The Australian National Review (ANR) was created out of necessity to provide real world and unbiased information that is not influenced by corporate interests.
“Fake news” appears to be the new black, and while mainstream media are now using this term in opposition to any news not produced by them, it is obvious their lies continue unabated. Despite overwhelming evidence, the conflict in Syria is a false flag, the mainstream media’s coverage of this event clearly demonstrates their desperation to deceive people into believing a narrative that is devoid of any real evidence. ANR will focus on exposing the continual deception, particularly when it comes to Australian journalism.
Several months ago, Jill Hennessy, Victorian Health Minister and Grant McArthur, health editor for the Herald Sun were caught in a joint collaboration to falsely expose the anti-vaccination movement as “vile” trolls. Hennessy appeared on the front page of the Herald Sun alleging she was a victim of relentless cyber bullying, from a “gutless” group of “well-organised” “anti-vaxxers” who sent her abusive tweets. Courtesy of McArthur and the Herald Sun, Hennessy featured in a video reading out 14 tweets she alleges to have received. However, after meticulous investigation by the Truth Library, it became undeniably evident that the Herald Sun and Hennessy collaborated to deceive the public, wasting taxpayers’ money in the process.
The investigation by the Truth Library revealed an astonishing amount of evidence, which confirmed the story was fabricated. However, when confronted with this evidence, not a single politician, including the Shadow Minister of Health nor any media outlet addressed the issue. McArthur, who wrote the article, was also contacted and asked for proof that contradicted the allegations made by the Truth Library. But he simply insisted his story was accurate and stated he was not willing to provide copies of what should have been publicly available tweets. Interestingly, when it become common knowledge that the pro-choice movement was questioning the validity of these tweets, McArthur or his buddies at the Herald Sun (owned by Murdoch who has financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry) quickly moved to cover their tracks, but not before the Truth Library managed to catch them in the process.
When McArthur’s story initially broke, the article’s headline read “Jill Hennessy gets abusive tweets from anti-vaccine campaigners”. The video that appeared on the online version of his story was captioned with “Jill Hennessy reads nasty tweets” and the Twitter logo appeared beside each of the 14 messages Jill read out. At least three other references were made by the Herald Sun indicating the abusive messages Hennessy received were made directly to her via Twitter.
Nowhere in their original story was there any insinuation that the abusive comments Hennessy received came from any source other than Twitter. Yet, a thorough online search revealed that not a single footprint could be found anywhere online, including Google cache history that showed the existence of these tweets.
Reasonable Hank, an online stalker and harasser of many, tagged McArthur and Hennessy on Twitter saying he was going to prove that the harassment Hennessy received was real. Instead, what emerged was evidence that some of the alleged tweets were actually Facebook comments made about Hennessy in closed and secret Facebook groups, which predominately consist of parents of vaccine injured children. This would be akin to Pauline Hanson trolling secret Islamic groups to confirm their views of her and then using that as evidence to claim she was being directly and relentlessly abused. While this does not condone the negative comments made about Hennessy, those parents were merely expressing their anger at Hennessy’s reckless comments made earlier that day in media interviews. Hennessy shamelessly said: “There are no risks to vaccinating your children” a statement vaccine manufactures would not even support. This would be about as hurtful as saying to a parent of an anaphylactic child that there are no risks to eating peanuts.
As if by coincidence, the Herald Sun swiftly removed its original breaking article and replaced it with the headline “Social media applauds Victorian Health Minister Jill Hennessy for taking on anti-vaccination trolls”. Gone were all the references to Twitter, replaced with allegations stating they were merely online comments madeto Hennessy from “dangerous” people with “acid fingers”. However, this was a gross misrepresentation of the original facts.
In the revised article, the Herald Sun opted to show actual screen shots from Twitter of those praising Hennessy for her courage to speak out, something they failed to do in their original article alleging the abuse. Ironically, those congratulating Hennessy were not aware that they were doing the very thing the Herald Sun baselessly accused the pro-choice movement of.
When contacted about this, McArthur said he did not print the original screen shots of the comments he alleges were made because he wanted to ensure no legal action was taken against the Herald Sun by identifying the individuals. Given Twitter is a public forum, and using screen shots taken from social media is a common occurrence by the media. This did not make any sense. Hennessy was not a member of the groups from which these comments were taken. This means, the only way for her or McArthur to have even known these comments existed was from Reasonable Hank, whose MO is to stalk groups for any incriminating evidence he can find to harass anyone who questions the pharmaceutical agenda. When Hank tweeted his ‘proof’ to show the comments were real, he failed to hide the identity and the profile images of the individuals- thus making them fully identifiable. He also tagged both McArthur and Hennessy, which meant, anyone searching Twitter for comments about this story could easily identify those that were alleged to have abused Hennessy. If McArthur was so concerned about these individuals being identified, why did he not attempt to contact Hank and ask him to remove the tag? Why didn’t Hennessy? After all, they must know him well, especially since he is likely the only one who could have provided the screen shots from Facebook in the first place.
