While the “no spin zone” is a slogan of the program from which Bill O’Reilly PP spins everything from the perspective of what advantages the 1%, it could be just as easily applied as an Orwellian descriptor to the whole operations of the Fox News Channel. That media asset of the News Corporation is the number one cable network in the USA and it operates under the slogan of “Fair and Balanced” while it runs round the clock propaganda for the interests of the powerful and privileged. It achieves remarkable success in capturing most of its viewers (some claims say more than 90%) as voters for the GOP, the party of less taxation for rich people, less regulation for corporations and just less for others.

A high percentage of viewers would be trained to accept that President Obama may not be legitimate (born in the USA), may not be Christian (probably Muslim), is a socialist and very radical, and that he may not have the best interests of America at heart. Many of those same viewers would fight vehemently against a national healthcare scheme which would give security to all Americans; they would see the American government as their enemy; they would be convinced millionaires and billionaires should be more loved and less taxed.

The practices of the Fox News Channel revolve around keeping the audience afraid and enraged. Those who stand between the very wealthy and greater wealth must be labelled, vilified, and dismissed.

The tactics of its “news folk” and commentators include stacked panels, name-calling, talking over shouting down any opposition, having a ready supply of villains that the audience will have Pavlovian responses to, and of course feeding the perceptions they create that suit the narratives that serve their corporate masters so well.

Australians are seeing Fox News Channelled in Australia by News Corporation’s Australian operations and particularly in not too subtle form on The Contrarians hosted by News Ltd’s Peter van Onselen.

Setting the scene in Australia– just a regular Friday afternoon

The scene is The Contrarians and the time is 27 July 2012. The setting is the studios of Sky News, a “little bit” owned by the News Corporation. The leading player is a rising star of the News Ltd stable in Australia Peter van Onselen supported by three of the regular boys who make up his Friday afternoon debating club were opposing views are beaten by being silenced. The agenda is unchanged from that of the last two years where every opportunity must be taken to be rid of the Prime Minister and her government.

When that government is presiding over an economy that is one of the best performing in the world, the spin doctors have to work overtime. The spinning has to be into areas where reality has to be manufactured, where unadulterated hate has to be given expression, and where credibility has to be stretched far beyond the bounds of common sense and the manufactured rage has to be fed. That is the zone that News Corporation’s Fox News channel operates in in the United States of America where FNC runs its relentless propaganda for the 1%. The same multinational conglomerate in its Australian operations is dragging our public discourse in the same direction.

In recent times PVO has called the Australian Prime Minister a liar, a terrible PM and on this program “a complete joke of the PM”. He has suggested the Australian Treasurer is stupid and a “parody of a human being.” He has stacked his panels over the last two years so that any rational debate and civil discourse about issues or the economy is impossible. He takes every opportunity to present whatever is happening in Australia in the worst possible light for the Prime Minister and her government.

The ultimate spin – why did the Prime Minister fail to bring in a “new big fat tax”

On this day the News Ltd man launches an attack on the Prime Minister for not agreeing to a levy proposed by the premiers that would cover the costs of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

If the petulant commentator can’t get the Labor caucus to elect Kevin Rudd as their leader, then he thinks a levy with which his former boss could have a picnic with as another “big fat tax” brought in by the Labor government would be a good idea.

He spins wildly saying that the coalition premiers had suggested it and that that would give Julia Gillard cover. Of course that would be a persuasive argument for all those who believe that Kevin Rudd’s return to the prime ministership would improve Labor’s chances in the election. Others however would think that if the Prime Minister was so gullible that “a complete joke of a partisan propagandist posing as a journalist” pushing for a “new big fat tax” would persuade her to introduce that tax then it would feed that propagandist’s claim that she was “a complete joke of a PM.”

But the Prime Minister, who happens to be a woman, is too smart to him and that appears to be causing the News Ltd host some distress.

PVO wins PVO arranged debate – score 4 – 0

But there is a consolation for him. The gathered boys on this afternoon may argue about the finer points of things but they are with one voice in their condemnation of the Prime Minister. Troy Bramston, now firmly entrenched with the News Ltd press is almost as vehement against the Prime Minister as any of the boys pushing the coalition agenda.

Others think that the boys are upset because the Prime Minister has outsmarted them again.

Beware a petulant child or a wounded bully

PVO mocks the PM’s ability as a public speaker.

He then seethes hatred by saying something she did, which others saw just as an interpretation of something by someone with a vested interest, was “pathetically reprehensible.”

One of his sidekicks bounces off PVO’s pettiness with several references to “she”.

He vents his vengeful anger mentioning Kevin Rudd and 28%.

He put his pettiness on display by seeking to deny the Prime Minister any credit for the NDIS describing her efforts as “half-baked trial… No matter how irrelevant it is qualitatively” accusing her of “masquerading herself as”…

PVO is becoming a cesspool of contempt and hatred, his facial expressions twisted in frustration that the Prime Minister may get some credit for bringing the National Disability Insurance Scheme to the stage where some trials can be implemented.

There is no one who has been lobbying for such a scheme or representing the beneficiaries of such a scheme anywhere in sight of this Friday afternoon boy’s club.

Credit where credit is due – likewise for discredit

To his credit PVO has the senior journalist from Sky News, David Spears on the program. To his discredit he introduces him with the class of a discredited used car salesman. Being used to getting his own way on this program, as evidenced by his panel in total agreement with him about how terrible the PM is, he seeks to push David Spiers in that direction.

To his credit David Spears is a good journalist who has a vested interest in maintaining some credibility for Sky News. Not so creditable is appearing with this gathering of young men that is no more than a propaganda fest attacking the Australian Prime Minister and her government and promoting the election of a more corporate friendly government.

PVO’s performance while David Spears is on camera is as much an abuse of his privileged position and a good example of what happens at FNC where every effort is made to silence anything that is not the corporate line.

PVO  suggests his News Ltd co-panellist is making funny faces while David Spears is talking. Because Spears is giving an interpretation of events whereby the Prime Minister has negotiated agreements with some of the bigger states to trial the NDIS without the callousness and hate that The Contrarians traffic in, PVO somehow thinks he should be working for the Julia Gillard or the government.

Again it is worth noting, Bramston the other News Ltd man on the panel is at times just as hateful as his News Ltd colleague.

Another of the panellists pushes David Spears to say that the Prime Minister should have introduced a “big fat tax” to fund the scheme.

PVO just spins and spins and spins and of course in the best Fox News Channel tradition accuses the journalist of spinning. This is straight out of the Fox 101.

As PVO acts like a joke of a commentator/reporter/journalism academic, he calls the PM a joke.

Very bravely he says in his News Ltd bubble that she (that would be the PM) was frightened politically. Another very brave panellist ensconced in the same bubble makes a comment “about the most spineless way of governing” and all because she did not introduce a tax or levy to fund the NDIS which would give Tony Abbott and the News Ltd chorus free kicks all the way to the next election.

Is it funny I put this thread up 24 hours ago and not one liberal supporter come on and said it was all B/S

So it looks like you all know that News Limited is the propaganda arm of the liberal party.

Who cares?

Just like the ABC is the propaganda arm of the ALP.