Woody Allen and Dylan Farrow scandal might risk Oscar for Cate Blanchett.....boo hoo

Cate Blanchett drawn into controversy after Dylan Farrow pens allegations she was molested by Woody Allen

Daily Telegraph
February 3,2014

Cate Blanchett (c) seen here with former PM Lu Kewen aka.Kevin 07 (l) and and Hugh Jackman seen here mulling over Australia's future during the esteemed persons "2020 
Festival of bright ideas"  
Summit of the Smug Self Righteous

OSCAR nominee Cate Blanchett has been dragged into the growing storm circling Woody Allen following claims from Allen's adopted daughter Dylan that he molested her at the age of seven.

In an open letter, Dylan Farrow has called on Hollywood to address the claim and issued a

challenge to a number of the actors who have worked in Allen's films.

"What if it had been your child, Cate Blanchett? Louis CK? Alec Baldwin?" she said.

Blanchett, who stars in Allen's Blue Jasmine, last night said, "It's obviously been a long and painful situation for the family and I hope they find some resolution and peace."

Allen's lawyer has since released a statement responding to the claims of sexual abuse.

"It is tragic that after 20 years a story engineered by a vengeful lover resurfaces after it was fully vetted and rejected by independent authorities. The one to blame for Dylan's distress is neither Dylan nor Woody Allen", the filmmaker's attorney Elkan Abramowitz told Mother Jones.

Allen's publicist also released a statement: "Mr. Allen has read the article and found it untrue and disgraceful. He will be responding very soon ... At the time, a thorough investigation was conducted by court appointed independent experts. The experts concluded there was no credible evidence of molestation; that Dylan Farrow had an inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality; and that Dylan Farrow had likely been coached by her mother Mia Farrow. No charges were ever filed."

Blanchett's co-star Alec Baldwin took to Twitter to blast users for asking if the actor owed Dylan an apology.

"What the f&@% is wrong w u that u think we all need to b commenting on this family's personal struggle?" he wrote to one commenter.

In response to another, he wrote: "So you know who's guilty? Who's lying? You, personally, know that?"

He also tweeted: "You are mistaken if you think there is a place for me, or any outsider, in this family's issue."

Also overnight, the Connecticut prosecutor who investigated Woody Allen on child molestation claims said it was too late for the film director to be prosecuted.

Former Litchfield County state attorney Frank Maco said in a phone interview that the statute of limitations on adopted daughter Dylan Farrow's accusations ran out at least 15 years ago.

Maco had said in 1993 that he lacked evidence to prosecute Allen but suspected the abuse did occur. He retired in 2003.

READ DYLAN FARROW'S OPEN LETTER IN FULL

The open letter, written by Dylan Farrow and published in The New York Times, claims Allen assaulted her as a child.

"[W]hen I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house," Farrow wrote. "He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother's electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me."

"He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we'd go to Paris and I'd be a star in his movies. I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains."

In a note at the top of the blog post, Kristof justified running Farrow's letter, as it was "the first time that Dylan Farrow herself has written about it in public".

Speculation is growing that Cate Blanchett's best actress Oscar nomination for her performance in Blue Jasmine could be jeopardised as a result of the spotlight being focused on Allen.

The film was nominated for three Oscars - best actress (Cate Blanchett), best supporting actress (Sally Hawkins) and best original screenplay (Allen).

The final round of Oscar voting will take place from February 14-25.

"Woody Allen was never convicted of any crime. That he got away with what he did to me haunted me as I grew up," Dylan Farrow wrote, adding: "That torment was made worse by Hollywood. All but a precious few (my heroes) turned a blind eye. Most found it easier to accept the ambiguity, to say, 'who can say what happened,' to pretend that nothing was wrong. Actors praised him at awards shows. Networks put him on TV. Critics put him in magazines."

Farrow also wrote: "Woody Allen is a living testament to the way our society fails the survivors of sexual assault and abuse."

The director married Soon-Yi Previn, also an adopted daughter of Farrow, in 1997.

“If there is a yardstick to measure cultural decay, the child pornography epidemic must register.”


Blanchett responds to Woody Allen claims

Cate Blanchett backs photographer Bill Henson

Michelle Cazzulino and Neil Keene
The Daily Telegraph
May 28,2008

OSCAR-winning actress Cate Blanchett yesterday mounted an impassioned defence of Bill Henson, urging Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and NSW Premier Morris Iemma to reconsider their comments on the controversial artist's work.

The mother-of-three was among more than 40 signatories, including writer Peter Goldsworthy and economist Saul Eslake, to an open letter by the Creative Australia 2020 Summit representatives.

The missive was released just hours after a third NSW gallery removed a number of Henson's works from display.                        
                                                                Mr Bill Henson below, I am unable to post the photographs that are the subject of the Cate Blanchett open letter of support for Bill Henson,due to child pornography / Paedophilia laws.

Why I photograph children: Henson on video  

Police last week raided the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Paddington, closing down an exhibition of the artist's works just before it was due to open.

In depth: The Arts

On Friday, officers seized 20 of Henson's images, some featuring a naked girl, said to be aged just 13.

The artworks were criticised by a number of politicians, with Mr Rudd describing them as "revolting".

But the letter signed by Blanchett said the Prime Minister, along with Mr Iemma, should "rethink their public comments".

It also warned that pursuing criminal charges against Henson could harm the children depicted in the seized images.

"The potential prosecution of one of our most respected artists . . . does untold damage to our culture reputation," the letter said.

"We suggest that the. . . criminalisation of laying charges against Mr Henson, his gallery and the parents of the young people depicted in his work would be far more traumatic for the young people concerned than anything Mr Henson has done."