McArthur also refused to comment on why his original story was removed and then replaced in less than 24 hours by an article that no longer referenced the source of the messages coming from Twitter. This shows he either never cited the evidence of Hennessy’s alleged online abuse- meaning he did not do his due diligence in reporting this story, or it shows his direct involvement in targeting a minority group who simply want the choice to decide which medical treatments they feel are appropriate for their children. This video serves as further evidence that the original story was removed and replaced- including dates which show the original article was published on 20th October 2016 and screen shots of tweets taken on 21st October 2016.
McArthur also failed to answer questions when presented with a screen shot taken of a private message from Irene Beunue, who was alleged to be one of Hennessy’s abusers. According to the Herald Sun, her tweet read: “Go crawl back into gutter from where you came, you malevolent ignorant mouthpiece for the corrupt and moronic pharmaceutical industry which for your edification is controlled by elitist Zionist jews and their minions”. The character count of that message is 220, almost double of Twitter’s character limit. When asked to confirm whether she owned the Twitter account that had falsely been labeled as an online abuser of Hennessy, an account that had 0 tweets and followed no people, Beune stated “…I do own the twitter account @wawasonqo. However I am not active on Twitter and I have never sent a tweet in my life. I am a medical doctor in the Netherlands and I was unaware of the existence of this politician and her message. Moreover I have a positive opinion regarding vaccination programs”. Beune has since deleted her account.
In the face of serious world wide issues, this seems like a very trivial topic. Yet, if the Herald Sun together with every other major media outlet and an elected Minister of Parliament can outright deceive the public on such a non-issue, what does that say about their credibility in addressing real world issues? If the evidence was so clear cut to McArthur and the Herald Sun who felt this story was so newsworthy it warranted the front page of the paper, why did they need to fabricate even a single abusive message and misrepresent facts of the others?
According to the Herald Sun’s article, Hennessy said, “Victorians should be aware of the anti-vaccination proponents’ true nature so as to be better able to balance their unfounded claims against science”. Given Hennessy participated in a concocted story with unfounded claims about the pro-choice movement, what does this say about her true nature?
When the story first broke, a current serving member of the Victorian Legislative Council stated they believed that Daniel Andrews, Victorian Premier was considering sacking Hennessy for her incompetence. According to our political insider, Hennessy concocted this story to gain public sympathy in an attempt to make it difficult for Andrews to fire her. McArthur was either her pawn or perhaps more likely, he played a big hand in the process of fabricating this story.
Anyone who has tried to get an appointment with Hennessy or her staff know it is nearly impossible with busy schedules being cited as a reason to deny constituents the opportunity to discuss critical issues with public servants who are elected to represent the people. Tasha David, a mother of eight children, the eldest six of which are vaccine injured and the youngest two who are unvaccinated and healthy, has attempted to make an appointment with Hennessy to no avail. As president of the Australian Vaccination-Skeptics Network, she has been advised by many that they have been trying unsuccessfully for over a year to meet with Hennessy’s staff. Tasha says, “I feel betrayed by the system. Jill claims there are no risks to vaccination yet she refuses to meet with anyone, even those that live in her electorate that have vaccine-injured children. How can she deny there are no risks while ignoring the children who have been permanently injured as a result of vaccination?” Despite her busy schedule, somehow Hennessy managed to take considerable time to concoct this story, get herself dolled up for the cameras to record the video of her reading these messages followed by an entire day of media interviews on every major media outlet across the country. Is this a wise use of tax payer dollars, especially when it is based on a lie?
It does not matter where you sit on the vaccination fence, the public persecution of a minority group based on a fabricated story for one’s own person gain is unacceptable. Misuse of her power should warrant the immediate termination of Hennessy’s position. One must also ask, what else have the media deceived the public about regarding the pro-choice movement? The reality is, most of these parents were once pro-vaccination until their children were sacrificed for the sake of the ‘greater good’. According to Hennessy, “If you are unable to prosecute an argument without having to go to such steps [childish behaviour and harassment], then you probably don’t have a very good argument in the first place”. Wise words by Hennessy, though clearly she doesn’t apply this rule to her own behaviour.
The lack of action by the Labor Party or the opposition to address this issue despite being alerted shows their clear lack of integrity. Likewise, the media’s choice to not rectify the lies they helped perpetuate shows their complete dishonesty. It is time the mainstream media and our politicians are held to account for their deceptive actions. If you feel Grant McArthur either lied or did not perform his due diligence in covering this story, please lodge a complaint with the Australian Press Council by completing this form. You can also complain about Minister Hennessy’s abuse of power by contacting the Premier’s officedaniel.andrews@parliament.vic.gov.au. ANR was also provided a video recording of a producer from a major TV network discussing with a member of the public that one of the tweets belonged to the account of a Doctor in the Netherlands, who had no activity on her twitter account. Despite knowing this, the TV network still ran with the story. ANR has chosen not to release the recording at this time, as it would like to give the media a chance to rectify their misreporting.