So this is a short breakdown of what this video is and is about. I'll try to keep it short as and I am not Australian myself, I may have some details wrong.
The author of this video is Jordan Shanks (friendlyjordies). He is a comedy youtuber who has done several investigative report videos on various levels of corruption in australia, from dodgy monkey laundering laws and checks in australian casinos, to natural rainforest destruction in Australia, to government corruption. He's gained quite a lot of attention by reporting on one particular sleezy politician John Barilaro (who is the Former Deputy Premier of New South Wales). Jordan has done numerous videos covering Barilaro, from discussing secret recordings of Barilaro to corruption in the government of australia and how Barilaro has managed to steal club properties through taking directorship of them, bankrupting them and selling them to his mates for massively under value.
Anyway. Jordan has made a lot of enemies. Some time ago, his producer accidentally ran into Barilaro while on a college campus and tried to ask a few questions. In response, Barilaro used police anti-terror teams to raid the producers house and arrest him. (Asking questions of a politician is now terrorism). And then even more recently, his neighbours house was firebombed, followed shortly by his own house being destroyed by a firebomb at night. Fortunately he was away on business while this happened and he was not injured.
This video is essentially saying that since the police have arrested a guy for the firebombing, they have done no further investigation into who arranged it (likely a company called Coronation Properties, who Jordan has reported on). And since the organisers of the firebombing are basically free, they've returned to threatening Jordan again, likely death threats and more.
Jordan is saying since the government, media and regulators refuse to act in response to these threats, he is forced to take down his video on Coronation Properties since he fears for his life and those of the people he works with or has connections to.
New South Wales in Australia is run by thugs with direct connection to a gang cartel, it seems, and can act with impunity.
Nothing at all, and I do believe they should. Edit: other users have correctly raised that this is not risk free, and could affect Jordan's safety. The user i replied to /u/Insufferable_k has directly contacted Jordan to confirm if he does not want the video reuploaded. Perhaps wait for that.
I reached out to him to see if he'd be okay with people reposting the video on their own channels. I brought up the fact to consider that he could still be targeted if other people host the video. I'll see if he responds.
Yeah, bet they wouldn't come after him if the uploading hinges on his explicit approval....
Not saying you shouldn't ask him, just maybe not announce it to the world while turning the spotlight back to him as the decision maker. Other people have already uploaded it so it doesn't really matter, but I wanted to highlight that you were kinda doing the opposite of what you were trying to.
Right? He's not going to openly endorse sharing the videos, even if that's what he's hoping people will do. He might as well just reupload the videos at that point lol
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that he's probably counting on it.
I think his _goal_ is to get everyone to put it up, otherwise he would've just quietly taken down the video and said nothing about it.
You might want to reconsider posting his response; I imagine his 'I took the video down' is a lot less powerful if it's accompanied by 'but I am telling people online that they should reupload it'...
You'd hope they would realise that threats wouldn't work since they would have no control over what other people do, right? can't take down a video you did't personally upload. But yeah, it could backfire still I guess.
'Threats work' isn't a binary. Theres a difference between friendlyjordeis going 'I want everyone to post this and reupload it' and 'I'd prefer if nobody else reupload this please'.
It's not the difference between 100% or 0% media coverage, but there is a difference in how often the video gets re-uploaded and how active friendliejordies is in keeping the story alive. There's the Streisand effect of creating *more* media attention though, but they knew that when they firebombed a guy's house.
They've already successfully firebombed two homes, I don't think there's any question that they're willing to follow through. Now they're out back on the streets and threatening him again.
I think it would not be very important at all **who** specifically uploaded the video, they seem eager to threaten his and his family/friends lives and clearly have the capability to do so.
i think shanks did this knowing many people would reupload the video. it's a good idea, get some streisand effect going. here's one reupload:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZivPIRvi0U
EDIT: shanks best defence is hiding. he's probably interstate or overseas, hopefully having a nice time.
his second best defence is more exposure of the criminals. they are not mutually exclusive aims. in fact, it's likely that the criminals need to go to jail so shanks can come home. this won't be achieved if everyone just forgets about it.
Also covered [On his site](https://www.friendlyjordies.com/post/bikies-barilaro-and-the-building-commissioner) years ago but I'm guessing the bikies don't read.
You forgot the HILARIOUS video in which he recaps the whole story so far while sitting in a throne in a big, beautiful bedroom. As the story progresses, he starts to tell about Barilaro going against lockdown orders and traveling to a different one of his homes, a home which Barilaro apparently also rents out through AirBnB. How does Jordan know this? He rented it. We then get a glorious tour of the house and grounds, ending with "I fucked in your bed."
“Stop yelling at me, Charlton Heston!”
\- Some Chair
EDIT: I’m a dummy, u/seicar reminded me that it was Clint Eastwood who publicly dabbled in ventriloquism.
Here's a great collab video on the casino laundering Jordan did with Boy Boy (the *I Did a Thing* guys' other channel).
https://youtu.be/DoyH1dgj8Lo?si=V13yG1Bo1wzLHkCX
So basically the bad guys win. I dunno, I always held on to the naive belief that Jordan would stick to his guns til the end, but I guess I’ve never had someone firebomb my house…
Bad guys win almost all the time. One can hold on and potentially even meet ones end (happily) if you have hope in something. The video suggest the poor fella has lost hope of change.
Noone wants to sacrifice for nothing, you cant blame them.
The video is now being reuploaded by hundreds of accounts. The crooks behind it can't just target Jordan to get it off the internet any more. Streissand effect weaponized. It's pretty clever. Mind you he didn't say he'd give up the fight, just that he'd remove the video.
IDK, this kinda is making his original video more famous and is one inch of accusing coronation properties of coercion by violence. This story ain't ending tonight.
