Evidence of VICPOL collaborating with the mainstream media to control the narrative could not be more clear.
I started the news site Aus Exposed in January 2021. The purpose is to give Australians a voice where they feel they aren?t being heard. It is to bring to public attention the things that the mainstream media ignore, gloss over, are too afraid to discuss, or do not cover sufficiently well.
My journalism is about providing equal voice to all parties, without any preconceived bias. For that reason you will always see that I approach the media departments of organisations where allegations have been made against the organisation.
For the most part, media departments have been obliging and helpful, even when they have been faced with allegations that are clearly uncomfortable for them to respond to. To all those departments I thank you for your responses to the matters that I have raised with you.
On Thursday of this week I approached the Victoria Police media unit to obtain information regarding charges and the situation with Monica Smit, the leader of Reignite Democracy Australia who was arrested on Tuesday for incitement. Monica live-streamed herself being pulled over by police and arrested.
Monica shot to prominence late in 2020 and has gained a large following quickly, campaigning for ceasing the lockdowns in Victoria and freedom to choose regarding COVID vaccinations and mask wearing.
After a couple of email exchanges, clarifying who I was and what I wanted, The Victoria Police Reactive Media Unit Supervisor responded to me with the following:
“We only provide information to official media outlets, unfortunately we don?t respond to bloggers / online journalists or community news outlets due to the sheer volume or (sic) enquiries we receive.
“If you?re (sic) piece is to be commissioned by an outlet, please let us know which outlet and contact details of the editor and we can come back to you.”
The sheer volume? My original email was answered in a matter of several minutes. If there was a huge volume I would have expected an hour or two to respond at least.
Even the Australian Federal Police media unit have been good enough to follow up on an enquiry I made with them and provided me a response in the past, yet Victoria Police will only work through official news channels?
Interestingly a colleague Googled “official media outlet” because we were confused as to what that meant. The first result returned in Google was “state media” on Wikipedia, with sub-entries of “state-controlled media” and “state-owned media”. I think that’s starting to paint the picture.
Further to this, journalists can subscribe to the Victoria Police media news feed, but only if they work for an “official media outlet”.
Something you may not know is that police have their own media units that produce police news. You can see them filming at demonstrations and other public events around the country. I have been informed by a Channel 9 journalist that police media units provide their news to ?official media outlets? and it must be broadcast unaltered.
It has been my experience that when charges are laid against suspects, police will often leak a narrative to the media to paint a biased account which is often used to sway public opinion. Media will use that account and perform a virtual public character assassination.
This can be seen in a mainstream article written by Samantha Maiden about Monica Smit, which in my opinion is disgraceful journalism and reeks of trying to destroy her credibility. Samantha is a seasoned reporter and clearly capable of better than this article which appears to attempt to systematically discredit Monica. One wonders why? The article fails to present any of the objectives displayed on the Reignite Democracy Australia website.
Credit where credit is due however. The Age has run an excellent article by Adam Cooper where a full, unbiased account of the event in question has been provided that is demonstrative of good journalistic integrity.
I?m sorry to say, but my experiences further indicate that the state of Victoria is run by a totalitarian regime as has been suggested by many, and that mainstream media is often nothing more than a mouthpiece for a state sanctioned narrative. I think it is with good reason that the public are turning on the media.
The fact that organisations will only speak to official media outlets is presenting a dangerous precedent whereby a balanced perspective is no longer able to be presented to the Australian public. It also vindicates my reasons for wanting to present the views of those who have had their voices suppressed for so long.