Greenwash Political Action Party and Urban Grassroots Movement for the Green Party

Exclusive Brethren update

Some of you may have seen the latest super silly spray from Crikey’s Christian Kerr having a go at the Greens (and me personally for some unconnected reason) for their campaign to expose the fundamentalist Christian Sect, The Exclusive Brethren. Here is my response and Mr Kerr’s original both published first by www.crikey.com.au. Also, don't forget you can find more about the Brethren at previous post from way back in March here.

Christian Kerr has nailed the Greens. At last he has written something on the money.

He accuses the Greens of ‘campaigning’ against Exclusive Brethren. He pompously declares that he can ‘smell’ it. And that the Greens shouldn’t play ‘purer than pure’.

What on earth is he talking about?

Of course the Greens are campaigning against this homophobic, abusive sect with its secret connections to conservative Governments around the world. Not to do so would be derelict. This is what political parties do - whether it is John Howard against Unions or the Greens tackling global warming.

He then goes on to accuse the Greens of approaching the media about the cult in an attempt to get the media to run stories about them. Heaven forbid that political parties and politicians would approach media outlets about potential stories.

Of course Christian is entitled to spin which ever way he wants, but more often that not, this is associated with his seemingly hysterical reaction to anything Green. This is a shame because undoubtedly Crikey readers would be interested in thoughtful analysis of Green politics, which is so often also missed by the banal knee-jerk criticism of right wing commentators in the mainstream media. But Christian Kerr is binded by his pathological irrational hatred and isn’t capable of decent, informed journalism.

Take the Exclusive Brethren as an example. For Christian’s sake he should talk some Ex-brethren before he writes another word. He is just making himself look super silly. Why on earth would he want to side with this fundamentalist sect with its litany of family break ups, emotional abuse, secret election manipulation and more?
Christian is being blinded by his seemingly fanatical hatred of anything Green.

Even if all the evidence – from Background Briefing, David Marr, Today Tonight, The Age, The Australian, The Mercury and the JJJ Hack program - is that the Brethren is a sinister and destructive outfit playing politics without transparency , Christian just cant see it because the Brethren is attacking the Greens. He is blinded to evils of the Brethren operations by the ‘my enemy’s enemy is by friend’ syndrome.

We all have our biases – mine is pro-environment, supporting self-determination for West Papua, opposing the repressive Chinese regime and anti-Bush and someone who desperately wants to see the Senate wrested from the Coalition in 2007.

Christian Kerr is as much entitled to his biases as anyone else - even if it makes him look like a goose. But when it comes to covering climate change, environment groups or the Greens, let’s not pretend it makes for balanced, fair or accurate political reporting.

FROM CRIKEY - You won’t have Christian Kerr to kick around...

Christian Kerr writes:
Good news for some Crikey readers. I’m going. For a week or so, anyway. But before I go, I’d like to thank Sayed Kashua for writing much of this piece for me. Kashua is the latest bright young Israeli-born Arab controversialist. And last Thursday his column in Haaretz -- "I stand accused", it was called – kicked off like this:
"Hello."

"Yes, dad, what's happening?"

"Listen up, have you been reading the reactions against you?"

"Off and on. Why, what's up?"

"People are cancelling their subscriptions because of you, that's what they're writing there. Be careful, in the end the paper will shut down."

"No. It's not because of me. Gideon Levy, he's the bastard."
Substitute "Charles Richardson" for "Gideon Levy", and you could have a conversation from the Crikey bunker. Could – but wouldn’t. Crikey’s management are bright enough to know that when you stir, you can stir clockwise AND anti-clockwise. In fact, they know that if you’re going to stir properly, you should go in both directions. And that’s exactly what Crikey does.

Some cleverdick over at The Spin Starts Here observed last month:
"Ben Oquist" is just a program on Bob Brown’s computer in Parliament that randomly cuts and pastes Christian Kerr's items into an email and sends it back accusing him of anti-Green bias.

They’ve pulled out the big guns today. Christine Milne has fired back. I’m still standing. As I said yesterday, I’ve been around politics long enough to know a campaign when I see it. I’m happy to dish it out the Greens – and happy to take it. But they shouldn’t play purer than pure about their own activities.

Just take dekko at this Bob Brown media release from June that’s up on their site:
Today Tonight and the Exclusive Brethren

Channel Seven's Today Tonight program will soon feature a story on the Exclusive Brethren, which is likely to appear on Monday's program...

Gee. And how did they know that? A little bird told them? And they wouldn’t’ve been sicking journos onto the Brethren – let alone pushing Seven to actually put their report to air ASAP – would they?

There’s another release that talks about how the nasty Howard Government "attack on Wilderness Society threatens democracy". Haven’t the Greens threatened democracy – the freedom to choose your own religion, no matter how batty it may be – with their proposal for a Senate Star Chamber inquiry into the Exclusive Brethren?

They’re a political party. They shouldn’t posture as the saviours of the world. Blindly swallowing the spin of the Greens is as foolish as accepting the precepts of the Brethren.

Stephen Mayne always says Crikey is like Las Vegas. We love to host a fight. I look forward to getting back in the ring for the next round.

posted by Ben Oquist # 1:11 PM 0 comments