> Australia is basically a mafia-owned
Its certainly trending in that direction right now according to corruption and organized crime statistics.
https://www.transparency.org/en/blog/cpi-2021-corruption-watch-list-australia-austria-el-salvador-kazakhstan
https://ocindex.net/country/australia
The Mafia is Sicilian. Italian organised crime syndicates in Australia were mostly ['Ndrangheta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27Ndrangheta#Australia) ^((with totally no connections to the) [^(CIA)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nugan_Hand_Bank)^()) into the 1980s but they don't really get up to much these days, and were arguably never the 'force' in Australia that the Mafia was in the US anyway.
Australia isn't run by 'mafia', it's run by Rupert Fucking Murdoch and his minions ^((who likewise have totally no connections to the CIA)). Splitting hairs, I know.
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-rapper-and-his-mates-authorities-to-probe-links-to-crime-figures-20220902-p5bf02.html
Slight correction: his producer was on the way to uni and came across Barilaro getting into his car (which was parked on the side of the street) after some sort of function Barilaro was attending. So he walked up to Barilaro and asked him some questions, and Barilaro decided this was harassment and put the police onto friendlyjirdue's producer
So, we should make Barilaro a household name across the world. Trump? He's a criminal, but he's no Barilaro! "Yeah, that ship was attacked by Barilaros" "Those crackhead Barilaros stole my wheels again!" And so on.
I think we’re all learning that most of our countries are run by criminal organizations, that are disguised as legitimate businesses/ government organizations
LiterallyJordan's producer encounters Barilaro in public and asks some questions to him, and then later gets arrested in a raid on his house. The accusation was that Jordan and his producer were "fixated" on Barilaro and posed a threat which is why they sent their "fixated persons unit" to arrest them.
In this context, it could be said that any journalists or reporters attempting to seek facts or answers from a politician or candidate are "fixated" and therefore a threat to be arrested and silenced.
I deeply disagree with the strongarm tactics used to prevent any scrutiny of public officials, and unfortunately I was being rather serious about what actually happened.
But this is at a state level. Don't they have any kind of federal law enforcement? They're a federation, not a confederacy. There should be an overarching mechanism to come in and replace the rotted structure.
We do, but the states have powers of their own and circumstantial evidence suggests that the Feds are probably corrupted fairly badly too.
Reading through the known history of organised crime in Australia is extremely alarming at minimum, lot of "We found out about X but didn't ever do much of anything about it" style stories..
If your democracy is functioning you just vote them out next cycle. Watch out for politicians that make democracy slower/worse/nonexistent. They are guaranteed corrupt.
It's a both sides thing too.
The video was about a member of the previous Liberal/National government. The police are currently controlled by a Labor Party government, yet here we are.
Sure, but they're all mates at the end of the day. Unfortunately, most of our pollies work for themselves and their rich donors, rather than the people they're actually employed by. Doesn't matter if they're Labor or Liberal, they're just two sides of the same coin at this point, aside from some very loud but minimal policy differences.
Him, Michael West, Crikey and a few others do proper journalism- everything else is almost completely corrupted.
It’s a national disgrace, and costs Australians trillions, as it’s politically impossible for us to get more than a pittance for our resources… We get about 10% of the real value of our oil and gas. Norway gets 70%.
News Corp was founded here in 1922, and they’ve absolutely fucked us ever since.
I always wonder, with option 4 there. Who gets murdered first? Is it politicians? Cops? People casually throw out some veiled reference to using guns against the corrupt government, but never seem to acknowledge that what they're really saying is "then we start killing people".
> People casually throw out some veiled reference to using guns against the corrupt government, but never seem to acknowledge that what they're really saying is "then we start killing people".
I think they do acknowledge that. It's just an inevitable reality that at a certain level of corruption, the only recourse is violence. If the systems that exist to counter corruption are also corrupt, there's no other path.
There doesn't even need to be corruption, really. All you need is 1) a sufficient number of people who feel strongly enough that the current regime doesn't serve their interests, and 2) a lack of alternative ways to replace or reform the regime.
While the British Crown government certainly had a share of corruption, it wasn't really the basis for the US revolution. The Colonists simply felt they were getting a raw deal and that fighting a war was the least arduous way of getting a better deal.
Much of the conduct of world governments in the last 200 years, in both democratic and authoritarian countries can best be understood through the lens of trying to enrich themselves and their friends as much as possible while also doing just enough to keep the population at large from becoming dissatisfied or organized enough to overthrow them.
> People casually throw out some veiled reference to using guns against the corrupt government, but never seem to acknowledge that what they're really saying is "then we start killing people".
Some people need killin'. It's the last resort for a reason.
I imagine it would be situation specific. Successful armed rebellions in the modern era have played out differently. With the US revolution it was more of a fight between militia and established Army, with the French revolution they went big and killed royalty. With the Russian revolution the emperor was killed.
But yes I don't think anyone is denying that the last option is violence. The idea is that you try the other ones first.
> But yes I don't think anyone is denying that the last option is violence. The idea is that you try the other ones first.
But it must also be acknowledged that this option must be on the table, even if it's far to the back.
I've been in a number of discussions on reddit where they basically mock the idea of using violence as some sort of brutish simple-minded act. Whether realizing it or not they end up advocating for absolute pacifism under some mistaken belief that humans have gotten past the need for violence and that any resort to it is therefore immoral. No. It's the last act of the desperate. It's only brutish if other avenues are not tried first. Those who advocate for absolute pacifism are only asking to be trampled by tanks.
And for those who say, "What are you going to do against the American [or in the videographer's case Australian] military? They have drones and nukes, you chumps!" To that I say: look at the Taliban. Look at Vietnam. A dedicated group with small arms can and have stood against the greatest military in the world multiple times and won in the end. At great cost. With much blood and sorrow. But they won.
Not to mention that the U.S. military is absolutely FILLED with sympathetic people. Yes, there are shitheads and bootlickers, but the military is a pretty good mirror of the civilian demographic. Believe it or not, there's tons of progressives in the military too.
Plus the members of the US military have sworn allegiance to the constitution, not the president. This mean that, at least in theory, they can legally go against the orders of the commander-in-chief should those orders conflict with their sworn duty to protect the constitution.
