How Main Stream Media Fomented the Latest Victorian #Covid19 Outbreak

There’s a lot not to like about the latest spike in Victoria’s #Covid19 numbers. And the most culpable are mainstream media companies who created the social response

The latest spike in #Covid19 infections can be directly attributed to Channel 7, Channel 9 and the ABC with lesser blame attributed to Channel 10 and SBS. In the print area it’s just normal Murdoch press – Gladys good, Dan bad. But the most recent thread began when the #FakeTradies and right wing nut jobs infiltrated what was arguably, a ridiculously petulant display by the building sector complaining about vaccine mandates. This sector has been allowed to work while thousands of others have been stood down, forced to take holiday leave or lost their jobs.

What the health advice said was clear – around half of recent infections were coming out of a non compliant construction sector. The CFMEU and others complaining about keepnig their workplaces safe on site with social distancing (you know, the VERY OH&S ‘safety’ thing that the CFMEU used for years to shut down sites) created just the opportunity that the state opposition and media had been unable to create – a good decent swing at Dan Andrews. The CFMEU saying ‘stuff you’ to the Andrews’ call for better compliance, staged an amusing if childish lock down via a ‘lunch room out in the streets’ protest and then cracked it when the State Government shut the sector down for a fortnight.

And here’s when Mainstream media and a flaccid state opposition finally got traction. A show of numbers was so easily taken over by the right wing nutters with their racist, sexist, anti-vaxx rubbish, created just the kind of story that had been lacking. We know the take over by the march was supported by the state opposition by what they chose NOT to do – condemn the march. The Black Lives Matter and Indigenous Rights marches were roundly attacked by both state and federal Liberal party members. Past large scale union marches have been attacked in the same way. But not this one. Absolute silence..

Except in the mainstream media. Finally a chance to develop a story that might puncture the Dan Andrews armour – multiple days of protest, significant use of varying levels of force by the Police and an MSM promoted message of carnage, that talked about the anti-lockdown backlash as ‘reasonable’ and even interviewed known offenders to give a platform to the FreedomRally bullshite.

At the same time, Nurses, contact tracers, doctors, hospitals, aged care staff, running clinics, doing testing, keeping infected people alive, KEPT DOING what they do on behalf of us DESPITE their increased workload. And what did the mainstream media do for that? Nothing, preferring instead to push the ‘out of control’ message, condoning the protests as reasonable response to the lockdowns. No they were not reasonable and even CFMEU workers who turned up on day 1 started to drop off after day 2 when they figured out they’d been played by the #FakeTradies organisers. Those #fakeTradies who chose to protest on the site where multiple union workers lost their lives with the collapse of the West Gate Bridge. No union member worth their pay would desecrate that site with a protest about not wearing masks or needing to get vaccinated. No union member would have gone to The Shrine and urinated at the site as an act of protest. And NO union member would have stood in front of that special memorial and launched a Nazi salute. This is what the MSM have given us. Not encouragment to stay the course, not tips for staying safe and looking after your health and dealing with lockdowns. No, they disgracefully gave a platform to legitimise white supremacists pissing on The Shrine of Remembrance.

And the State Opposition leader (now the new old one) and the man derisively known in some social media platforms as #BubbleBoySmith, the would be Attorney General said NOTHING to condem these actions. That’s how we know it was not a Union led protest.

Keep in mind that Victoria had gotten to this point because the NSW Premier did not do her job to keep #Covid19 out of her community, an infection that spread across Australia and to New Zealand. Which brings us to the next phase. A public tired of lockdowns, hoping for a window and relief, now had a comparative story to think about. A bunch of real tradies who’d been allowed to work through lockdowns, and fake tradies who spotted a chance to get out from behind their keyboards, whingeing about masks and vaccinations like the rest of us had to deal with. go out on protest ‘…and I have to sit at home?’

And now the perfect conditions congealed upon us. Two Victorian clubs make it to the Grand Final, in Perth. Dan Andrews’ failing at this point was a big one – allowing the Grand Final Friday public holiday to go ahead. With no crowds coming to the city to be involved in a GF Parade, the justifcation for that Public Holiday had evaporated. A social psycholgical state of people tired of lockdowns but mostly doing the right thing, had been given a comparison to what they were going to do just a day later. If thousands of imbeciles can protest for days, attacking police, testing stations, being infected whilst rioting, how bad could it be for me to have a GF BBQ with a few mates?

As it turns out, pretty bloody bad.

