GrodsCorp

Family First stifles free speech

Wednesday 24 October 2007, 8:37 pm

The Editor

Tags: FamilyFirst, FreeSpeech, JemmaTribe, YouTube

After GrodsCorp (along with Jeremy, Bruce and AV) linked to a horrid YouTube video of Family First candidate Jemma Tribe the other day, director Josh Reid’s YouTube channel’s hits went up 1000% as viewers took part in the democratic process by engaging with Jemma’s stated policies and values through the comments feature. A couple of hours ago when I checked there were about ten comments, most of which were negative about Family First and Jemma Tribe’s policies. Upon checking just now there were only two comments — both of which were positive — plus embedding and rating had been disabled.

Never accuse Family First of being unable to deal with criticism.

UPDATE (25/10): After reading this post and being confronted with his free speech-hating ways, Josh Reid has deleted the two fawning comments on the video from Family First staffers.

9 Comments

AV (Wednesday 24 October 2007, 9:15 pm) #

Fortunately Reid has so far neglected to do likewise with his Kubrickian debut masterpiece, Wish.
Bruce (Wednesday 24 October 2007, 9:20 pm) #

Bud Tingwell’s karate chop was a class act…
Bruce (Wednesday 24 October 2007, 9:21 pm) #

Incidentally, I wonder if the positive comments come from sock puppets, or from the other FF Staffers who participated in the Vox pops.
AV (Wednesday 24 October 2007, 9:40 pm) #

More Reid magic:

Prehistoric Cavemen

The Volunteer series (which is just begging for a big screen adaptation–is Rob Schneider available?)
Jeremy (Wednesday 24 October 2007, 10:33 pm) #

“Fortunately Reid has so far neglected to do likewise with his Kubrickian debut masterpiece, Wish.”

He’s deleted the negative comments, though.
AV (Wednesday 24 October 2007, 10:44 pm) #

That’s one way to deal with criticism. I prefer this method.
More on Australian “Right-Wing” Christendom’s war on open society « The Thinkers’ Podium (Thursday 25 October 2007, 2:30 am) #

[…] the Editor is speculating on Family First’s dedication to free speech. This is because in addition to removing embedding, the comments following on from the clip have […]
Jeremy (Thursday 25 October 2007, 1:29 pm) #

I wouldn’t mind if the Fundy First candidates like Jemma were prepared to debate in an open form. But their campaign strategy is dependent on NOT answering questions, and simply repeating ad nauseam vague homilies about families.

Every fundy first candidate should be asked:
1. Given the support your party has received from Exclusive Brethren, do you agree with their policy of separating members from their families and taking children away from their parents? If not, would you support measures to assist people whose families are being broken up by the Brethren?
2. If you’re not a religious party, why do you attend at church meetings and tell them that you’re advocating for christ? If you are, then why do you keep denying christ?
3. Why do you think a 10c/litre cut in petrol tax would not simply be absorbed by the petrol companies within months. Have you costed this promise? How much would it take out of public revenue?
Adam (Sunday 28 October 2007, 6:23 pm) #

Someone pointed out to me a FF “Greens = drugs” propaganda video on YouTube a while ago. In response I copied and pasted a bunch of lines from the Greens’ drugs policy outlining how the Greens support penalties for drivers driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, don’t support the legalisation of any drugs that are currently illegal, recognising the damage illicit drugs cause etc. I checked back a day or two later and the video had been removed.