Must not mention black child neglect on TV

Reports of chronic failure by Australian Aborigines to look after their children are legion but you have to be "sensitive" about mentioning it, apparently. Background to the story is that the Australian government gives thousands of dollars to anyone who has a baby in Australia (the "baby bonus"). But do-gooders complain that many poorer parents spend the money "unwisely" on liquor, gambling, etc. That people might be entitled to spend their own money in their own way is not considered, apparently.

"A NINE Network news broadcast last year had racist overtones towards Aboriginal people in a news story, the media watchdog has found. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) says the news story, which dealt with changes to the baby bonus for parents with gambling and addiction problems, "gave undue emphasis to race in a number of ways".

ACMA investigated the segment, broadcast on March 19, 2008, after receiving a complaint that it exhibited racist overtones by using the term "deadbeat parents" directly followed by footage of Aboriginal communities.

The watchdog found that in giving undue emphasis to race Nine breached the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice. The racist overtones included "using words conveying that Aboriginal people have drinking and gambling problems and treating Aboriginal people in the footage less sensitively than other parents featured in the item".

There was no public-interest justification for the emphasis when discussing problems affecting Australian parents generally, the ACMA said.

Nine said the report was limited to a factual overview of the scheme together with an account of a new payment method similar to that operating in Aboriginal communities.

Source

That Australian Aborigines (like American Indians) have HUGE alcohol problems is the simple truth, and a truth well-known to anybody who has the slightest knowledge of Aborigines. But there seem to be some invisible limits on when and where you can mention that.

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

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