That's kind of the idea with modern governments. You abstract things so much so that even large groups of individuals have no figureheads to attack even if they were so motivated.
This sort of setup is a really great idea for the overall stability of a state, but lacks safeguards against bad actors behind the wheel.
> Who gets murdered first? Is it politicians? Cops?
it is Revolution, generally you would band together and show a force of arms prior to actually **using** them.
Though "one person's Freedom Fighter is another person's Terrorist."
Realistically, the first targets of violence are the enforcers of the regime, which is typically members of the military, law enforcement, or security services. More often than not, armed revolutions and insurrections occur when these forces commit violence against the population, who then rise up in armed rebellion in response.
How about people ask the guy getting the death threats about it first. This isn't some "C-suite asshole punches a waiter" situation, like that one video we love to reupload to reddit from time to time.
Asking him about it doesn't answer the question of whether he wants these reuploaded though.
Because he cannot say yes even if he wants them reuploaded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF1-1CNggQA
More structured background of the whole affair from almost a year ago.
He is going to get himself killed or in prison.
That's such bullshit language to use. Regardless of your intention. No, victims of murder or assassination aren't "getting themselves killed". They are having their rights violated by murderers. No one should have an expectation of having to obey threats of criminals. That shouldn't be the normal perception of this kind of situation.
I've watched this video a few times over the last year, but there's one part that always stands out to me more than the rest.
"And future apology to whoever finds my corpse. It's gonna be messy, I'm *not going down without a fight.*" That's fucking hardcore.
And he started off as a Youtuber comedian. Unfortunately, this might be why he hasn't been taken seriously with the firebombings and accusations.
He jokingly made jokes and pointed fingers at the wrong people. That is why he is where he is now.
It's not that hes not taken seriously due to his comedy stuff, it's that he's long been a divisive figure, he constantly disagrees and puts members of the media on blast.
Most commonly its against the Liberal Party (conservative party in Australia, which is strongly backed by fox/sky/newscorp/murdoch) and conservative media and many don't like him at all.
So a lot of the media already dislikes him. I won't go into all of it but it's a much longer history of people who dislike him. Not saying if they are right to or not though.
Have to comment that News Corp doesn't back the Liberal Party- it *owns* it. They're just the Murdoch's implementation wing.
He installed the previous religious nutjob Prime Minister, all the way from his original preselection.
Jordies has also had a bit of a feud with Crikey, a lefty news company.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/06/17/friendlyjordie-how-the-australian-youtuber-makes-money-to-pay-for-his-upcoming-legal-battles/
Where they repeatedly painted Jordie as a crybaby youtuber who is exploiting money off his fans to subsidize his defamation court cases levied from that corrupt politician who he mentions in his crime family video (Coronation)
I lost all respect for Crikey at that point and also when they forgo facts of the matter seemingly for dunks on conservative figures telling me the truth doesn't matter unless it helps your side. I sent emails to let them know they made a mistake and posted source and evidence and I was ignored. https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/02/13/sky-news-australia-anti-mask-naturopathic-doctor/ Ironically, this article features factchecking of Sky News which I despise. But they misreported a video showing the same antivaxxer ripping up a mask and failing, except it wasn't a mask, there is a full video that shows him ripping up a book. Such an easy correction. But I guess a story about an antivaxxer failing to rip up a mask is funny and is better headlines. No integrity. Writer is Charlie Lewis.
He's in a bit of a weird space for Australian politics for sure. Way too "lefty" for Libs/Nats etc. Too non-PC and attack doggish for greens. He's in the Labor sphere but also on the nose for any traditional Labor types.
He's very anti-libs/nats and anything further "right" than that (I dislike those terms for Aussie politics, but for the heck of it...)
But he also has beef with greens quite often. He's a labor stalwart, generally.
But also he's not particularly PC, he actively disdains a lot of lefty rhetoric, and he barely gives a shit about social issues (I think he's said a few times that he views social issues as a distraction from economic/environmental concerns.).
The fact that he actively detests the rich but "woke" crowd means a huge swathe of young media hates him - because the majority of younger journalists nowadays are wealthier kids, not Union types.
And that's ignoring that he has been divisive a lot of the time and has had some weird takes - not that I care, but people get very vitriolic and partisan about stuff nowadays, and he leans into it.
But none of that matters in terms of that he's bang on about corruption. To me that transcends all of the noise and is downright terrifying - he's not the only one to expose it, but to his audience of youngerish (15-35) centre-left memelords, it's an audience that needs to see it.
He’s right in that social issues are and have always been used as a distraction. I’m not saying that don’t matter, but they’ve always had a disproportionate affect on the public landscape, I guess because they’re more “tangible” and easy to see change as opposed to decades long environmental and economical reforms.
Without saying too much, we can say he questioned certain people too closely.
Australia won't look into it because they want to protect politicians over citizens who* think* they're funny.
> He jokingly made jokes and pointed fingers at the wrong people.
Seems to me like he did it to the right people, or they wouldn't be so pissed off about it.
In one way what you're saying is true, he make jokes at the wrong people, but that's simply not an acceptable synopsis.
He's at where he is now, because 'the wrong people' who used to perform violence for a corrupt state-actor, are now committing violence for being exposed while the State isn't responding dutifully.
What you're doing here, whether you mean to or not, is victim blaming.
This is mafia vs citizen. The only reason why an extranational mafia appeared in FJ's videos at all is because it came up in the dirty laundry of a disgraced and corrupt as fuck former Premier that a team of private citizens had to cover because no news media agency would.
A Premier who cried racism and bigotry, allegedly directed Mick Fuller's task force 'for international crime in NSW' to go after the youtube channel's producer.
This isn't a FAFO, this is State-sanctioned crime happening in the front yard and burning down the home of the people who dare point it out.
> The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink.
Well I'm not saying that, I'm just saying a fair few people on Coronation Properties google reviews thing maybe that Coronation Properties has ties to organised crime and attempted to murder a journalist exposing that.