A spokesman for Mr Rudd last night said the Prime Minister did not resile from his remarks. "He was asked to express a personal opinion and he did that," the spokesman said.

Mr Iemma was also unrepentant: "My opinion is clear - these photographs crossed the line and they were inappropriate. I'm all for free speech but never at the expense of a child's safety and innocence."

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione yesterday told The Daily Telegraph the force's legal division was still considering whether criminal charges should be laid against Henson or the owners of the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery.

He said he found the images objectionable.

"I've got my own personal view and it's one that's not inconsistent with those police who have been out and taken those pictures into their possession," he said.

" . . . I support the police in what they've done."

In Victoria, Adrian Maiolla, the acting president of the Life Models Society, said he, too, had found Henson's images distasteful. His organisation did not allow models aged under 18 to become members and would not supply them to artists, he added.

At the Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, staff yesterday removed a giant print by Henson, featuring a naked and seemingly unconscious female being carried by two other naked subjects. Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox, from Newcastle police, said the images were regarded as suspicious.

 TUESDAY, MAY 27, 2008
Open Letter of Support for Bill Henson
http://billhensonletterofsupport.blogspot.com.au/
PRESS RELEASE: MAY 27, 2008

Open Letter in support of Bill Henson
From Creative Australia 2020 Summit representatives

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

As members of the Creative Stream of the Australia 2020 Summit, we wish to express our dismay at the police raid on Bill Henson’s recent Sydney exhibition, the allegations that he is a child pornographer, and the subsequent reports that he and others may be charged with obscenity.

The potential prosecution of one of our most respected artists is no way to build a Creative Australia, and does untold damage to our cultural reputation.

The public debate prompted by the Henson exhibition is welcome and important. We need to discuss the ethics of art and the issues that it raises. That is one of the things art is for: it is valuable because it gives rise to such debate and difference, because it raises difficult, sometimes unanswerable, questions about who we are, as individuals and as members of society. However, this on-going discussion, which is crucial to the healthy functioning of our democracy, cannot take place in a court of law.

We invite the Prime Minister, Mr Rudd, and the NSW Premier, Mr Iemma, to rethink their public comments about Mr Henson’s work. We understand that they were made in the context of deep community concern about the sexual exploitation of children. We understand and respect also that they have every right to their personal opinions. However, as political leaders they are influential in forming public opinion, and we believe their words should be well considered.

We also call on the Minister for Environment Heritage and the Arts, Mr Garrett, to stand up for artists against a trend of encroaching censorship which has recently resulted in the closure of this and other exhibitions.

We wish to make absolutely clear that none of us endorses, in any way, the abuse of children.

Mr Henson’s work has nothing to do with child pornography and, according to the judgment of some of the most respected curators and critics in the world, it is certainly art. We ask for the following points to be fairly considered:

1. Mr Henson is a highly distinguished artist. His work is held in all major Australian collections including the Art Gallery of NSW, Art Gallery of SA, Art Gallery of WA, National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Australia.

Among international collections, his work is held in the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Denver Art Museum; the Houston Museum of Fine Art; 21C Museum, Louisville; the Montreal Museum of Fine Art; Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris; the DG Bank Collection in Frankfurt and the Sammlung Volpinum and the Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna.

Major retrospectives of Mr Henson’s work at the Art Galleries of NSW and Victoria attracted more than 115,000 people, and produced not one complaint of obscenity. His work has also been studied widely in schools for many years.

2. Mr Henson has been photographing young models for more than 15 years. Until now, there has been no suggestion by any of his subjects or their families of any abusive practices. On the contrary, his models have strongly defended his practice and the feeling of safety generated in his process, and have expressed pride in his work.

We suggest that the media sensationalism and the criminalisation of laying charges against Mr Henson, his gallery and the parents of the young people depicted in his work, would be far more traumatic for the young people concerned than anything Mr Henson has done.

3. The work itself is not pornographic, even though it includes depictions of naked human beings. It is more justly seen in a tradition of the nude in art that stretches back to the ancient Greeks, and which includes painters such as Caravaggio and Michelangelo. Many of Henson’s controversial images are not in fact sexual at all. Others depict the sexuality of young people, but in ways that are fundamentally different from how naked bodies are depicted in pornography. The intention of the art is not to titillate or to gratify perverse sexual desires, but rather to make the viewer consider the fragility, beauty, mystery and inviolabilty of the human body.

In contrast, the defining essence of pornography is that it endorses, condones or encourages abusive sexual practice. We respectfully suggest that Henson’s work, even when it is disturbing, does nothing of the sort. I would personally argue that, in its respect for the autonomy of its subjects, the work is a counter-argument to the exploitation and commodification of young people in both commercial media and in pornographic images.

Many of us have children of our own. The sexual abuse and exploitation of children fills us all with abhorrence. But it is equally damaging to deny the obvious fact that adolescents are sexual beings. This very denial contributes to abusive behaviour, because it is part of the denial of the personhood of the young. In my opinion, Mr Henson’s work shows the delicacy of the transition from childhood to adulthood, its troubledness and its beauty, in ways which do not violate the essential innocence of his subjects. It can be confronting, but that does not mean that it is pornography.

Legal opinion is that if charges were laid against Mr Henson, he would be unlikely to be found guilty. The seizure of the photographs, and the possible prosecution of Mr Henson, the Rosyln Oxley9 Gallery or the parents of Henson’s subjects, takes up valuable police and court time that would be much better spent pursuing those who actually do abuse children.

