{"id":454,"date":"2013-01-21T00:02:59","date_gmt":"2013-01-21T00:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/australiansforhonestpolitics.wordpress.com\/?p=454"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:24:24","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:24:24","slug":"the-ashbygate-conspiracy-of-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/the-ashbygate-conspiracy-of-silence\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ashbygate conspiracy \u2014 of silence"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Margo Kingston<\/a>
\nSource: Independent Australia<\/a>
\n18th January 2013<\/p>\n

The media spent eight months vilifying Peter Slipper over the James Ashby accusations, but when the Federal Court ruled it was a political set-up \u2014 suddenly they weren\u2019t interested. Margo Kingston<\/a><\/strong><\/i><\/b> comments on the scandal behind the conspiracy.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\"Ashby-Slipper\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Click on the image to see @geeksrulz<\/a>\u2018s Storify: \u2018The Daily Telegraph coverage of the Slipper Scandal\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

ON THE 12th of December 2012, the Federal Court handed down its judgement<\/a> in James Ashby\u2019s sexual harassment case against the Speaker Peter Slipper. It was sensational \u2014 a political conspiracy to abuse the court system with vexatious litigation to destroy a political opponent.<\/p>\n

The mind boggled.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d just joined Twitter, and was surprised to get a tweet predicting there would be little coverage.<\/p>\n

Nonsense, I replied. There\u2019ll be intensive investigation by journos \u2014 \u2018they will go for it after being conned by Libs twice\u2019. The first time, of course, was the just completed torrent of publicity on the Prime Minister\u2019s pre-politics role in setting up a fund later used for fraud, which ended with nothing of substance proved.<\/p>\n

I was wrong.<\/p>\n

No page one splashes. No page ones at all in the Murdoch tabloids, which had broken Ashby\u2019s allegations to the Court with a splash and then kept splashing. In the Daily Telegraph<\/i>, a small news story on, wait for it, page 17<\/a>, with the misleading headline \u2018Court rejects SLIPPER case\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n
The Daily Telegraph\u2019s reporting on the Ashby Federal Court ruling: page 17.<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n

I was horrified, but Saturday\u2019s coverage put me in shock.<\/p>\n

PM Gillard had called on Abbott to disendorse Mal Brough, who the court found had been part of the conspiracy. Other Labor figures had called for an inquiry. Tony Abbott said they were \u2018hyperventilating\u2019, and repeated his never deconstructed \u2018I had no specific knowledge\u2019 line. Yet there was NO news story in the DT. They\u2019d moved on. I\u2019d bought all the papers at the airport to read all about Ashby on my flight home. There was virtually nothing to read. I tweeted: \u2018Bought the papers today. Where are the news features, the reads, the analysis, the questions on Ashby\u2019s funding? In my day Ashby would have filled pages in news and features. What has happened and why? Please explain!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Useful Design\u2019 tweeted:<\/p>\n

\u2018If it bleeds it leads, if it\u2019s smear let\u2019s hear, if it\u2019s the truth, strewth how uncouth.\u2019  <\/strong><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n