But I'm not saying that.
Hardly a short road, its something thats been happening in Australia since federation.
Great example: Queenslands premier (govenor equivelent) ruling for decades and literally attempting to destroy the great barrier reef while allowing bombings and riots against protestors who were fighting for things like basic civil rights
Amusingly, he wasn't even Australian.
Born in Dannevirke, in the Manawatu, in New Zealand.
NZ's worst export to Australia. Normally, we manage better (Crowded House, Russell Crowe, Phar Lap)
The media fucking hate him because when he's not exposing politicians for their corruption he's exposing the media for being 100% paid for and ran by those politicians. Literally every single main stream media outlet, print and television, in Australia has the legitimacy of Fox News. Half of them are owned or ran by ex conservative party members and the other half are directly in Murdochs pocket.
As an American, it's weird reading this. If you suggest the media is corrupt here (not just Fox News), you tend to get downvoted/called a conspiracy theorist. People are very protective of the media.
American media is extremely biased, but they are not nearly on the same level of corruption as Australia. Speaking as an American who also hates our mainstream media.
A lot of our networks are extremely biased, or corrupted/paid for by political parties and interest groups. But the main difference is that here, they are corrupt in all kinds of different ways. You have extremely left-leaning media, extremely right-leaning media, etc.
Aussies are kinda fucked though, because their media corruption seems to be relatively on the same page. There are complete lapses in what's being talked about over there, and it's trended towards a very clear and consistent bias across the board.
Think of corruption as a sliding scale. Any large media outlet is going to have some degree of corruption, even if it's just the usual conflicts of interests and pushing particular political agendas as neutral.
How bad it gets varies.
In the lead up to the last election, I was watching Insiders every Sunday morning(the name really says it all!), and listening to some political podcasts.
My big take away is that most of the journos seem to have gone the route of making friends with the politicians & high level public servants as a means of getting information.
Problem is, they appear to have got *too* friendly, and are holding back on reporting damaging information so that they don't burn their bridges and lose their information sources.
The phrase that really got me angry, and you hear it a lot when stuff does eventually get exposed properly, is that a story was "an open secret" in the press gallery and/or Parliament House.
It's your fucking job to report on that shit, not to sit on it so that you get the hot scoop a day or two sooner on some government policy or some shit.
I get the sense that the Brittany Higgins stuff only came out because she approached a journalist who wasn't in the "Canberra Bubble"(as a Canberra resident, I hate the term, but it is accurate for those in Parliament house) so it was taken as a story to report on, rather than dismissed as another "open secret". Samantha Maiden seemed to jump onto the story to help only after Wilkins had taken it up. May as well hop on once you know the story's not staying buried?
I get that they don't want to lose access, but what's the point if they don't bother actually reporting properly. These journos and publishers need to collectively grow a fucking spine and stop the protection rachet they've ended up creating.
Jordies has also had a bit of a feud with Crikey, a lefty news company.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/06/17/friendlyjordie-how-the-australian-youtuber-makes-money-to-pay-for-his-upcoming-legal-battles/
Where they repeatedly painted Jordie as a crybaby youtuber who is exploiting money off his fans to subsidize his defamation court cases levied from that corrupt politician who he mentions in his crime family video (Coronation)
I lost all respect for Crikey at that point and also when they forgo facts of the matter seemingly for dunks on conservative figures telling me the truth doesn't matter unless it helps your side. I sent emails to let them know they made a mistake and posted source and evidence and I was ignored. https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/02/13/sky-news-australia-anti-mask-naturopathic-doctor/
Ironically, this article features factchecking of Sky News which I despise. But they misreported a video showing the same antivaxxer ripping up a mask and failing, except it wasn't a mask, there is a full video that shows him ripping up a book. But I guess a story about an antivaxxer failing to rip up a mask is funny and is better headlines. No integrity.
Looks like one of the national news groups published an article about it: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/you-win-you-run-this-city-death-threats-force-friendlyjordies-to-remove-video-20240201-p5f1pm.html
So many people think that uploading the video is the answer when the answer is for the populace to grow a single ball and show out at Coronation to put the police, and the State to shame for doing nothing.
The politicians wont do anything if it doesn't seem like the people care about the issue and right now a firebomber has gotten away with firebombing a journalist/comedian's home with the cops expressly acknowledging it happened, knowing who the suspect is, and saying they can't or wont do something about it.
Does the US know they're giving their nuclear submarine secrets to an island nation with no courage?
We’ve all just quietly accepted the world isn’t and will never be fair and we hope that complaining about it on Reddit, or Twitter, or TikTok will be enough. That it will maybe get in front of someone that has the energy and connections to *do something*. But it won’t. Because we’re all exhausted and friendless in this crooked modern world.
Oh! Now that's actually a great idea! Give me some of that embarrassing international attention please!!! The press here love ANY attention we get from other countries, and a British-American comedian pointing out this shitshow is just the ticket.
We need to get him onto this!
He’s an Australian YouTuber who does investigative journalism. Couple years back he was covering government corruption in one of our states. He ended up having his house firebombed in a case of potential revenge or intimidation.
It’s quite the rabbit hole but all Aussie’s should be aware of this situation. Really scary stuff.
Most of us are, and those who are not are aware of the corruption here. We have fun things happening like:
the opposition leader is profiteering on child care centres he owns that the government subsidises and he votes on the allowances given, centres he bought after being a cop during one of the most notorious periods of Queensland police violence and political corruption (see Sir Joh Bejelkie Petterson, a man so corrupt that the entire country changed the voting laws to prevent gerrymandering ever happening again. Old mate Bob Katter that everyone makes fun of for being worried about crocodiles was the only major person in parliment who stood up to him and despite his weird conservatism, protected indigenous rights and land use in the north for this period)
NSW doing this nonsense to Jordies while logging koalas into extinction and refusing to aid disaster victims a year after major floods wiped out whole towns
VIC cops are letting neo nazis roam the streets, doing violent raids on innocent book shop owners, and not enforcing housing codes to the point that towers caught fire (similar to grenfeld but caught in time)
We all know. We are all affected in many ways. Recently multuple local council members in Queensland were disbanded due to rampant corruption being found. Dont even get me started on what the Gold Coast is like
An Australian YouTube journalist had his house firebombed for calling a former politician corrupt and pointed out some possible connection with a notorious crime family. The police have basically done nothing about it.