4. Perhaps the most distressing aspect of the trial-by-media to which Mr Henson and his work has been subject over the past few days, is how his art has been diminished and corrupted. The allegations that he is making child pornography have done more to promote his work to possible paedophiles than any art gallery, where the work is seen in its proper, contemplative context. It is notable that the attacks on Mr Henson’s work have, almost without exception, come from those who are unfamiliar with the photographs, or who have seen them in mutilated or reduced images on the internet.

If an example is made of Bill Henson, one of Australia’s most prominent artists, it is hard to believe that those who have sought to bring these charges will stop with him. Rather, this action will encourage a repressive climate of hysterical condemnation, backed by the threat of prosecution.

We are already seeing troubling signs in the pre-emptive self-censorship of some galleries. This is not the hallmark of an open democracy nor of a decent and civilised society. We should remember that an important index of social freedom, in earlier times or in repressive regimes elsewhere in the world, is how artists and art are treated by the state.

We urge our political leaders to follow the example of Neville Wran, when in 1982 a similar outcry greeted paintings by Juan Davila. At that time, Mr Wran said: “I do not believe that art has anything to do with the vice squad”. With Mr Wran, we believe the proper place for debate is outside the courts of law.

Alison Croggon
Writer


Signatories:

Louise Adler, CEO & Publisher-in-Chief, Melbourne University Publishing
Geoffery Atherden, Writer
Neil Armfield, Artistic director, Belvoir St Theatre
Stephen Armstrong, Executive Producer, Malthouse Theatre
James Baker, Tax advisor and accountant
Geraldine Barlow, Curator
Larissa Behrendt, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney
Cate Blanchett, Actor
Daryl Buckley, Musician
Leticia Cacares, Theatre Director
Karen Casey, Visual Artist
Kate Champion, Choreographer, Artistic Director Force Majeure
Rachel Dixon, New media developer
Phoebe Dunn, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Commercial Galleries Association
Jo Dyer, Executive Producer, Sydney Theatre Company
Kristy Edmunds, Artistic Director, Melbourne International Festival of the Arts
Saul Eslake, Economist
Richard Gill, Artistic Director, Victorian Opera
Peter Goldsworthy, Writer
Marieke Hardy, Writer and broadcaster
Sam Haren, Artistic Director, The Border Project
Frank Howarth
Cathy Hunt, Creative consultant
Nicholas Jose, Writer
Andrew Kay, Producer
Ana Kokkinos, Film maker
Sandra Levy
Matthew Lutton, Theatre director
Nick Marchand, Artistic Director, Griffin Theatre
Sue Maslin, Producer, Film Art Doco Pty Ltd
Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, Director, Museum of Contemporary Art
Callum Morton, Visual Artist
Rosemary Myers, Artistic Director, Windmill Performing Arts
Rachel Healy, Director Performing Arts, Sydney Opera House
Liza Lim, Composer
Jan Minchin, Director, Tolarno Galleries
Helen O’Neil, Executive producer
Charles Parkinson, Artistic Director, Tasmanian Theatre Company
David Pledger, Theatre director
Marion Potts, Theatre Director
Katrina Sedgwick, Festival Director, Adelaide Film Festival
David Throsby, Academic
Mary Vallentine, Arts manager

Additional signatories:

The following support the appeal contained in this letter without necessarily endorsing the detailed argument:

John Coetzee, Novelist
Anna Haebich, Writer
Ramona Koval, Writer and broadcaster
Julianne Schultz, Writer
Marcus Westbury, writer and broadcaster

Monday June 2: Those who would also like to sign this letter are invited to do so below. Please put your name, and location (but NOT your full private address) and position, if applicable. All comments on this page are moderated.

Australian Hero : Turia Pitt makes so many of us look surplus to requirements.

Turia Pitt not willing to let burns scars define her life as she prepares to take part in a 3,716km bike race

Fiona Baker
The Sunday Telegraph
February 1,2014

THE horrific burns to 65 per cent of Turia Pitt's body, combined with seemingly endless surgeries, would have stopped the most determined in their tracks.

However, the 26-year-old athlete won't be beaten.

Two-and-a-half years after she was burnt in a bushfire during a 100-km marathon through the remote Kimberley Region - which left her in a coma for two months - Pitt is preparing to hit the road again.

"The fire has turned my life upside down; I don't want it to have any more impact. It was a couple of seconds. What's that compared to a lifetime?Turia Pitt

Pitt, from Ulladulla in southern NSW, will participate in the 3716km Variety Cycle ride from Sydney to Uluru that sets off next month. And that's not all she's got planned.

In May she'll take part in the 20km Lake Argyle Swim in Western Australia as part of a relay with three other survivors of the Kimberley fire.

Later in the year she's doing a five-day walk along the Great Wall of China for Interplast, an organisation that provides free reconstructive surgery to poorer parts of the world.

"The fire has turned my life upside down; I don't want it to have any more impact," she said.

"It was a couple of seconds. What's that compared to a lifetime?

"That's not to say any of this is easy."

Pitt admits it can sound like she's taking on a lot for someone suffering such horrendous injuries.

"If I've learned anything from my accident it's that we're all much stronger and powerful than we'll ever know and, while lots of people live life to its fullest, others let life pass them by. That's really sad.''

Pitt is also studying for an MBA and Masters in mining engineering while being in constant demand on the motivational speaking circuit.
----------------------------------

I don’t want the fire to have any more impact. It was a few seconds. What’s that in a lifetime?

Sunday Telegraph
February 2,2014.
Body and Soul
Pg.4

Turia Pitt suffered horrific burns in a bushfire during a marathon in 2011, fell into a coma for two months and has since had repeated surgeries. Next month, the 26-year-old will ride from Sydney to Uluru in The Variety Cycle. She tells Beverley Hadgraft

 “People ask how I endured the pain after the fire, how I waited four hours to be rescued in the burning sun, how I walked off the helicopter and into Darwin Hospital. I think it’s like the mum who lifts a car to rescue her trapped kids. If it’s true we only use 10 per cent of our brain, maybe it’s the same with potential.

