Knott a good look

Is it any wonder that social media and alternative sources of information are winning the battle over the mainstream?

Nine papers foreign affairs journalist Matthew Knott has been a key media figure inserting particular narratives around Israels action in Gaza (source: YouTube).

In the wake of the Labor government’s decision to recognise the State of Palestine next month, Nine newspapers senior journalist Matthew Knott posted an article entitled ‘Albanese faces backlash after Hamas praises PM’s “courage” on Palestinian recognition’. In it he claimed that Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef had welcomed Albanese’s decision to recognise Palestine, quoting him personally as the source of the praise.

It is not clear whether the article was a gift for or by the Israel lobby, but there was little doubt it was a premeditated intervention by a sympathetic journalist with ambitions well beyond the reportage of important events: Knott clearly sees himself as a player despite being beaten up at the National Press Club in the past by Paul Keating and Francesca Albanese.

Knott’s article cited a direct quote from a man who has been in solitary confinement since October 2023. Thanks largely to questions posed and investigations undertaken by Ronni Salt and Aaron Smith, the article was quietly and subsequently re-written to fudge the authenticity of the source which had also been questioned in the Australian Financial Review. More embarrassingly, Knott was defenestrated from his planned appearance on Insiders a few days later, although the program’s host David Speers and replacement guest James Massola echoed his arguments on the program without correction.

The program was also notable for the spectacle of journalists publicly commenting on Gaza who had only just discovered that Hamas has political, charitable, administrative and militant wings across the Levant. When after two years you have consistently refused to interview the very small number of authorities on the subject (eg Norman Finkelstein, Tareq Baconi), this should not be a surprise. But it is embarrassing to hear.

Predictably, the ‘Hamas backs Albanese’ line of attack was quickly taken up by excited conservatives in the Institute of Public Affairs and Michaela Cash, Sussan Ley, James Patterson, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Alexander Downer in the Liberal Party. Suddenly, after two years of discrediting Hamas’s claims about civilian casualties and Israel’s crimes in Gaza, Albanese’s opponents embraced the “terrorist organisation” as an impeccable source of information. To the question ‘how do we know when Hamas is telling the truth?’, their unstated answer seemed to be ‘only when it criticises the Albanese Government’.

Miffed that they missed the Hamas scoop, The Australian (Cameron Stewart and Chris Kenny) nevertheless developed their own confusions by claiming simultaneously that recognition of Palestine was both "meaningless" and “symbolic” from a "marginal player in the Middle East", but nevertheless driving Israel's expansionists settlement policy: which is it? The best answer is “neither”, but it doesn’t make for earnest, headline-making copy that would please those who paid for your junkets to Israel.

Unwilling to stray from official orthodoxy on Gaza, the ABC announced that News Corp reptile Claire Armstrong would be next through the revolving door connecting the public broadcaster directly with its commercial competitors. Announced as the new ABC chief digital honcho, Armstrong’s final efforts for the Herald-Sun included two tabloid front pages amplifying the the ‘Hamas backs Albanese’ attack line of Australia’s local Likudniks: ‘A win for Hamas’ and ‘Two Face Solution’.

It’s just as well readers buy the paper for its sport coverage, the Harvey Norman wrap-arounds and think Hamas is a Middle Eastern dip for their crackers. But it does say a lot about the death of a public broadcasting ethos at the ABC, when both management and journalists are recruited, without re-programming, from the very same pool that Murdoch’s minions swim in.

Is it any wonder that social media and alternative sources of information are winning the battle over the mainstream?