This is an evolving letter being variously sent to publishers in 2012 requesting expression of interest in publishing a book with e present title “ABC Censorship. What the ABC does not want you to know” (alternative title "Censorship by the ABC. What the ABC does not want you to know) and based on material being reported on the "ABC Censorship" and "Censorship by the ABC" websites.
Dear Sir/Madam,
Request for expression of interest in publishing “ABC Censorship. What the ABC does not want you to know” (alternative title "Censorship by the ABC. What the ABC does not want you to know) (work in progress).
I am a 5 decade career scientist who like other scientists is appalled by the huge gulf between general public perception about all kinds of matters as compared to that of credentialled scholars. This perception gap is acutely serious in the area of climate change. Scientists despair for humanity and the biosphere because of resolute political inaction and spin-driven lying by omission and commission by oligopoly Mainstream media in the ostensibly democratic Western countries in particular.
The book I am writing is entitled “ABC Censorship. What the ABC does not want you to know” (alternative title "Censorship by the ABC. What the ABC does not want you to know) but could just as well be written about the US ABC or the UK BBC. My book not only exposes media lying by omission and commission but also penetrates the Mainstream media Wall of Silence to inform the public about matters of immense importance that are kept under wraps by Mainstream media lying.
Rational risk management, that for example has made passenger aviation so safe, successively involves (a) accurate information, (b) scientific analysis (this involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses) and (c) informed systemic change to minimize risk. Unfortunately this process is typically and dangerously perverted by (a) lies, censorship, intimidation, lying by omission and commission, (b), anti-science spin, this involving the selective use of asserted facts to support a partisan position, and (c) blame and shame of convenient targets with no systemic change and disastrous inhibition of crucial primary reportage.
The reasons for this short-circuiting of rational risk management by Mainstream media lying are variously greed, corporate dishonesty, political corruption and pathological self-deception as revealed by the following quotations (see “Mainstream Media Lying”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/ ).
Peter Carey: “If you really want to know what's happening [in] the world, you go out and get drunk with journalists and they will tell you what isn't in the papers.”
UK Prime Minister David Lloyd George telling C P Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian about reportage of the Western Front carnage of World War 1: "If the people really knew [the truth] the war would be stopped tomorrow. But of course they don't know and can't know."
Arundhati Roy: “The ultimate privilege of the élite is not just their deluxe lifestyles, but deluxe lifestyles with a clear conscience.”
The taxpayer-funded Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Australia’s equivalent of the UK BBC, has a crucial role in informing the public in a society in which Mainstream media are grossly deficient. Oligopoly-controlled Australian media are dominated by the climate change denialist Murdoch Empire that has 70% of the newspaper readership, with the remainder dominated by the rather more progressive but still conservative and agenda-driven Fairfax media empire.
Unfortunately, the ABC has interpreted its need for “balance” as a requirement for massive censorship of reportage. Extraordinary ABC censorship is objectively revealed by the ABC Search engine that enables one to search the “entire ABC site”. This device has been used to explore the dimensions of massive ABC censorship that is egregiously against the national interest. Indeed a website called “ABC Censorship” has been created in the public interest to publicly document ABC mal-reportage, non-reportage, lying by omission and lying by commission (see: https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/ ). Some examples of ABC censorship are given below.
1. Top electrical engineer Professor Peter Seligman (a major player in the development of the bionic ear; University of Melbourne) has published a very important book on how Australia can rapidly achieve 100% renewable energy ( “Australian Sustainable Energy – By the Numbers”). However an ABC Search of “the entire ABC site” for “peter seligman” produces 3 results (all posted listener comments, 2 by me) whereas an ABC Search for non-scientist, climate change denialist and propagandist ‘lord monckton” yields 151 results (24 April 2012).
2. Ignoring 5 irrelevant reports, every other report obtained from a “clean gas” ABC Search of the “entire ABC site” (28 in all) contains a false claim of methane or natural gas as “clean gas” whereas the converse is true, specifically that methane is dirty energy, it is not clean energy, it generates the dirty greenhouse gas (GHG) CO2 on combustion and indeed methane burning for power can be worse GHG-wise than coal burning.
