‘Double standards’ in the media are ‘endemic’

Sky News host Chris Kenny says the "double standards in the media is endemic," pointing to "victim-blaming" levelled by GetUp! and leftist news organisations at outgoing Liberal MP Nicolle Flint. Mr Kenny said green-left activist groups like GetUp! helped create the atmosphere for this sort of "hateful politics". "It [GetUp!] runs online surveys to find out which politicians its leftist supporters hate the most, it issues press releases about which right of centre politicians are "loathed" the most, and it draws up hit lists of which politicians to target at elections," he said. "Flint was harassed by protesters at public events, targeted on social media, and had her electorate office daubed with sexist abuse. "But what is extraordinary is the victim-blaming we have heard from GetUp and the media directed at Nicolle Flint." Mr Kenny pointed to the hypocrisy of media outrage when ugly placards with words like "Juliar" and "Ditch the Witch" were waved around in Canberra at an anti-carbon tax rally when Julia Gillard was prime minister. "We want better standards in public debate, but you can't go hard on that sort of remote abuse of a Labor woman, and then seek to downplay or redefine the more direct and personal abuse and intimidation directed at a Liberal woman," he said. "Well, you can in the media, because double standards are endemic. "One set of rules for the left and another set of rules for the right."

from Breaking National News and Australian News | Daily Telegraph https://ift.tt/2OUmvKi