Aussie PM dumped by own party

[Peter Dawson]

What I'm saying is that the media's crucifixion of Whitlam roughly coincided with his falling out with Israel after the Yom Kippur war in 1973, as outlined by Colin Rubenstein and Tzvi Fleischer in their 'History of Australian/Israeli relations' from the Institute of Jewish Global Affairs website:

http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowP..._Relations

Thanks Mark. I like it when people can back up their arguments with pertinent documentation. Wish I could! My Rudd-got-rolled-over-the-mining-tax theory is only based on a feeling that has come over me after half-watching the tv news during the few months build-up to this week's events.

These days, I'm always on the lookout for both pro-zionist bias in the media, and for evidence of resistance to the pro-zionist bias in Western politics. Rudd's expulsion of the Mossad agent struck me as a too-little-too-late gesture, perhaps intended more to placate the Australian pro-Palestinian lobby, such as it is, than to chastise Israel and thus threaten the pro-Israel lobby. If the pro-Israel lobby was threatened by Rudd's "anti-zionist activity", and they in turn set about ousting him, then all I've got to say is, by golly, ain't we in a spot of bother!

It would be interesting to dig around to get a better feel for the media climate during Whitlam's time, with a view to determining whether the displeasure Whitlam caused the Jewish community was translated into anti-Whitlam bias in media organs which were indeed infuenced/owned by Jewish/pro-zionist interests. Not trying to set you homework - just adding another thing to my to-do list.

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Thanks for your post, Magda. As I said earlier, I've limited myself to half-heartedly watching free-to-air tv news only, and I do this in the hope that, in idiot-savant-like fashion, I may come to an accurate deep understanding of what the hell is going on in the world. The most striking impression I got with Rudd's downfall was that from channel to channel, as with so many other things, it was as if they were all reading from the same script. It didn't matter who owned what, it was as if the same organisation owned all of them. The unions certainly don't have that sort of power. They certainly must have been willing accomplices, having arrived at the conclusion that it would be in their best interests to ditch Rudd at this and not some later point in time, but the media was so very accomodating in providing the setting and scenery for Rudd's exit.

In the lead-up to the '07 election, I sensed early on that Rudd had been chosen to win the election. You could just tell by the way he was treated in the news, that he was the chosen one. (Not blokey enough to catch the bloke vote? Tell 'em that yarn about him getting caught in a strip club in the States! Want to make doubly sure of the result? Get some Lib insiders to drop some racially offensive leaflets in people's letterboxes. Then tip off the local Labor Party staffers...)

It's all very man-behind-the-curtain-ish, it seems to me.