3. In 2009 the German Advisory Council on Climate Change (WBGU) determined that for a 75% chance of avoiding a 2 degree Centigrade temperature rise, the World must pollute less than 600 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) between 2010 and essentially zero emissions in 2050. Unfortunately Australia (through disproportionately huge annual fossil fuel burning and exports) had already used up its “fair share” of this terminal greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution “budget” by mid-2011. ABC Searches for “WBGU” and “600 billion tonnes” respectively yield 2 results (both posted listener comments by me) and 2 relevant results (both posted listener comments by me ) .
4. There has been intense public discussion about the Australian Government’s Carbon Tax-Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). However data from the critical 2011 Treasury Report “Strong Growth, Low Pollution” , ABARE and the US EIA variously show that under the Carbon Tax Australia’s domestic GHG pollution will increase from 578 million tonnes CO2-e in 2010 to 621 million tonnes CO2-e in 2020 and Australia’s annual domestic plus exported GHG pollution will increase in 2020 to 1.7 times that in 2000 and in 2050 to 4.2-times that in 2000. Yet “tackling climate change” for a “clean energy future” means decreasing, not increasing, GHG pollution. An ABC Search for the terms “578 million tonnes”, “621 million tonnes” and “strong growth low pollution” yield 2, 2 and 0 results, respectively, whereas ABC Searches for the Gillard Labor Government’s mantras of “tackling climate change” and “clean energy future” yield 487 results and 212 results, respectively.
5. Post-invasion violent deaths in Iraq total 1.5 million and post-invasion Iraqi avoidable deaths from war-imposed deprivation total 1.2 million (see “Iraqi Holocaust, Iraqi Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/iraqiholocaustiraqigenocide/ ), yet in reporting the final withdrawal of US forces in December 2011 the ABC asserted that only “tens of thousands “ of Iraqis had died.
6. Post-invasion in Occupied Afghanistan violent deaths are estimated at 1.4 million, avoidable deaths from war-imposed deprivation total 4.2 million, and under-5 year old infant deaths total 2.9 million, 90% avoidable and due to gross, war criminal US Alliance violation of Articles 55 and 56 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War that unequivocally demand that an Occupier must supply its conquered subjects with life-sustaining food and medical requisites “to the fullest extent of the means available to it” (see “Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/afghanholocaustafghangenocide/ ). WHO informs that the annual “ total expenditure on health per capita” permitted by the US Alliance Occupiers is a mere US$69 as compared to US$7,410 for the US. Yet here in parentheses are the results of ABC Searches for the following terms: “Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War” (1; a posted listener comment evidently quoting me), “under-5 year old infant deaths” (0), and “under-5 infant deaths” (7, all posted listener comment by me).
7. The ABC has an appalling record of totally or near-totally ignoring holocaust and genocide atrocities committed by the West over the last few centuries as revealed by ABC Searches for terms such as “aboriginal genocide”, “palestinian genocide”, “iraqi genocide”, “afghan genocide”, “climate genocide”, “bengali holocaust”, and “indian holocaust” (see “Australian ABC ignores holocaust and genocide atrocities”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammedialying/australian-abc-ignores-huge-genocidal-realities and “Australia’s secret genocide history”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/australia-s-secret-genocide-history ). Of course holocaust ignoring and genocide ignoring are far, far worse than repugnant holocaust denial or genocide denial (variously criminalized in Western Europe) because “denial” at least admits the possibility of sensible debate, something which is completely excluded by “ignoring”.
8. Censorship of listener comments by the ABC evidently occurs through (a) deletion of posted comments and (b) blocking of the posting of listener comments, as exampled in the following letter sent on 18 May 2012 to Australian media and MPs:
LETTER: "Dear etc,
In Australia there is a dangerously huge gulf between the perception of reality by scientists and that of the public. Scientists are typically conservative, constrained by institutional codes of conduct, fearful of losing their crucial research grants if they speak out, and often ignored if they do. A 5-decade career scientist, I have been repeatedly censored and finally blocked from commenting on the taxpayer-funded ABC Late Night Live website and on the universities-backed and academic–based web magazine The Conversation.