If I’ve learned anything from my accident it’s that we’re all much stronger and powerful than we’ll ever know and, while lots of people live life to its fullest, others let life pass them by and that’s really sad.
I’m trapped by my body but others are trapped by their minds and years of negative conditioning and I think that’s a worse travesty. I give motivational speeches now encouraging everyone to “unmask their potential”.

I was really fit when I got burned. That meant I recovered better but the burns were worse – body fat is a good insulator. Surgeons say it will take 10 years to get back to where I was but I can still “unmask my potential” as I’ll prove this year.

In March, my partner, Michael Hoskin, and I will do The Variety Cycle, a 3716km ride from Sydney to Uluru in 26 days. In May, I’ll do the 20km Lake Argyle Swim in WA, in a relay with three other survivors from the fire, which will be awesome. After that I’m doing a five-day walk along the Great Wall of China for Interplast, an organisation that provides free reconstructive surgery to poorer parts of the world.

I’m studying an MBA and Masters in mining engineering and have speaking engagements booked until June. I’ll have surgery to improve the appearance and function of my nose in September, and that will require a six-month recovery, but once I’m over that I’ll start training for an ironman.

Does it sound like a lot? The fire has turned my life upside down; I don’t want it to have any more impact. It was a couple of seconds. What’s that compared to a lifetime? That’s not to say any of this is easy.

LEARNING TO PUSH NEW LIMITS
I only got on a bike for the first time since my accident in December. I wasn’t even sure I could still do it but... Well, it was like riding a bike – you never forget.

My hands are the biggest problem in cycling. After the fire I had all the fingers on my right

hand amputated and have just three, which are fused together, on my left. I can’t open a jar, fasten buttons, write a letter, flip someone the bird... That makes it hard to hold onto my handlebars. The first time we cycled over corrugations, I fell off. Michael was like, “Come on, Turia – pull it together, stay on your bike.”

And I was saying, “Listen, mate. You’ve got 10 fingers, I’ve only got three. Chill out a bit.” When we go over bumps now it’s a bit scary so I go slower.
I also have to consider the fact that one of the skin’s major functions is to regulate your body temperature, but because of the burns, 65 per cent of my skin doesn’t have that function any more. When I heat up it takes ages to cool down and when I get cold it takes ages to heat up.


That’s something I’ll never get back but I’m lucky that the major parts of the body that sweat – the underarms, groin and hair – aren’t burned. However, I’ll struggle when it’s hot, especially out near Uluru, so we’ll probably ride two hours in the morning and two in the evening.

At the moment my training schedule has me cycling two hours on the road one day and 40 minutes on a stationery bike the next. I also do personal training three times a week. It’s a mix of power, strength, agility and plyometrics. Again it’s complicated by not having fingers. I can’t lift weights but we’ve found ways around it and my trainer pushes me bloody hard.

I have to fit in swim training as well, and I bodyboard for fun. I can’t get back on the surfboard yet as I don’t have the strength in my upper body. I also do yoga three times a week despite the problems with flexibility. Scar tissue doesn’t have the same flexibility as normal skin but it’s getting better.
On top of all that there’s physio. I have to do things such as bend my elbow 500 times a day, because large burn injuries often cause ossification (hardening of soft tissue) in the elbows. Basically, they’re stuck and you have a limited range of movement.

THE LONG ROAD TO RECOVERY
It’s important to say that it’s not only me who stepped up after the accident. Michael has been such a dedicated and supportive partner. There were times when I lashed out, wanting to hurt the people closest to me, but he was back again at 7am the next morning and still there at 7pm that night. He’s a really lovely man and I’m blessed to have him, but we wont tell him that or he’ll get a big head!

My trainer, my physiotherapist, my masseuse, my psychologist... Everyone in my home town of Ulladulla on the NSW south coast has been amazing. They had no experience of people with burns, but we worked it out along the way. I’ve never felt so loved and supported by my community. My best friends organised a masquerade ball which raised $ 60,000. With that money, I was able to go to a world-renowned burns clinic in the south of France.

I didn’t only make physical gains there, I made psychological ones, too. I was still wearing the mask when I came home but I felt like the old Turia was still alive – I felt more like me. It sounds ridiculous because who else would I be? I can’t put my finger on why that was. Perhaps one reason was that I had time by myself. We all need that and I hadn’t had any for a year.

Also, there’s so much emphasis on physical recovery but mental and emotional recovery are just as important. When I first got out of hospital, I felt so depressed I started to think about suicide. I felt useless and worthless, I couldn’t do anything – I couldn’t run, swim, surf, brush my teeth. I couldn’t wipe my own behind. I thought, why am I even alive? I can’t do anything. I can’t enjoy life. What’s the point?

I knew then that I needed professional help and I’m not ashamed of feeling like that – it’s perfectly normal. Writing my book, Everything to Live For ( Random House), helped, as did returning to study. But the psychologist also taught me that it’s not realistic to expect to feel good all the time. So when I feel angry, I think, yep, I feel angry today, or I’m sad today, and that’s fine.

Australia's Finest : Turia Pitt,"..........it may have taken away my body but there's still a piece inside of me which is still that independent woman who's very determined.''

A Mothers Love ...thanks from a Daughter, when Angels live among us and quietly go about their business, surely WE can HELP, even just a little.

Latest 19812 ,Turia Pitt and Kate Sanderson update:Damning findings have been made against organisers of the 2011 Kimberley Ultramarathon.

