Recidivist ‘ruperter’, Sophie Elsworth is the national personal finance writer and columnist for News Corp. She has been whining about the Victorian government’s handling of its Covid-19 outbreaks for well over a year1,2.
However, she never seems to complain about the federal government’s incompetence, which was manifest even before the pandemic arrived on our shores and has continued subsequently3.
Nothing much seems to have changed. A couple of days ago. Elsworth tweeted this:
“Kids as young as 10 have been fined $40 for not wearing a face mask. How utterly unsurprising this is happening in Victoria.”4
The Victoria Police replied to this assertion with:
“People under the age of 18 can be fined for failing to comply with the Chief Health Officer’s directions. It is Victoria Police policy that infringement notices, regardless of what they are for, are not issued to anyone under 14 years of age.”5
This sort of thing is symptomatic of Elsworth’s constant fact-free drivel. A previous effort was even more bizarre. In the middle of August, Elsworth tweeted:
“Another new low in Melbourne, Australia. A mum told me today in bayside there was a police helicopter hovering over their nearby park to move people on. Came from a playground area to the park. Kids were there kicking footballs etc. This is beyond comprehension.”6
Again, Victoria Police had to disabuse Elsworth as she clearly had not made the slightest effort trying to verify the assertion. They replied:
“We can confirm that there is no truth to this story. Apart from deploying our choppers along the NSW state border, we are not using them in other parts of Victoria to monitor breaches of CHO directions.”
Elsworth later deleted the initial idiotic tweet7.
Not content with merely regurgitating drivel, Elsworth made sure that many realised she was out of her depth attempting ‘journalism’. She replied:
“Parents were talking about it this afternoon. Would be good to clarify what it was then”7
Many people replied, mostly pouring scorn on her lack of journalistic ability. Others did Elsworth’s job for her and found out that the ‘police helicopter’ in questions was actually a Nine News helicopter.
It would be almost acceptable if this was purely due to incompetence on Elsworth’s part. However, it isn’t. This is what those in the Murdoch media do. They spread lies constantly in the hope that just a few people do not see the refutation of that lie, and believe that, in this case, small children are being fined and Victoria Police are flying over playgrounds keeping tabs on kids. If Elsworth was as incompetent as these instances suggest she would, by now, be in a different job. However, she is doing what she is paid to do: to spread lies for Murdoch.
Sources
- https://blotreport.com/2020/08/10/how-murdoch-ruperters-operate-24/
- https://blotreport.com/2020/09/07/the-logic-of-the-brassicas/
- https://blotreport.com/2021/08/18/the-morrison-nightmare/
- https://twitter.com/sophieelsworth/status/1456398879360880643
- https://twitter.com/VictoriaPolice/status/1456526889892388870
- https://junkee.com/sophie-elsworth-police-helicopters/305780
- https://twitter.com/VictoriaPolice/status/1427539718871273476
Another mention for the histrionic and clearly unhinged Elsworth, matched by the similarly hyperbolic tosh from The Australian’s editorial (presumably written by Ed in Chief Michelle Gunn). These fcukers ought to be put in public stocks with their fwitted comments on a billboard above them. Their attempts to bring American rw outrage to this country is a danger to democracy and the orderly functioning of a civil society.
I’m sure I’ve said it before, but …
A pox on all extreme commentators who misrepresent, exaggerate wildly, and attempt to foment trouble, especially those benighted fools and regurgitators at SKY and various other Murdoch outlets.
https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/did-news-corp-target-the-abc-and-stan-grant-the-answer-s-in-the-numbers-20230524-p5daxm.html
Jon,
It does not surprise me that the Murdoch media have whined that it wasn’t them, when it very clearly was. All they do is lie. It is their business model, imported directly from Murdoch’s US outlets. If we do not get rid of them from the Australian media landscape, we are likely doomed, much like the US will be if they don’t get rid of them.