TRUE OPINION: A new style of tabloid is perhaps the correct antidote for the murky, corrupt and strange times we find ourselves in, writes Irfan Yusuf.
The word “tabloid” gets thrown around a lot to describe certain types of media. Tabloids are supposed to say things in simple language. They are feisty and opinionated. They shock and generate an emotional response.
Nothing wrong with that, is there? We’re all emotional beings. Sometimes we need to be shocked. Who wants to read a PhD thesis just to find out what’s going on in the world? Certainly not me, even though I’m trying to write one at the moment.
My PhD thesis is about young Australians who happen to identify as part of this massive section of humanity known as “Muslim”. They only make up around 5% of the Australian population. But as we all know, they have a tendency toward violence. They don’t like Australia and their loyalties are to some overseas caliphate. They secretly want to make everyone eat halal food. Unlike real Australians, they bash their wives and circumcise their daughters. We seriously need to think whether we need more of them in this country, especially since many of them are queue jumpers. Oh, and they come here and go on the dole.
Does all this sound familiar to you? If so, why would I need to write a PhD thesis when I can just read the Daily Telegraph or the Herald Sun? Or watch Sky News Australia after dark? Or listen to Alan Jones?
Tabloid media are an important conduit of information. But they also are a conduit of prejudice. And double standards. And hypocrisy. What’s good for the Muslim goose is never good for the gander rioting on a Sydney beach. If a young Sudanese-Australian woman tweets about ANZAC day, the tabloid media throw mud at her and pressure politicians to deprive her of her source of income. The same tabloid voices will champion assorted neo-Nazis and COVIdiots occupying a monument to the diggers, causing grave offence to our veterans.
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Speaking of COVID, isn’t it funny how so much COVIdiocy comes out of Fox News, the outlet owned by the same American citizen as the Tele and the Hun? The same outlet that spent so much of its time promoting the COVIDiocy of Donald Trump. But if you ever wanted to work at Fox News, you have to be fully vaccinated. Some 90% of their full-time employees are. So while their pundits are encouraging people not to wear masks and to express their “freedom” by opposing vaccine mandates, the staff supporting the pundits have all had their jabs.
Ordinary Aussies aren’t stupid. Thanks to the internet, the average punter doesn’t need to pick up a copy of the Tele or the Hun. The old tabloids are fast losing their appeal and the new and more nuanced tabloid media is appearing.
The new tabloids are allowing more diverse voices to be heard. They are accessible and cheap. They sometimes hide behind a paywall, but punters know they are getting information that is well-researched as well as a broader range of opinions.
The website you’re reading is part of this new tabloid media movement. We’re not here to teach you to hate minorities. Our editor has spent most of his journalistic life defending gender and sexual minorities. People who write for this site are from Left, Right and left right out.
The focus is on true crime. But crime isn’t just about violence. It’s also about hatred, prejudice, hypocrisy, injustice, false patriotism and science denial.
If you consider crime in its broader sense, it’s obvious the old tabloids have been getting away with murder.
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