THEIR ABC'S HATE Australia agenda finally been called to account.

Aunty's tactical mistakes haunt it with a vengeance

Dennis Shannahan
Political Editor,The Australian.
February 1,2014

THE ABC is currently in a war with the Abbott Coalition government that goes beyond the traditional antipathy towards the national broadcaster from a Liberal government.

The politics of the current furore are undoubtedly fuelled by the Coalition, particularly Liberal MPs and ministers, wanting to embark on cultural retribution against the ABC; but also by the government's intent to lay the groundwork for justifying cuts to the ABC through either an efficiency drive or dividend, or by permanently axing the ABC's $223 million Australia Network broadcasting service into Asia.

ABC strategic and tactical mistakes in the past two years have left the national broadcaster more exposed than ever to a political campaign justifying budget cuts and providing grounds for complaints about its service. As one of Australia's biggest media organisations, with vast political expertise and a clear preparedness of its executives to lobby ministers and opposition MPs, the ABC has failed to sensibly position itself in a hostile atmosphere through management and editorial leadership.

Right now, there can be no greater example of the ABC's apparent determination to unnecessarily cause grief with the government than to continue to stand by reports of Australian sailors systematically torturing asylum-seekers, without correction or comment.

These stories are being contradicted not just by the asylum-seekers involved but also from within the ABC.

Despite plain contradictions and evasions from some of the key complainants, and unrefuted evidence from within the ABC that there were doubts about reports that navy personnel held the hands of asylum-seekers against hot pipes, the ABC continues to underestimate the effect of the totality of its coverage of the issue, even while an internal audit is being undertaken.

Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull (the minister responsible for the ABC) and Julie Bishop, the minister responsible for the Foreign Affairs Department-funded Australia Network, have all made it clear that pre-election promises that there would be "no cuts" to the ABC or SBS do not exempt the broadcasters from across-the-board savings or the wholesale dumping of the Australia Network.

Tanya Plibersek, as Acting Opposition Leader and Labor's foreign affairs spokeswoman, has defended the ABC and the Australia Network, and accused the Prime Minister of breaking "another election promise" over cuts to ABC funding.

The ABC's supporters, including many conservative listeners who rely on the national broadcaster, are rallying against potential cuts and accusing the government of censorship and vengeance.

But, as a national broadcaster committed to serve all Australians, there is a deep alienation of at least half the population who voted for the Coalition, and a deep conviction among Liberal supporters that the ABC has gone too far.

Such an atmosphere only provides impetus and strength to the Coalition critics who realise appointing conservative board members to the national broadcaster does nothing to alter a journalistic cultural bias to left-of-centre issues.

In December last year, at the National Press Club, ABC chairman Jim Spigelman put forward a series of measures designed to respond to allegations of bias, a tendency to select news items that more often concerned "gay marriage than electricity prices", and conceded the ABC's funding was never set in stone.

In Spigelman's sensible and reasonable defence there was a rejection of specific bias but a concession that the ABC needed to endeavour to engage all sections of the community and remain "important to all Australians": he announced a series of internal audits to assess the ABC's political coverage of the election campaign and asylum-seekers. Spigelman, appointed in 2012, also said the ABC board had issued a guidance note on impartiality last July, providing detailed information on how to achieve that objective.

Yet his pragmatic and politically savvy presentation came far too late to save the ABC from a furore over funding, failed charter allegations and a new storm over asylum-seeker reporting in the run-up to the Coalition's first budget in May, which could be the biggest slash and burn of government spending for decades.

For almost two years before the September election, it was clear the Gillard-Rudd government was likely to be defeated. ABC news reporters were chronicling the decline and breaking news on the Labor leadership tensions. But ABC management blithely continued to encourage ever closer relations with the Labor government, hoping to lock in long-term funding guarantees and allowing its increasingly amorphous digital and social media outlets to entrench anti-Coalition opinion and infuriate the opposition.

This internet-inspired attitude of suspending journalistic judgment and simply putting up unsubstantiated and dubious "claims" is part of the ABC's latest problem. That error is providing the strongest grounds for the general criticism of the ABC which is being used to justify budget cuts. Liberal MPs are detecting serious disaffection with the ABC in their electorates and are giving voice to the complaints.

The ABC's current difficulties began with a series of management and editorial misjudgments which were a result of a lack of clear editorial direction and attempts to exploit Labor's political favour.

When it came to the Gillard government, the ABC was less than enthusiastic about reporting on the allegations of the AWU slush fund and the missing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Subsequent police inquiries and disclosures have demonstrated a lack of good news sense at the ABC, at the very least.

With the Coalition's implacable opposition to a carbon tax, the selection of climate-change commentary supportive of carbon pricing and a relative lack of carbon sceptics was a long-running issue.

The treatment of asylum-seeker issues, since recognised by the ABC as worthy of audit, has only got worse since the election, with the airing of the doubtful torture claims. Internal ABC emails show some thought the reports were wrong and subsequent interviews of the asylum-seekers throw more doubt on the credibility of the claims. Yet the ABC still refuses to offer any correction or explanation.

There were serious managerial misjudgments, which have given the government its best arguments to strip the ABC of its Australian Network contract. That the $223m contract for Australia's "soft diplomacy" was mired in controversy, steeped in political preference, overruled good practice, involved conflicts of interest and reduced a 10-year contract deliberation to leadership politics cannot be disputed.

Then Labor cabinet minister Martin Ferguson contradicted ABC managing director Mark Scott over a phone call the minister said was inappropriate during the tender process; the Auditor-General queried the Labor government's ability to conduct a proper process and found an independent tender panel (and then foreign minister Kevin Rudd) had been overruled twice to give the ABC the contract.

