Greg Sheridan, as expected has written a glowing tribute to #Pell, in The Australian, of course.
It's an indulgent piece, afforded to Sheridan because he is Pell's friend and in a powerful position at The Australian. Let's drill down.
1/
Sheridan starts by regurgitating the idea that Pell is a victim of 'anti-Catholic Hysteria'.
Sheridan, like others never suggest why complainants, with zero to gain, would voluntarily subject themselves to examination by ruthless Barristers like Robert Richter.
2/
Sheridan, in a deceptive attempt to sound reasonable, acknowledges the scourge of abuse in The Church, but tempers it by suggesting it was the same everywhere.
He ignores the industrial scale protection racket run by the Church and dismisses the Royal Commission findings.
3/
He also ignores the comparative scale of child sexual abuse in The Catholic Church. Dr Vivian Waller who has represented many victims gives critical insight here.
Sheridan goes on to cite the deeply flawed 'Melbourne Response' that short-changed victims as something that should be credited to Pell for being 'forward-leaning'.
Sheridan's comment 'as soon as he (Pell) got any power' is revisionist garbage. I'll tell you why next.
5/
In 2007, Pell was central to the Church's response to the so-called 'Ellis' defence.
Under Pell's instruction, The Church spent $1.5M on this case in order to prevent victims from suing the Church directly.
This is what Pell did with power.
6/
Earlier than that, Pell was using his power to buy the silence of victims. It's not difficult to determine why he was buying silence.
You can judge Pell's demeanour in this interview for yourself.
Sheridan goes on to suggest that many were convinced of 'a stitch up', and supports this by pointing to being interrupted at dinner with Pell, by Pell supporters, 3 times.
This is curious given Pell's name in the trial was suppressed. How did these 3 know?
8/
There are many powerful people and organisations working overtime, determined to re-write history for #Pell's legacy.
Greg Sheridan is one example. Those who've suffered because of the action or inaction of Pell deserve to have this revisionist nonsense challenged.
/end
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Is this the greatest scandal in Victoria's electoral system?
Next election, run as an Independent, and the largest single donation you can receive is $4850.
The Liberal you run against can access $118M from the Lib's biggest donor: The Cormack Foundation.
Who is Cormack?..
/1
Some history.
Years ago, the Govt gave radio licenses to the major parties. The Liberal Party ended up with radio station 3XY, established in 1935.
3XY broadcast from the ballroom in the Princess Theatre.
/2
Despite struggling to attract a large audience, 3XY mitigated its advertising revenue shortfall by broadcasting numerous sponsored religious programs, which helped supplement its income.
You probably know the start of this Olympic story, but do you know how it finished?
This photo is of Eric Moussambani, aka 'Eric the Eel' from Equatorial Guinea, competing in the 100m Freestyle event at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, alone.
Why?
/1
Eric's heat started with 2 other competitors; one from Niger and the other from Tajikistan. Eric's competitors however both broke, and were disqualified, leaving him to swim this event alone.
Eric hadn't completed a full length of a 50m pool before, but he dived in anyway.
/2
It seemed like he wasn't going to make the distance. Touching a lane rope would've been automatic disqualification.
He completed in 1:52.72, the slowest time in Olympic History, and for comparison, 47 seconds slower than I did recently, in my late 40s. Remember these times.
Today it was revealed that Victoria Liberal MP Richard Riordan's wife was instrumental in orchestrating the setup of fake patients at a Colac Health hospital for a Ministerial visit.
The scandal aside, this gets messier because...
/1
A few months ago, when MP Richard Riordan was questioned about the fake patients, he defended the practice to ABC Richard Willingham, but curiously, doesn't appear to have disclosed his wife's involvement.
/2
A cautionary important thread on how the culture war mongers do their work.
The last week shows how Peter Dutton plans to win the next election, assisted by media who moonlight as the LNP PR machine, working in unison with a conservative lobby group funded by billionaires.
/1
If you want to see how these groups working together plan on manipulating your family and friends, this thread shows what they do, and importantly gives a taster of what is to come.
This is a look at the Woolworths 'story' this week, by zooming way out.
/2
The first key point to note is that Woolworths made no announcement.
1. There was no media release 2. There was no social media or signage in stores or ads 3. They didn't put spokespeople in front of a camera
Woolworths sought 0 attention. So how do we know?
/3
Caroline Marcus at SkyNews is doubling down having been accused of not disclosing the backstory of the man she interviewed who said he felt intimidated by a Palestinian Flag pin worn by a Qantas flight attendant.
Here's 2 parts of Caroline doubling down. You be the judge....
/1
Part 1. In her latest, Caroline says, "he is not a branch president of the (Liberal) party as I have seen claimed online".
Why doesn't Caroline elaborate on "as I have seen claimed online"?
There's a good reason.
/2
Because it was claimed by Harrison Grafanakis, the man she interviewed on his very own LinkedIn profile.
When it was brought to Caroline's attention by @AltMediaWatch, she blocked them.
Curiously, Harrison has since removed the link. Why?
I’m in the Lobby of the @apolloDimora Hotel in Calicut India.
I leave in 18 hrs. The Hotel says unless they receive hundreds of dollars more than the amount agreed and pre-paid, they will hold my possessions.
A story of failure by @qantas Hotels, @expedia and @ApolloDimora.
/1
How it started;
On 23 Sept, I booked for 12 Nights commencing 9 Nov at the @ApolloDimora Hotel via the @Qantas Hotels website.
This booking was paid in advance, in full, on a no-cancellation basis. I received a confirmation, a tax invoice and my credit card was charged.
/2
I booked via @qantas rather than direct for 3 reasons.
1 My credit card is regularly blocked paying via Indian payment gateways.
2 My flights to India were booked with Qantas, including shoulder accom in Bangalore.
3 All bookings in one place is easier, or so I thought.
/3