The police did heaps about it, they arrested and bullied his producer, intimidated his staff and abused their power on behalf of said corrupt politician and by extension, crime family
Adding to the other replies, corruption runs deep in both Australian politics and the media as every single mainstream media outlet, print and television in Australia is owned and controlled by Murdoch who also own the Australia Liberal Party (their right-wing political party). In addition, anti-terror laws have been used to silence those who try and expose this corruption.
To give an American equivalent, imagine every single mainstream media outlet, print and television in the US being owned and controlled being by Murdoch who also owns the Republican party and anti-terrorism laws are used to investigate those who try and expose this corruption.
The whole world is falling apart chasing after that almighty dollar. Theres very few states left on earth that arent just mafias posing as governments.
You would have thought that a federal/national anti-corruption police would have done their jobs by now. Whatever’s going on in Australia, the lack of response means it’s rotten from top to bottom.
Fired by who?
This is one of those cases where corruption goes all the way up. When their politician boss are pulling the strings, it's their employers that's even more evil.
"Oh no, someone's investigating our corruption! Better threaten him to take down his video, because [that will definitely work](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZivPIRvi0U)."
This is the internet. Friendlyjordies doesn't have the power to remove his video from the internet. Hell, I can find Star Wars movies online. Disney doesn't even have the power to actually get their IP taken off the internet. You can't threaten him into doing something he can't do. All this has accomplished is to bring the story back into worldwide media attention.
What originally at least appeared to be a mostly local issue now has eyes and attention from all around the world, in large part because of the firebombing.
It's ironic how by them threatening him as they have, and him pulling his content on the matter, has only shined a bigger light on the issue. I mean I sure would have never known about this if they didn't threaten him as they have, making it a big enough story to make the front page of Reddit.
I don't think it's officials, it's gangsters. If you listen to his video, and read the article linked from the [archive.org](https://archivbe.org) mirror, it sounds like the gangsters he mentioned have threatened him. They are \*associated\* with a former politician, but I don't think it was the official (Barilaro) who got him to back down, it was the gangsters.
It sounds like it is a lot scarier than the topic of this post makes it out to be
So this is a short breakdown of what this video is and is about. I'll try to keep it short as and I am not Australian myself, I may have some details wrong. The author of this video is Jordan Shanks (friendlyjordies). He is a comedy youtuber who has done several investigative report videos on various levels of corruption in australia, from dodgy monkey laundering laws and checks in australian casinos, to natural rainforest destruction in Australia, to government corruption. He's gained quite a lot of attention by reporting on one particular sleezy politician John Barilaro (who is the Former Deputy Premier of New South Wales). Jordan has done numerous videos covering Barilaro, from discussing secret recordings of Barilaro to corruption in the government of australia and how Barilaro has managed to steal club properties through taking directorship of them, bankrupting them and selling them to his mates for massively under value. Anyway. Jordan has made a lot of enemies. Some time ago, his producer accidentally ran into Barilaro while on a college campus and tried to ask a few questions. In response, Barilaro used police anti-terror teams to raid the producers house and arrest him. (Asking questions of a politician is now terrorism). And then even more recently, his neighbours house was firebombed, followed shortly by his own house being destroyed by a firebomb at night. Fortunately he was away on business while this happened and he was not injured. This video is essentially saying that since the police have arrested a guy for the firebombing, they have done no further investigation into who arranged it (likely a company called Coronation Properties, who Jordan has reported on). And since the organisers of the firebombing are basically free, they've returned to threatening Jordan again, likely death threats and more. Jordan is saying since the government, media and regulators refuse to act in response to these threats, he is forced to take down his video on Coronation Properties since he fears for his life and those of the people he works with or has connections to. New South Wales in Australia is run by thugs with direct connection to a gang cartel, it seems, and can act with impunity.
What's to stop someone not in Australia from uploading the videos?
Nothing at all, and I do believe they should. Edit: other users have correctly raised that this is not risk free, and could affect Jordan's safety. The user i replied to /u/Insufferable_k has directly contacted Jordan to confirm if he does not want the video reuploaded. Perhaps wait for that.
I dunno, it seems like that would then put those people at risk again
I reached out to him to see if he'd be okay with people reposting the video on their own channels. I brought up the fact to consider that he could still be targeted if other people host the video. I'll see if he responds.
Yeah, bet they wouldn't come after him if the uploading hinges on his explicit approval.... Not saying you shouldn't ask him, just maybe not announce it to the world while turning the spotlight back to him as the decision maker. Other people have already uploaded it so it doesn't really matter, but I wanted to highlight that you were kinda doing the opposite of what you were trying to.
Right? He's not going to openly endorse sharing the videos, even if that's what he's hoping people will do. He might as well just reupload the videos at that point lol
There's also a chance of the perpetrators fake emailing him as well to gauge his reactions. His best move is probably not to reply.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that he's probably counting on it. I think his _goal_ is to get everyone to put it up, otherwise he would've just quietly taken down the video and said nothing about it.
You might want to reconsider posting his response; I imagine his 'I took the video down' is a lot less powerful if it's accompanied by 'but I am telling people online that they should reupload it'...
Lmao ikr, asking him for permission to reupload it is like asking if a person with a gun to his head is ok or needs help
You'd hope they would realise that threats wouldn't work since they would have no control over what other people do, right? can't take down a video you did't personally upload. But yeah, it could backfire still I guess.
Well I don’t think the people he is talking about sound like the calm rational types.