"The manner and circumstances in which this high-profile tender process was conducted brought into question the government's ability to deliver such a sensitive process fairly and effectively," said Auditor-General Ian McPhee.

The ABC-Labor links went further, with the passage of legislation to "Abbott-proof" the ABC's control of overseas broadcasting, a clear recognition that the Gillard government was going to lose the election.

Little wonder, then, that Abbott and Bishop are citing the "dodgy" process and reviewing the whole contract, with the view of shutting down the Asian broadcasting arm of the ABC and depriving it of the opportunity to fund its operations through a back-door deal.

Bishop confirmed yesterday that she was reviewing the contract and said: " I am concerned, given the number of complaints I've received, that while the content and program selection is obviously up to the ABC, it's not actually meeting its charter and codes of practice."

Abbott said the Coalition had "enormous concerns" about the probity of the tender process and lashed out at the "glee" with which the ABC reported negative developments in Australia.

His criticism of the decision to broadcast The Guardian's stories based on the leaked spy files of Australia bugging the phone of the Indonesian President and his wife demonstrated he was as much concerned with the ABC's attitude as with the substance of the reports.

Abbott accused the ABC of not just sharing journalistically with a commercial news outlet, as it has with both Fairfax Media and The Australian on occasions, but simply seeking to "advertise" and amplify the impact of the story.

"I was very worried and concerned a few months back when the ABC seemed to delight in broadcasting allegations by a traitor," Abbot said this week.

"If there's credible evidence, the ABC, like all other news organisations, is entitled to report it, but you shouldn't leap to be critical of your own country and you certainly ought to be prepared to give the Australian navy and its hardworking personnel the benefit of the doubt."

There is a recognition within the government that previous attempts to change the culture of the ABC have failed. But there is also a recognition and frustration that through a lack of normal and proper editorial and management processes, the ABC seemed determined to ignore the reality of a change of government and has not taken real steps to ensure its guidelines on impartiality and accuracy were enforced.

Labor Green Loon's outraged as Abbott Government continues to repel Muslim Insurgents back to Indonesia.

First close-up look at a lifeboat the Abbott Government is using to stop asylum seeker boats

Paul Toohey
Daily Telegraph
February 1,2014

First look at air-conditioned, powered 90-seat lifeboats used to send asylum-seekers home
'Unsinkable' fully enclosed pods contain food, water and navigational equipment
Arrival of first boat in Java has sent shock waves throughout the people-smuggler and asylum networks

THIS is what awaits asylum-seekers trying to get to Australia on dodgy wooden smuggling boats - the gift of an air-conditioned, 90-seat lifeboat, and an armed escort back to Indonesia.

This is the first close-up look at one of the 11 lifeboats that the Abbott Government has sourced out of Singapore in its uncompromising fight to stop the boats - a fight that it appears to be winning.

The fully enclosed and submersible 8.5m x 3.2m survival capsule, fitted with safety belts, navigational equipment, life jackets, food, water and an inboard diesel motor, came ashore in remote Cikepuh, in West Java, on the afternoon of January 15.

Naval officer Edi Sukendi, based in Ujung Genteng, the closest point between Indonesia and Australia, got word from a forest ranger that an unusual vessel had crash-landed and disgorged an estimated 60 asylum-seekers, who immediately scattered into the jungle.

Sukendi, a naval operational with no boat of his own, asked a local fishermen to take him up the coast to Cikepuh to investigate. They found the orange capsule jammed on a coral reef within wading distance of shore and approached it cautiously.

"When we first saw it, we were very surprised," Sukendi said. "We were worried it might have explosives." He said they found discarded food and water bottles with Malaysian markings, and first assumed it had come from there.

Twenty men heaved the boat to the beach. It was not leaking but they were unable to start it because the keys were missing.

The boat was towed to the port of Pelabuhan Ratu and has been impounded by the navy.

Prime Minister Abbott's turn-back policy - along with the phone-tapping scandal - has caused intense heat at the highest diplomatic levels between Indonesia and Australia.

But there is no question the policy has sent a shock through smuggler and asylum networks, already reeling from Kevin Rudd's declaration of July last year that no one who arrived by boat would ever settle in Australia.

Cisarua, in central West Java, once the biggest catchment for Australia-bound asylum-seekers, is a shadow of what it was only seven months ago, when thousands of asylum-seekers were highly visible on the city's streets.

Ali Abbas Josh, 35, an Afghan asylum-seeker who came back to Cisarua last year for a second attempt after failing to make it to Australia by boat under John Howard, said people had lost hope.

"We agree the way to Australia has been closed," he said. "We accept that you have closed the way, that you won't take us if we come by boat."

Mr Josh said those remaining in Cisarua were the most desperate stragglers, who could not afford to pay smugglers. He said they had been abandoned by the UNHCR and the International Organisation for Migration.

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From June 2012 to June 2013, there was a huge surge in the boats, when 25,793 people made it to Australia under the former government. Most of those were Sri Lankan and Iranians, who during that period came in an unprecedented rush.

Now, it is estimated there are only 20 Iranian families left in the area. Most have gone home or are scattered in detention centres across Indonesia, awaiting formal resettlement.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison's office said in March last year, 68 per cent of people registered with the UNHCR in Indonesia were failing to do follow up interviews and were instead "opting to attempt to enter Australia illegally by boat. By December last year, that rate had dropped to nine per cent."

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An Iranian husband and wife in Cisarua said they received a visit from three filthy and distraught Iranian asylum-seekers who knocked on their door on January 17, two days after the lifeboat came ashore.

