Margo Kingston

Margo Kingston

Co-publisher and editor-in-chief at No Fibs
Margo Kingston is a retired Australian journalist and climate change activist. She is best known for her stint as Phillip Adams’ ‘Canberra Babylon’ contributor and her work at The Sydney Morning Herald and #Webdiary. Since 2012, Kingston has been a citizen journalist, reporting and commenting on Australian politics via Twitter and No Fibs.
Margo Kingston

Wanted: Mal Brough

A long, day for Mal Brough, from ‘up yours’ fluff to, well….

The Courier Mail had a soft  story on Mal Brough where they forgot to do journalism and ask the hard questions.

Courier Mail

Mal Brough

Margo Kingston‘s incredulous reaction to the Courier Mail fluff piece came via Twitter”

AFHP Citizen Journalist Yathink took the Courier Mail to task in her blog post:

Punter call BS on CM’s Mal Brough ‘puff piece’

10th sentence – “Mr Brough was linked to this when the Gillard Government accused him of encouraging Slipper staff to leak diaries.”  (referring to James Ashby drama).   Two points of order on this one…
A. Mr Brough was not linked to this scandal by the Gillard Government, he was linked to this scandal by the Federal Court of Australia, Justice Rares.  You may like to familiarise yourself with the judgement “Ashby v Commonwealth of Australia (No 4) [2012] FCA 1411”.  In fact Mr Brough is referred to 113 times in this judgment.
My second point of order here is in relation to ‘leak diaries’.  Not sure about you, but if I ‘encourage’ a staff member in a competitors business to STEAL & COPY pages of my competitors diary to give to me to gain an advantage, that is actually THEFT and pretty sure I would be in serious doggy doo should I be caught, as is the case here?

Much to my disappointment the journalist has not asked any pertinent questions of Mr Brough in regard to his involvement in this scandal.  I do not know of this journalist, though considering how hard it has been for others of his profession to actually get Mr Brough to answer his phone, this is such a wasted opportunity.  See graphic above, (larger version here), in fact more than just the journo’s on this graphic have  tried to contact Mr Brough, even though he was very very cute in an interview with the Sunshine Coast Daily where he suggested no-one had phoned him?  Mr Hall obviously missed the opportunity for a ‘scoop’ here, alternatively it begs the question, was not asking anything serious about Ashby a condition of the interview?

Emma Alberici from ABC Lateline says Mal Brough is less than open and transparent as Mr Abbott would like us to believe:

Simon Cullen from ABC has a report that quotes Mal Brough saying:

“Mr Slipper’s now about to face court next week and be charged … on criminal offences relating to allegations of misuse of travel [entitlements].
“I think that’s the right and proper place for such matters to be decided, so it would be entirely wrong of me to make any comment whatsoever about such issues.”

“There is nothing more to add. There is no other meetings, connections or whatever else,” he told ABC News.
“All of the discussion, the text messages – of which there is about half a dozen at most – are all there for anyone to read.

“I have nothing to be ashamed of or would change.

“A person (James Ashby) came to me for assistance. I suggested that they go and get legal advice. I suggested they go to police if they believed a crime had been committed.

“And that is the sum total of my involvement.”

When pressed about the court’s finding that he and Mr Ashby had worked “in combination”, Mr Brough said he was not party to the court action and was not being judged.

Margo Kingston commented on the ABC Brough interview:

Sam Rutherford who tweets under the handle @mephiztopheleze created a fantastic WANTED Poster.

Wanted: Mal Brough

Now here is how YOU can make a difference.

Download this Mal Brough Wanted  A3 PDF and share it around.
Print it out and put it on all the street corners (or whereever else is allowed and/or suitable) in Mal Brough’s area.

Here is a precedent of using pictorials rather than words to express an opinion.

Robert Bosler and John Howard

howard_bosler

Australian artist Robert Bosler, at Margo Kingston’s Web Diary is being quoted by Margo. The painting hung just two doors up from the PM’s Bennelong campaign office during the 2004 federal election, see the story.
The painting is a must-see – that’s why it’s here. Oh, and it’s called “False Prophet”.
Says Robert Bosler: “This painting questions John Howard’s fitness to serve. It is not about evil. It’s not about the bible. It’s about John Howard purposely allowing himself to be susceptible to forces of negativity.”

More stories on Mal Brough and Ashbygate here.