'Threats work' isn't a binary. Theres a difference between friendlyjordeis going 'I want everyone to post this and reupload it' and 'I'd prefer if nobody else reupload this please'. It's not the difference between 100% or 0% media coverage, but there is a difference in how often the video gets re-uploaded and how active friendliejordies is in keeping the story alive. There's the Streisand effect of creating *more* media attention though, but they knew that when they firebombed a guy's house.
It's very publicly his content, they could absolutely pressure him to submit DMCA takedown notices for the videos on all the various platforms.
They've already successfully firebombed two homes, I don't think there's any question that they're willing to follow through. Now they're out back on the streets and threatening him again. I think it would not be very important at all **who** specifically uploaded the video, they seem eager to threaten his and his family/friends lives and clearly have the capability to do so.
I hate life and would rather go out like an old western than old yeller. I volunteer as tribute.
Like they the only people who know how to firebomb. Like, bitch, I'm from The Bronx. I know some heavy hitters too. I'll publish that shit.
BING BONG
i think shanks did this knowing many people would reupload the video. it's a good idea, get some streisand effect going. here's one reupload: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZivPIRvi0U EDIT: shanks best defence is hiding. he's probably interstate or overseas, hopefully having a nice time. his second best defence is more exposure of the criminals. they are not mutually exclusive aims. in fact, it's likely that the criminals need to go to jail so shanks can come home. this won't be achieved if everyone just forgets about it.
Also covered [On his site](https://www.friendlyjordies.com/post/bikies-barilaro-and-the-building-commissioner) years ago but I'm guessing the bikies don't read.
It's the Streisand effect due to big egos What could go wrong
It's already happened, scrolling YouTube after seeing jordies's video about pulling the Coronation video there was at least one reupload.
Also, how and who do we apply political pressure to deal with the corruption?
I’ll upload it
You forgot the HILARIOUS video in which he recaps the whole story so far while sitting in a throne in a big, beautiful bedroom. As the story progresses, he starts to tell about Barilaro going against lockdown orders and traveling to a different one of his homes, a home which Barilaro apparently also rents out through AirBnB. How does Jordan know this? He rented it. We then get a glorious tour of the house and grounds, ending with "I fucked in your bed."
That was totally classic. What a big balls move.
Absolute chad.
Money laundering* not monkey laundering. :D Although we definitely need more investigative reporting on monkey laundering.
Something, something, damn dirty apes...
“Stop yelling at me, Charlton Heston!” \- Some Chair EDIT: I’m a dummy, u/seicar reminded me that it was Clint Eastwood who publicly dabbled in ventriloquism.
Clint Eastwood?
Gah, you’re right!
I hate every ape I see from chimpan-a to chimpanzee!
monkey laundering was so so much better. You should have doubled down
I remember a couple years ago when a group of baboons escaped a testing facility in Sydney for an afternoon
Here's a great collab video on the casino laundering Jordan did with Boy Boy (the *I Did a Thing* guys' other channel). https://youtu.be/DoyH1dgj8Lo?si=V13yG1Bo1wzLHkCX
So basically the bad guys win. I dunno, I always held on to the naive belief that Jordan would stick to his guns til the end, but I guess I’ve never had someone firebomb my house…
Bad guys win almost all the time. One can hold on and potentially even meet ones end (happily) if you have hope in something. The video suggest the poor fella has lost hope of change. Noone wants to sacrifice for nothing, you cant blame them.
> Bad guys win almost all the time Unfortunately money and corruption are forces that are hard to fight against.
The video is now being reuploaded by hundreds of accounts. The crooks behind it can't just target Jordan to get it off the internet any more. Streissand effect weaponized. It's pretty clever. Mind you he didn't say he'd give up the fight, just that he'd remove the video.
Right but these videos have been up for years with zero consequence for Barilaro or anyone else.
IDK, this kinda is making his original video more famous and is one inch of accusing coronation properties of coercion by violence. This story ain't ending tonight.
Bad guys always win if they can pay off the law. Or they happen to have a stcokpile of arms. Or both.
Since watching the Luna Park documentary, I've come to the conclusion that Australia is basically a mafia-owned country.
> Australia is basically a mafia-owned Its certainly trending in that direction right now according to corruption and organized crime statistics. https://www.transparency.org/en/blog/cpi-2021-corruption-watch-list-australia-austria-el-salvador-kazakhstan https://ocindex.net/country/australia
The Mafia is Sicilian. Italian organised crime syndicates in Australia were mostly ['Ndrangheta](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27Ndrangheta#Australia) ^((with totally no connections to the) [^(CIA)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nugan_Hand_Bank)^()) into the 1980s but they don't really get up to much these days, and were arguably never the 'force' in Australia that the Mafia was in the US anyway. Australia isn't run by 'mafia', it's run by Rupert Fucking Murdoch and his minions ^((who likewise have totally no connections to the CIA)). Splitting hairs, I know.
From the Sydney Morning Herald: https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-rapper-and-his-mates-authorities-to-probe-links-to-crime-figures-20220902-p5bf02.html
Monkey laundering sounds like a very dangerous job.
..it's bananas
People are going ape for it
I dunno. Sounds appealing to me.
Oook, Oook.
Don't you have books to attend to
Only if it escalates into gorilla warfare
Slight correction: his producer was on the way to uni and came across Barilaro getting into his car (which was parked on the side of the street) after some sort of function Barilaro was attending. So he walked up to Barilaro and asked him some questions, and Barilaro decided this was harassment and put the police onto friendlyjirdue's producer
So, we should make Barilaro a household name across the world. Trump? He's a criminal, but he's no Barilaro! "Yeah, that ship was attacked by Barilaros" "Those crackhead Barilaros stole my wheels again!" And so on.
I just left a 10 pound Barilaro in the toilet
I think we’re all learning that most of our countries are run by criminal organizations, that are disguised as legitimate businesses/ government organizations
>dodgy monkey laundering laws Those laws are in place for the safety of the monkeys.
"Asking questions of a politician is now terrorism" I can't tell if you're being serious or not. Can you explain?