They told the husband and wife they had made it close to Christmas Island in when they sighted an Australian Border protection Command vessel. At that point, they began scuttling the boat.

The Australians tried to pump the wooden boat but it was too damaged. They were then taken aboard the vessel where, according to this account, they spent 10 days cruising within sight of Christmas Island.

It was said there were adults, children and teenagers aboard.

They were fed and photographed. On the tenth day, they were ordered into the lifeboat. Some, according to the husband and wife, refused to enter the capsule and were physically shoved inside. They were given documents stating they were not permitted to enter Australian waters.

The Indonesian crew piloted the lifeboat, shadowed by a Border Protection Command vessel, until they arrived close to Indonesian territory.

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The Indonesian crew chose a sparsely inhabited jungle reserve, one of the most remote areas on the southern coast, to land the vessel.

The asylum-seekers - said to be mostly Iranian and Sri Lankan - told the husband and wife the Indonesians jumped out close to shore and handed the controls to an Iranian, who ran the boat into a coral reef.

They waded ashore wearing life jackets and spent two days wandering terrified in the jungle before a sheepherder directed them towards a road, where they grabbed minibuses and motorbikes to take them back to Cisarua.

Three people died while crossing a river in the jungle.

The boats have slowed dramatically but members of this particular group will not take no for an answer - the Iranian couple said their phones were now switched off and they were trying once again to get to Australia.

The lifeboat - believed to be the second so far sent to Indonesia - is understood to be one of 11 bought by the government for around $500,000. The Customs vessel Ocean Protector was expected to arrive off Christmas Island on Thursday with eight of the 11 lifeboats for boat people "turn around duty".

Australia is also being assisted indirectly by Indonesia, who despite the current political difficulties is staging its own crackdown.

TurningBack the Boat

An Indonesian intelligence source said agents were flooding known smuggling hot spots looking to break the industry from the inside by exposing military and police known to assist smugglers moving people to the coast and onto the boats.

"The belief is that many individuals in the military and police are involved," said the intelligence officer. "They are getting much more attention now. They are putting kuching (meaning cats, or spies) everywhere. If there is good control, the problem with Australia will stop."

News Corp heard a disturbing report from an Iranian asylum-seeker, who took the boat that sunk off Java on July 23, that his group had been escorted to the coast in 11 mini-vans by 15 plainclothes men carrying automatic rifles and pistols.

The asylum-seeker said the presence of the armed escorts - whom he believed were off-duty police or military - was unprecedented in the experience of most asylum-seekers, but showed how serious the smugglers had become as the way to Australia became harder.

Former air chief marshall, Chappy Hakim, who headed the Indonesian air force and has had decades-long ties with the Australian military, said Australia ought to work with Indonesia on the turn-back policy.

"Pushing back the boats is a small issue," he said. "But if your government is tackling issues alone, not negotiating first, then we have a problem."

It is not known what will become of returned lifeboats, but Corporal Sukendi said he'd gladly take the boat and use it to conduct patrols on his coast.

Islamic Insurgents publicists and spin doctors aka. THEIR ABC, Unravels.Labor Green Loon's VOTE People

ABC navy brutality reports unravel

Peter Alford 
The Australian
February 1, 2014

THE Australian can reveal after two days of witness interviews that allegations aired by the ABC that the Australian navy tortured and deliberately burned the hands of asylum-seekers cannot be corroborated.

As the burns case unravels, two more witnesses interviewed yesterday denied seeing anything to support the most serious cruelty allegations arising during operations in which the navy forced two boats and 92 asylum- seekers back to eastern Indonesia. Faisal Hussein, a passenger on a boat returned to Rote Island on January 6, has given the fullest account of the day of mayhem from which all but one of the burns allegations arose.

However, Faisal said he did not see any of the incidents in which asylum-seekers were allegedly burned by sailors forcing their hands on to hot engine parts and was not aware of such claims during the rest of the enforced return journey.

Faisal told The Weekend Australian yesterday he thought the burns were incurred when asylum-seekers on the January 6 boat tried to force their way past sailors blocking their way to a toilet located beside the engine room.

Of the eight Somali asylum-seekers interviewed at length, only one, Yousif Fasher, continues to insist three asylum-seekers on the January 6 boat were "tortured" in that way.

Yousif, who did not receive any burns, was the source of the deliberate burning allegations made to the ABC, often via Sharmarke Abdullah Ahmad, and to Fairfax Media, Indonesian police and the International Organisation for Migration.

Speaking by phone yesterday from the Tanjung Pinang immigration detention centre, in northern Sumatra, Yousif said: "Three people had their hands put on the engine by force, I saw everything."

The three men, two Somalis and an Eritrean, are with him at Tanjung Pinang.

Yousif said he had given photos of their injuries and phone videos to the UN refugee agency, without any subsequent follow-up.

Sharmarke, self-designated spokesman for 62 pushed-back asylum-seekers remaining under immigration supervision in Kupang, now believes none of the burns was deliberately inflicted.

Sharmarke, who was pushed back on a boat that arrived back on December 19, also at Rote, started spreading claims about navy cruelty on both his boat and the January 6 boat only after the later boatpeople came ashore.

Some days later, though, Sharmarke says he spoke again to people from the January 6 boat: "They told us they were not deliberately forced to touch the hot engine."

Sharmarke continues to allege people on his boat were mistreated, verballed and in one case punched.

Yesterday he brought forward Ali Mohamed, 18, still with a faded black eye after six weeks, who claims he was felled by a sailor's punch.

Sharmarke acknowledged yesterday that at least one deliberate burning case cited to him by Yousif, that of Bowby Nooris, was untrue.

