Media bias?

Max Chugg
Pro-aboriginal bias in the media has become a serious threat to democracy in this state, involving, as it does, a restriction on freedom of speech. For example, “The Examiner” posted a letter from Trudy Maluga but would not publish my response:

“If Trudy Maluga is as concerned about historical truth as she pretends, she should produce evidence in support of her claim that “In 1804 Col. William Paterson shot and killed Aborigines at George Town. In “The Examiner of 24/9/2003, Michael Mansell made an identical claim about Paterson killing Aborigines at Georgetown, and cited “Historical Records of Aust, 3.1, pp 606/6” to support this nonsense.

The record that Michael Mansell cited states that about eighty natives attempted to take away everything they saw at a camp where three soldiers were present. When the soldiers intervened, the Aborigines “came to close quarters, seized the Serjeant and wanted to throw him over a rock into the sea” which placed the guard “under the unpleasant alternative of defending themselves, and fired upon them, killed one and wounded another.”

There was no massacre, and, as only one Aborigine was known to have died from the two shots that were fired, as a last resort, in self defence, no “killings” either. Paterson was not present when this incident occurred, and, contrary to Michael Mansell’s claims, could not have ordered the killings. In fact, when Paterson heard of this incident he issued a warning that anyone mistreating the Aborigines would receive severe punishment.

As for the “massacre” at Risdon, the evidence of White, a convict, was given 26 years after the alleged event, and conflicts totally with the official records of the time as well as with logic. How could the massacre of a large number of Aborigines be concealed for so many years in such a small community?

Perhaps, if Trudy Maluga is genuinely concerned about the massacre of aborigines by white settlers, she might like to research the number of illegal Aboriginal deaths that took place when sealers raided the Aboriginal camps at night, shooting the men and abducting the women. The thefts, rapes and murders of which her sign complains were all crimes committed illegally to a very large degree, by the sealers of Bass Strait.”

It seems that publication is guaranteed for anything written by any member of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, however fanciful. Yet evidence supported by verifiable rebuttal is much less likely to be published. In this way, factually incorrect statements emanating from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre obtain an aura of authenticity because they appear to have remained unchallenged.

An outcome of this policy of media submission to the whims of the State government was the payment of $5 million in compensation to the so-called “Stolen Generation”. The catalyst for these payments was obviously the “Bringing Them Home Report”, which clearly indicates that not only was there never a policy of targeting children of Aboriginal descent from their parents, but that the government went to extraordinary lengths to avoid such removals.