SMH (Sydney Morning Herald) attacks US Ambassador, not Saddam Hussein
Gerard Jackson
Alan Ramsey and the SMH (Sydney Morning Herald) are only too typical of the Australian media. Ramsey is a cowardly lying political bigot who uses his position on the SMH, aka the Saddam Times, to libel Bush and heap scorn on those who dare to suggest that the President's policies toward the sadistic Saddam are both sound and moral.
Quite recently Labor Party frontbenchers launched a vicious on the American Government. Ambassador Tom Schieffer's response was to do his job, which is to defend the interests of his country and its integrity. But according to Ramsey and the SMH Schieffer was "deliberately setting out to publicly intimidate Labor."
Of course, the very patriotic leftwing Ramsey and the SMH Politburo (editorial board) were outraged. How dare this American schmuck defend the US and its president. Oddly, this upright Australian patriot did not find anything objectionable about Saad Al-Samarai directly interfering in Australia's domestic affairs when he threatened Australian wheat farmers. Nor did the same truth-loving columnist find anything sleazy in the Labor Party using Saad's threats against Prime Minister Howard.
As far as Ramsey is concerned, anything is fair that apparently promotes his beloved Labor Party while defending the murderous Saddam against the US.
But Ramsey being Ramsey could not stop with libelling Schieffer. No sireee. He had to libel Bush by calling him a "... a drunk, a thief, a possible felon, an unconvicted deserter, and a cry-baby …" The fact that Ramsey did this by quoting from Michael Moore's vicious book Stupid White Men does not alter the fact that he and the SMH share Moore's vindictive view of Bush, which was emphasised by his description of Bush as "a dangerous dill!" (In Australia a dill is a jerk).
At the SMH, quoting hateful neo-Marxist bigots like Moore is considered de rigueur and a clear sign of one's intellectual depth and commitment to social justice. That the Castro-loving Moore is a compulsive liar whose contempt for facts would make Goebbels blush is not something that would bother the SMH. Moore's book is a lengthy character assassination, a nasty tactic to which Ramsey and the SMH are no strangers, of President Bush by a political oaf who is still fulminating against the Republicans' electoral victory. It is also riddled with distortions and outright lies.
What a charmer our Castro-grovelling Mr Moore is. Two examples of Moore's humanity will give readers an insight into his twisted sense of morality. Passengers on the hijacked 9/11 planes were "scaredy-cats because they were mostly white." This statement is not only insulting to the victims and relatives of the terrorist attacks it also contains an undercurrent of racism that suggests Moore is a self-hating white man.
The second comment is just as revealing. This is what he had to say to Elian Gonzalez "... your mother and her boyfriend snatched you and put you on that death boat because they simply wanted to make more money." That's right, folks. Moore writes Elian a letter telling him that his mother and stepfather were just a couple of greedy wetbacks who betrayed Castro's kindness. And for this act of treachery they deserved, in Moore's opinion, to die.
It is truly pathetic when a leftwing political hack like Ramsey has to try and get at President Bush by leaning on someone as despicable as Michael Moore for moral support. At least this spectacle, like so many others before it, has highlighted the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of the left, and particularly the SMH.
Gerard Jackson is Brookes' economics editor
Melbourne: Australia
BrookesNews.Com
Sunday 16 Feb. 2003