"Yousif told me that this claiming and everything (else) were accurate, but when I asked Bowby, he just told me another story," Sharmarke said.

Bowby told The Australian on Thursday that the serious burn on his right hand came about when he was temporarily blinded by what seemed to have been capsicum spray and stumbled against an engine block.

Mohamad Abdi Rashid, the one burned person on the December 19 boat, told The Australian he was injured during a confrontation with a sailor, who pushed or slung him against an engine.

Kupang police, who originally endorsed the cruelty allegations, have since handed the case over to the National Police, saying they had no evidence other than the accusations of asylum-seekers. The INP has indicated the investigation is now halted.

Originally, Kupang police claimed seven people had been burned badly enough to require hospital treatment but The Weekend Australian has been able to identify six, including the three deliberate cases claimed by Yousif.

Kupang city police chief Tito Basuki Priyanto did not respond yesterday to an interview request.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said through a spokesman on Thursday that following routine internal inquiries about the December 19 and January 6 turn-back operations there was no evidence of wrongdoing to justify any investigation.

He refused again yesterday to comment on specific allegations but said the serious doubts cast by The Weekend Australian's inquiries "further vindicate the government's response to these earlier outrageous claims and the failure of judgment in the reports that sought to give credence to these claims".

Yesterday Faisal, another passenger on the January 6 boat, described to The Weekend Australian the trouble that erupted on day three of the navy's five-day operation, when the asylum-seekers realised the navy was forcing them back to Indonesia.

Thirteen people, including him, jumped overboard during at least four hours of ensuing protest and, as the boat was halted, the sailors on board left them in the water until they asked to come back aboard. They were made to stay on the deck in the sun. Faisal said some had their hands bound by plastic ties but there was no other punishment.

In the meantime, asylum-seekers were trying to push their way past sailors to get to the boat's lavatory at the lower stern deck.

Faisal said the sailors had refused to allow the 45 passengers to use the lavatory any more than once a day "so people used force to try to get to the toilet".

He thinks, but cannot say for sure as he was not at the scene, that that was when four or people, including a women, were burned.

Yousif says the woman was his wife, Mariam Ahmed, and he agrees she was not deliberately burned, but fell against hot machinery when pushed by a sailor as the boat rocked. He also agreed yesterday that Bowby was burned when blinded by what is thought to be capsicum spray and put his hand on to the machinery.

The next day, Faisal said, there was a fitful protest, but no further clashes; and on the final day, when the sailors departed, there was none. "The people were very tired," he said.

Ali said yesterday he was heavily punched by a sailor and fell to the deck "almost unconscious" when he tried to rally a protest against their turn back. "I yelled at them," Ali said, according to Sharmarke's translation. "I said 'we cannot go back there to Indonesia, we want some better life'."

But Mohamed Hussein, who was also on that boat, said he saw no violent incidents. However, because he was in the middle of the packed, about 10m vessel, he could not see everything that went on. "One guy tried to jump overboard but he was stopped," Mohamed said. "There was also two other guys who went overboard, but they threw them a rope."

Mohamed said no capsicum spray was used: "It was not like the other boat."

Additional reporting: Telly Nathalia, Jared Owens

Australia: Bravo, Scarlett Johansson

Lets Hear It For Scarlett

Miranda Devine
The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney)
2 Feb 2014
Pg.17

Bravo, Scarlett Johansson for being that rare celebrity willing to stand against politically correct bullying.

Under pressure from anti-Israel activists, the 29-year-old actress has refused to renege on a deal to promote Israeli company SodaStream, pointing out its West Bank factory employs 550 Palestinians.

Instead, last week she resigned from social justice group Oxfam which wants a boycott of the popular Israeli drink machine, using the same tactics that were used to demonise Max Brenner chocolate shops.

Johansson’s SodaStream ad will air during the Super Bowl tomorrow (Sunday, US time). Not just a pretty face.

Adelaide's Fringe Taxpayer Funded Progressive LOONS " Come Heckle Christ" The Progressives Hatred of the GOOD and their love affair with evil.

Pathetic Way to Gain Fame 

The Sunday Telegraph
February 2,2014
Pg.17

It’s hard to think of a show designed to be more pathetically offensive to the Christians than the Adelaide Fringe theatre’s “Come Heckle Christ”.

Inviting audience members to shout abuse at a man dressed as Jesus, it bills itself as a comedy act for “Disgruntled former Christians, priests (and by extension sexual deviants), altar girls and boys, atheists, anyone who enjoys yelling at Jesus while watching a dramatic re-enactment of everyone’s favourite fairy-tale: The Crucifixion of Jesus The Christ.”

But if comedians really want to prove how edgy and original they are, why don’t they stage “Come Heckle Mohammed”.
You can imagine the outcry then.

Many ask why is the "caring and sharing" "only we have a monopoly on compassion" Progressive Left, so ready and willing to, at every tax payer funded chance, to mock Jesus Christ and Judeo / Christianity, yet so silent when it comes to the "Religion" of Choice of Sociopath's the world over, Islam?

Islam, invented BY Sociopaths FOR Sociopath's.

The Sociopath's "Religion" of Choice for the past 1400 years, hey maybe that's why the "Progressives" are so enamoured with and reluctant to criticize their boy and Ideological Sociopath at Large Muhammed,they, after all,share so much in common with each other,and nothing at all with Jesus Christ,Judeo Christianity.

Disclaimer: the picture above right is an actual picture of the Muslim God /Prophet Warmonger,Slave Trader, Paedophile and Mass Murderer Mohammed if you see this man please do not approach an immediately contact your local law enforcement agency.
The picture to the left is a model portraying a likeness of Jesus Christ for editorial purposes only.