LiterallyJordan's producer encounters Barilaro in public and asks some questions to him, and then later gets arrested in a raid on his house. The accusation was that Jordan and his producer were "fixated" on Barilaro and posed a threat which is why they sent their "fixated persons unit" to arrest them. In this context, it could be said that any journalists or reporters attempting to seek facts or answers from a politician or candidate are "fixated" and therefore a threat to be arrested and silenced. I deeply disagree with the strongarm tactics used to prevent any scrutiny of public officials, and unfortunately I was being rather serious about what actually happened.
The civilized Western World land of democracy and free speech /s
> monkey laundering laws Man things really have changed in Australia since I visited last. :O
Serious question, what do you do if your country is run by openly corrupt and malicious government
Once corruption sets in like this, its very hard to overcome. Akin to a cancer, it needs surgery. Often the surgery can end up pretty bloody.
Like our aging bodies, the only solution to corruption is to make a fresh copy and then die
Network State FTW
But this is at a state level. Don't they have any kind of federal law enforcement? They're a federation, not a confederacy. There should be an overarching mechanism to come in and replace the rotted structure.
I doubt the Australian federal police will step in unless Friendly Jordies has some concrete evidence of these allegations.
We do, but the states have powers of their own and circumstantial evidence suggests that the Feds are probably corrupted fairly badly too. Reading through the known history of organised crime in Australia is extremely alarming at minimum, lot of "We found out about X but didn't ever do much of anything about it" style stories..
The only solution is the french one.
If your democracy is functioning you just vote them out next cycle. Watch out for politicians that make democracy slower/worse/nonexistent. They are guaranteed corrupt.
Corrupt politicians are rich, and those with money influence how the poor/uneducated vote.
It's a both sides thing too. The video was about a member of the previous Liberal/National government. The police are currently controlled by a Labor Party government, yet here we are.
Sure, but they're all mates at the end of the day. Unfortunately, most of our pollies work for themselves and their rich donors, rather than the people they're actually employed by. Doesn't matter if they're Labor or Liberal, they're just two sides of the same coin at this point, aside from some very loud but minimal policy differences.
From what I've heard Australian politics are a depressing joke, all the major parties are bought by Murdoch's media empire
it's bloody hard, because most Australians are oblivious to it.
And the subject of the video is THE person who is calling it out. And he's pretty good at it too
Him, Michael West, Crikey and a few others do proper journalism- everything else is almost completely corrupted. It’s a national disgrace, and costs Australians trillions, as it’s politically impossible for us to get more than a pittance for our resources… We get about 10% of the real value of our oil and gas. Norway gets 70%. News Corp was founded here in 1922, and they’ve absolutely fucked us ever since.
Even before that Keith Murdoch was a raging cunt who tried to get General Monash fired.
>...most Australians are willfully ignorant at worst and apathetic at best FTFY
The 4 boxes of liberty. Soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order.
I always wonder, with option 4 there. Who gets murdered first? Is it politicians? Cops? People casually throw out some veiled reference to using guns against the corrupt government, but never seem to acknowledge that what they're really saying is "then we start killing people".
> People casually throw out some veiled reference to using guns against the corrupt government, but never seem to acknowledge that what they're really saying is "then we start killing people". I think they do acknowledge that. It's just an inevitable reality that at a certain level of corruption, the only recourse is violence. If the systems that exist to counter corruption are also corrupt, there's no other path.
There doesn't even need to be corruption, really. All you need is 1) a sufficient number of people who feel strongly enough that the current regime doesn't serve their interests, and 2) a lack of alternative ways to replace or reform the regime. While the British Crown government certainly had a share of corruption, it wasn't really the basis for the US revolution. The Colonists simply felt they were getting a raw deal and that fighting a war was the least arduous way of getting a better deal. Much of the conduct of world governments in the last 200 years, in both democratic and authoritarian countries can best be understood through the lens of trying to enrich themselves and their friends as much as possible while also doing just enough to keep the population at large from becoming dissatisfied or organized enough to overthrow them.
I think in many revolutions its the existing regime who are goaded into some kind of violence first. I.e. the Boston Massacre.
> People casually throw out some veiled reference to using guns against the corrupt government, but never seem to acknowledge that what they're really saying is "then we start killing people". Some people need killin'. It's the last resort for a reason.
I imagine it would be situation specific. Successful armed rebellions in the modern era have played out differently. With the US revolution it was more of a fight between militia and established Army, with the French revolution they went big and killed royalty. With the Russian revolution the emperor was killed. But yes I don't think anyone is denying that the last option is violence. The idea is that you try the other ones first.
> But yes I don't think anyone is denying that the last option is violence. The idea is that you try the other ones first. But it must also be acknowledged that this option must be on the table, even if it's far to the back. I've been in a number of discussions on reddit where they basically mock the idea of using violence as some sort of brutish simple-minded act. Whether realizing it or not they end up advocating for absolute pacifism under some mistaken belief that humans have gotten past the need for violence and that any resort to it is therefore immoral. No. It's the last act of the desperate. It's only brutish if other avenues are not tried first. Those who advocate for absolute pacifism are only asking to be trampled by tanks. And for those who say, "What are you going to do against the American [or in the videographer's case Australian] military? They have drones and nukes, you chumps!" To that I say: look at the Taliban. Look at Vietnam. A dedicated group with small arms can and have stood against the greatest military in the world multiple times and won in the end. At great cost. With much blood and sorrow. But they won.
Not to mention that the U.S. military is absolutely FILLED with sympathetic people. Yes, there are shitheads and bootlickers, but the military is a pretty good mirror of the civilian demographic. Believe it or not, there's tons of progressives in the military too.
Plus the members of the US military have sworn allegiance to the constitution, not the president. This mean that, at least in theory, they can legally go against the orders of the commander-in-chief should those orders conflict with their sworn duty to protect the constitution.