The WBGU, that advises the German Government on climate change, estimated in 2009 that the world must emit no more than 600 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) before 2050 if it is to have a 75% chance of avoiding a catastrophic 2 degrees Centigrade temperature rise. Australia’s annual per capita domestic plus exported greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution is so high (over 70 times that of Bangladesh) that it exceeded its “fair share” of this terminal GHG pollution budget by mid-2011. Worse still, Australia’s commitment to unlimited gas, coal and iron ore exports means that, given Australia’s huge resources of these materials, it is committed to polluting the atmosphere with over 3 times the world’s total terminal GHG pollution budget.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Gideon Polya (contact details).
For details and documentation see “Australia threatens world with GHGs from unlimited coal, gas and iron ore exports”, Bellaciao, 15 May 2012: http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article21922 and “2011 Climate Change Course”: https://sites.google.com/site/300orgsite/2011-climate-change-course ." END LETTER.
Censorship by the ABC is being obligatorily reported on the websites "ABC Censorship": https://sites.google.com/site/abccensorship/ and "Censorship by ABC Late Night Live": https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbyabclatenightlive/home . See also “Censorship by The Conversation”: https://sites.google.com/site/mainstreammediacensorship/censorship-by ; “Censorship by the BBC”: https://sites.google.com/site/censorshipbythebbc/ ; and “Australian Internet Censorship by Australian Government-funded ABC
and universities-backed The Conversation”, Countercurrents, 10 May 2012: http://www.countercurrents.org/polya100512.htm .
My book when completed will involve about 100,000 words, have a chapter-by-chapter compilation of documenting notes, a detailed bibliography, and a comprehensive index.
In summary, my book in progress “ABC Censorship. What the ABC does not want you to know” (alternative title "Censorship by the ABC. What the ABC does not want you to know) will simultaneously (a) document ABC censorship, lying by omission and falsehood by commission, (b) address the major problem of Mainstream media lying that threatens humanity and the biosphere and (c) inform readers of appalling realities that are ignored by Mainstream media and specifically by the taxpayer-funded Australian ABC.
This work is inspired by Polish war hero Jan Karski who tried to tell the world about the Jewish Holocaust as it was happening. Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. A brief summary of my working life as a 5-decade career scientist is provided below.
I look forward to your response.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Gideon Polya (contact details).
Dr Gideon Polya was born in Melbourne, 1944. He achieved BSc (Tasmania), PhD (Biochemistry; Flinders), postdocs at Cornell University, New York and as a Queen Elizabeth II Fellow at Australian National University, Canberra, and has been teaching science students at La Trobe University, Melbourne, near-continuously for 4 decades. He published some 130 works in a 5 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London , 2003). He has published “Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950” (G.M. Polya, Melbourne, 2007: http://globalbodycount.blogspot.com/ ); see also his contributions “Australian complicity in Iraq mass mortality” in “Lies, Deep Fries & Statistics” (edited by Robyn Williams, ABC Books, Sydney, 2007: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ockham/stories/s1445960.htm ) and “Ongoing Palestinian Genocide” in “The Plight of the Palestinians (edited by William Cook, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2010: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/4047-the-plight-of-the-palestinians.html ). He has published a revised and updated 2008 version of his 1998 book “Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History” (see: http://janeaustenand.blogspot.com/ ) as biofuel-, globalization- and climate-driven global food price increases threaten a greater famine catastrophe than the man-made famine in British-ruled India that killed 6-7 million Indians in the “forgotten” World War 2 Bengal Famine (see recent BBC broadcast involving Dr Polya, Economics Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen and others: http://www.open2.net/thingsweforgot/ bengalfamine_programme.html ). When words fail one can say it in pictures - for images of Gideon Polya's huge paintings for the Planet, Peace, Mother and Child see: http://sites.google.com/site/artforpeaceplanetmotherchild/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/gideonpolya/ .