast this episode of 4 Corners is they know that they will be sued and they'll likely lose. Unlike other government agencies, when the ABC loses money, they actually lose money. They don't get to go into debt and they won't get extra money transferred to them to cover their legal costs.

If they were so confident in their sources, they would broadcast the show.

The ABC should stop this vigilante reporting and get back to their core mission, which isn't to be involved in politics but to simply report on it. 

[pim]

<yawn>

[matte]

Who dropped the case?

---

ABC pays Porter’s lawyer $100,000 to settle defamation case

By Lisa Visentin
7 JUNE 2021

THE AGE

The ABC agreed to pay $100,000 in mediation costs to Industry Minister Christian Porter’s lawyer as part of the settlement of his defamation case and spent a further $680,000 defending the matter.

Managing director David Anderson said the ABC was facing costs up to $1.5 million to defend the matter in a three-week trial, as he faced questions at a Senate estimates hearing on Monday about the broadcaster’s decision to settle the matter.

FULL STORY: www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/abc-pays-porter-s-lawyer-100-000-to-settle-defamation-case-20210607-p57ynm.html

[bender]

Who dropped the case?

Well considering that the article in question is still right there on the ABC Website I'd say that it's fairly obvious that Porter did.

[ponto]

Its a known ScoMo has links with QAnon and why he got on well with liar Trump, its certain he is not going to admit to links and he is lying..