A jump in daily case numbers tracking at the 800s to 1400+ a week later has been DIRECTLY linked to people gathering outside their family homes with others and getting infected. The mistake Andrews made was not using the REMOVAL of the widely popular but now redundant GF public holiday as a strong amber light that no, we are not ready to party.

Mainstream media’s message, pushed by Sunrise, Today, various ABC programs, supported by shock jocks and the vile Sky with lovely pictures of protest footage from very DIFFERENT Protests YEARS Earlier, promulgated the fear and loathing. And what we have seen and will now see BECAUSE of MSM willingness to do harm, is increased infections across all age groups and increased deaths. Kochie and Karl know exactly what they’re doing. They need and want more infections and more deaths to try and undermine the ongoing public support Dan Andrews has in Victoria. Especially to try and tarnish a very bright light compared to the culpability and arrogance of Glady Berijiklian willingness to infect her state. So far it looks like the population haven’t fallen for the ruse. But the infections that will occur, the massive workload and stress placed on health care workers and the #Covid19 deaths that will result, are on the heads and hands of those shrill journalists, reporters, and presenters who have CHOSEN to perpetuate harm

‘China’s Gift’ – Why the AFL needs to Prepare for Crowd-Free Rounds

Mar 9, 2020

China’s Gift to the world, the #CaronaVirus is not yet as severe as what the US gift to the world (Spanish Flu) was, and still signs are clear that disruption to normality is the key theme. In that the light, the Australian Football League (AFL) need to plan for crowd free rounds.   Because that’s…

Read More >

China’s Gift Has a Fat Tail – Corporate Collapse

Feb 11, 2020

Potential Impacts of the Carona Virus will cascade across the globe. With deaths on track to climb quickly now that it has reached epidemic proportions of infection, the fat tail extends to the corporate sector.   With whole areas of China on lock down, factories are shuttered and with it, Multinational and local firms who’ve…

Read More >

My Personal Experience of #Covid19 (thus far)

Jan 15, 2020

Five days ago I tested positive for Covid. Here’s a bit of what the story has been like so far Tuesday was spent moving on of the offspring out of their rental property in country Vic and back down to Melbourne’s suburbs. A hot day of heavy lifting and a fair bit of driving. By…

Read More >

If that, then what? The question that unlocks almost everything

Oct 22, 2019

Decision making is an interesting field of inquiry. I’m about three months in to a long term contract with an organisation working on enabling its people to be more effective and the thought that keeps popping into my head is ‘Start with the End’ When you start with the end in mind (know your desired…

Read More >

Can GM Foods rescue the planet? – the Only way GM food can come to our rescue

Aug 16, 2019

There’s a little problem with food production in the world that not many people want to talk about.  About half the world is being starved to death whilst we are seeing a spike in obesity due to over-consumption of food. The strange thing about that issue is that both ends of the food consumption divide…

Read More >

Employee Engagement Beyond the Workplace

Jul 31, 2019

My most recent long term client contract had me specialise in Employee Engagement, something I’d done consistently at the Senior and Middle Managers level. But this client need was across the board and at a time when major changes were occuring.   With a previous survey of their staff in two states and across three…

Read More >

Social Issues Hackathon co hosted by Casey and Dandenong

Jul 25, 2019

Great to see some quality collaboration between the City of Casey and City of Greater Dandenong aimed at addressing or tackling Social Issues and importantly bridging the divide between ‘our area’ and ‘their area’ artificial boundaries. Well done to both Councils   Here’s the oveview of what they’re doing. This one looks to be an…

Read More >

Beyond VUCA – the VUCA 2.0 concept

Jul 9, 2019

Most people who’ve been involved in planning and strategy development will have heard of VUCA – Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous. Emerging out of the US War College in 1987, it’s come to be more widely used by consultancies aiming to at least ‘sound smart’. But that’s not the main problem with its usage   Instead…

Read More >

Is Manufacturing Output Data a Reliable Indicator of Economic Activity

Mar 19, 2019

In short – ‘No’. In days of yore manufacturing data meant jobs being done, employed people being paid, sales being made. But with robotics and off-shoring in many parts of Australian manufacturing, it’s no longer the value indicator it once was.   In the US it is an even less reliable indicator because in the…

Read More >

The Drive to Make Futures Thinking Pragmatic

Mar 13, 2019

  I’ve writen a fair bit over the years about the need to move futures thinking out of a theoretical approach and into a more applied model.   Recently I’ve come off a 6 month project working with the Asian Productivity Organisation, an entity that brings together 20 member countries and their core government policy…

Read More >