Murdoch Journalists Spin for Israel

Two journalists abandon journalism to push Zionist spin in a puff piece featuring Israeli teens — it’s an Orwellian campaign to convince the world that evil is good.

Australian stand-up comedy has always had a uniqueness about it that the rest of the world struggles to match – it's less about landing punchlines and more about conveying the raw, unfiltered truth of everyday life with biting wit, dry irony, and a fearless disregard for political correctness.

So, this morning, when I hopped online to read my daily dose of The Australian, I didn’t expect journalism — I expected spin. But what I found was something far worse: a version of comedy so warped and propagandistic it pushed satire and so-called truth-telling to embarrassingly unacceptable lows.

Murdoch is undeniably proud of the paper considered the flagship of his empire. But it seems The Australian has not only lost its ability to report news — it’s now trying its hand at political theatre. Today, it published a video entitled “Fighting for Israel: The Kids Who Have the Country’s Back.” The video is a blatant act of propaganda, fronted by two of the paper’s most ideologically entrenched journalists, and a shameless attempt to sanitise Israel’s military campaign in Gaza while repackaging war crimes as moral courage.

The segment glorifies teenage Israeli conscripts preparing to enter the IDF, wrapped in patriotic visuals and underscored by a stirring soundtrack. But beneath the polished surface lies a deeply dishonest narrative — one that erases the truth of Israel’s ongoing assault: the mass killings of civilians, the destruction of infrastructure, and the international outcry now mounting against the Israeli state.

Yoni Bashan and Liam Mendes are not engaging in journalism. They are engaging in grotesque spin — propagandists trying to convince Australians that evil is good, that occupation is liberation, and that collective punishment is somehow a noble duty.

These two conservative media fixtures present the segment with rehearsed warmth and a hollow gravitas. There is no interrogation of Israeli policy, no mention of Gaza, and no inclusion of Palestinian voices. Their tone is one of fawning admiration for the Israeli war machine — dressed up as “reporting.”

Both journalists aren’t behaving as journalists but as political operatives. They’ve forfeited credibility in favour of ideological messaging, knowingly deceiving the public under the guise of news. This is not reporting — it’s image-laundering for a regime under investigation for genocide. It’s shameful. It’s dangerous.

And it’s emblematic of something bigger: the collapse of media ethics in Australia. When ideology overrides inquiry, and loyalty to foreign policy interests replaces public accountability, journalism ceases to exist.

The segment’s core message is unmistakable: young Israeli soldiers are selfless heroes, standing between civilisation and chaos. Their looming military service is framed not as participation in one of the most disproportionate bombardments of civilians in recent history, but as a feel-good rite of passage.

The message is not just misleading. It is morally depraved.

The video’s manipulation is surgical. For the observant viewer, it’s clear this is not documentary — it’s fantasy. A carefully choreographed PR campaign, designed to reframe one of the greatest moral crises of our time into a triumphalist story. Bashan and Mendes aren’t observers — they are collaborators in a propaganda war, trying to make evil look virtuous.

The message aligns perfectly with the well-rehearsed script pushed by Australia’s pro-Israel lobby — especially the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), which has long pressured local media to present Israel as a perpetual victim. Former ABC editor John Lyons has spoken at length about how AIJAC’s influence has stifled any critical coverage of Israel. That culture of fear clearly now runs deep at the paper.

The video isn’t just missing facts — it erases an entire population.

Its timing also jars with Australia’s shifting political and public sentiment. Just last month, the Albanese government backed Palestinian statehood at the UN — a historic move signalling disgust at Israel’s campaign of ethnic cleansing, a campaign built on land stolen with the help of Britain and the US in 1948. A recent Lowy Institute poll found 62% of Australians support a ceasefire in Gaza, with nearly half believing Israel has used disproportionate force.

And yet, The Australian offers a parallel universe — one in which Palestinians don’t exist, and Israeli militarism is not just defensible, but virtuous.

By erasing Palestinians from the story, The Australian is legitimising their slaughter. It isn’t just journalistic failure — it’s editorial apartheid. And the implications go far beyond outrage. When media platforms elevate ideology over fact, they become complicit in the violence they choose not to report. They don’t just shape opinion — they embolden impunity and obstruct justice.

As one of Australia’s most influential publications, The Australian should be ashamed. It’s not simply failing its audience — it’s failing humanity. In any other context, this would be called what it is: state-aligned propaganda. But because it involves Israel, it’s published as news.

Australia’s media must now ask itself a basic question: does it want to tell the truth — or produce ideological entertainment?

The Australian’s latest offering makes it clear. It’s already made its choice.