Holy Aunty!
But now to the latest outrage about your ABC, which was whipped up over Easter by the folks at You Know Where. And note the crazy strapline:
PAUL MURRAY: … you would think that today of all days would be the type of occasion when the so-called national broadcaster would simply tell the story of the majority of people of what they did today. No, instead they showed polling about the existence of God.
- Paul Murray Live, Sky News, 4 April, 2021
Yes, Sky’s Paul Murray was frothing at the mouth about the ABC on Easter Sunday and Monday. And so were his guests on both those days:
PAULINE HANSON: I think it’s about time that we seriously considered about cutting the ties with the ABC. That they go private ...
- Paul Murray Live, Sky News, 5 April, 2021
Yup, whatever the ABC did, it must have been bad.
And Paul Murray wasn’t finished, while Richo was at the ready:
PAUL MURRAY: … talk about a disconnect when, on a holy day, you put out a poll about whether people believe in the holy occasion or not. They wouldn’t dare do it for Ramadan and nor should they!
- Paul Murray Live, Sky News, 5 April, 2021
GRAHAM RICHARDSON: … it’s the ABC and what do you expect? I mean, they feel it’s their duty to punish anyone who has a belief, especially if it’s a Christian belief.
- Paul Murray Live, Sky News, 5 April, 2021
And waiting to join the chorus, down on his farm, was an angry Barnaby Joyce:
BARNABY JOYCE: … the ABC just goes with this vitriolic crap of the left …
- Paul Murray Live, Sky News, 5 April, 2021
And Barnaby had plenty more to say, starting with a confession:
BARNABY JOYCE: … I don’t pretend to be a saint, right? And I don’t pretend to believe in Scott Morrison either. But I find it offensive that someone says that I’m going to come down so hard on people who believe in God.
- Paul Murray Live, Sky News, 5 April, 2021
And there was still more anger to follow. So, what exactly had the ABC done?
Well, on Easter Sunday it had run this disgraceful story:
We asked Australians if they believe in God or the supernatural. Here’s what they said.
- ABC News, 4 April, 2021
Which actually found that some 58 per cent of Australians either do or might believe in God, while 60 per cent of Australians do or might believe in miracles and 53 per cent believe in angels while almost 70 per cent believe in souls.
Now that is hardly shaking the foundations of Christianity. It’s more like boosting it.
But the other key point was that this was not the ABC’s idea or its research, because, as the story revealed:
The survey of 1000 people, carried out by McCrindle Research for the Centre for Public Christianity …
- ABC News, 4 April, 2021
That’s right, it was commissioned by a Christian advocacy group, whose mission statement on its website is:
PROMOTING THE PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
- Centre for Public Christianity website
And where you can read the study for yourself:
Belief in Jesus Rising from the Dead not Dead Yet
- Centre for Public Christianity website
Yes, that’s the one the ABC reported on.
So, did the ABC skew the results? Well, no, because Natasha Moore, who wrote it up for the ABC, is a research fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity, as the article makes clear.
Whoops. Seems the folks at Sky didn’t read that far.
And nor did ex-ABC board member Michael Kroger, who in a competitive field made himself the biggest fool of all, with rants like this:
MICHAEL KROGER: … this despicable, sort of, contribution today. As you say, you know, just imagine if, you know, ‘do you believe in Mohammed?’. There was, you know, ‘do you believe that the infidels should be crucified and murdered, the non-believers, you know, do you believe that?’, running that through Ramadan. It wouldn’t happen and this just, this is just part of this, sort of, you know, groupthink that we can have open season on any form of Christianity and believers at all. Shocking stuff, particularly today, mate, today.
- Paul Murray Live, Sky News, 4 April, 2021
Shocking stuff, indeed.
But no doubt Michael Kroger, Paul Murray, Pauline Hanson, Graham Richardson and Barnaby Joyce will all apologise for their stupid mistake this week.