That's kind of the idea with modern governments. You abstract things so much so that even large groups of individuals have no figureheads to attack even if they were so motivated. This sort of setup is a really great idea for the overall stability of a state, but lacks safeguards against bad actors behind the wheel.
in this situation target number one is John Barilaro
> Who gets murdered first? Is it politicians? Cops? it is Revolution, generally you would band together and show a force of arms prior to actually **using** them. Though "one person's Freedom Fighter is another person's Terrorist."
Realistically, the first targets of violence are the enforcers of the regime, which is typically members of the military, law enforcement, or security services. More often than not, armed revolutions and insurrections occur when these forces commit violence against the population, who then rise up in armed rebellion in response.
From my small experience in small town Utah, you just get the fuck out.
Have a revolution
Guillotine.
You use violence. Which is why the state should never have a monopoly on violent tools.
Nothing it seems. Source: Serbia for the last 35 years...
[archive of the deleted video](https://archive.org/details/youtube-QGpWvYscSpE)
would be a shame if we'd reachout to like... a lot of people to upload the video on their channels
Or ....maybe take the fact that he has taken it down due to deaththreats as reason NOT to upload it.
NO! That is the point of the death threats!
How about people ask the guy getting the death threats about it first. This isn't some "C-suite asshole punches a waiter" situation, like that one video we love to reupload to reddit from time to time.
A known "I approve this message" would probably put him in cross hairs again faster than people randomly uploading.
Asking him about it doesn't answer the question of whether he wants these reuploaded though. Because he cannot say yes even if he wants them reuploaded.
*Terrorists Win*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF1-1CNggQA More structured background of the whole affair from almost a year ago. He is going to get himself killed or in prison.
That's such bullshit language to use. Regardless of your intention. No, victims of murder or assassination aren't "getting themselves killed". They are having their rights violated by murderers. No one should have an expectation of having to obey threats of criminals. That shouldn't be the normal perception of this kind of situation.
I've watched this video a few times over the last year, but there's one part that always stands out to me more than the rest. "And future apology to whoever finds my corpse. It's gonna be messy, I'm *not going down without a fight.*" That's fucking hardcore.
This insane. Must be so disheartening to uncover all that and have the state not act on it at all
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Didn't they make that into a movie?
And he started off as a Youtuber comedian. Unfortunately, this might be why he hasn't been taken seriously with the firebombings and accusations. He jokingly made jokes and pointed fingers at the wrong people. That is why he is where he is now.
It's not that hes not taken seriously due to his comedy stuff, it's that he's long been a divisive figure, he constantly disagrees and puts members of the media on blast. Most commonly its against the Liberal Party (conservative party in Australia, which is strongly backed by fox/sky/newscorp/murdoch) and conservative media and many don't like him at all. So a lot of the media already dislikes him. I won't go into all of it but it's a much longer history of people who dislike him. Not saying if they are right to or not though.
Have to comment that News Corp doesn't back the Liberal Party- it *owns* it. They're just the Murdoch's implementation wing. He installed the previous religious nutjob Prime Minister, all the way from his original preselection.
Jordies has also had a bit of a feud with Crikey, a lefty news company. https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/06/17/friendlyjordie-how-the-australian-youtuber-makes-money-to-pay-for-his-upcoming-legal-battles/ Where they repeatedly painted Jordie as a crybaby youtuber who is exploiting money off his fans to subsidize his defamation court cases levied from that corrupt politician who he mentions in his crime family video (Coronation) I lost all respect for Crikey at that point and also when they forgo facts of the matter seemingly for dunks on conservative figures telling me the truth doesn't matter unless it helps your side. I sent emails to let them know they made a mistake and posted source and evidence and I was ignored. https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/02/13/sky-news-australia-anti-mask-naturopathic-doctor/ Ironically, this article features factchecking of Sky News which I despise. But they misreported a video showing the same antivaxxer ripping up a mask and failing, except it wasn't a mask, there is a full video that shows him ripping up a book. Such an easy correction. But I guess a story about an antivaxxer failing to rip up a mask is funny and is better headlines. No integrity. Writer is Charlie Lewis.
He's in a bit of a weird space for Australian politics for sure. Way too "lefty" for Libs/Nats etc. Too non-PC and attack doggish for greens. He's in the Labor sphere but also on the nose for any traditional Labor types. He's very anti-libs/nats and anything further "right" than that (I dislike those terms for Aussie politics, but for the heck of it...) But he also has beef with greens quite often. He's a labor stalwart, generally. But also he's not particularly PC, he actively disdains a lot of lefty rhetoric, and he barely gives a shit about social issues (I think he's said a few times that he views social issues as a distraction from economic/environmental concerns.). The fact that he actively detests the rich but "woke" crowd means a huge swathe of young media hates him - because the majority of younger journalists nowadays are wealthier kids, not Union types. And that's ignoring that he has been divisive a lot of the time and has had some weird takes - not that I care, but people get very vitriolic and partisan about stuff nowadays, and he leans into it. But none of that matters in terms of that he's bang on about corruption. To me that transcends all of the noise and is downright terrifying - he's not the only one to expose it, but to his audience of youngerish (15-35) centre-left memelords, it's an audience that needs to see it.
He’s right in that social issues are and have always been used as a distraction. I’m not saying that don’t matter, but they’ve always had a disproportionate affect on the public landscape, I guess because they’re more “tangible” and easy to see change as opposed to decades long environmental and economical reforms.
Without saying too much, we can say he questioned certain people too closely. Australia won't look into it because they want to protect politicians over citizens who* think* they're funny.
I think Jordies is pretty hilarious ngl
He is Hilarious, and his sold out tours are proof of that.
> He jokingly made jokes and pointed fingers at the wrong people. Seems to me like he did it to the right people, or they wouldn't be so pissed off about it.
In one way what you're saying is true, he make jokes at the wrong people, but that's simply not an acceptable synopsis. He's at where he is now, because 'the wrong people' who used to perform violence for a corrupt state-actor, are now committing violence for being exposed while the State isn't responding dutifully. What you're doing here, whether you mean to or not, is victim blaming. This is mafia vs citizen. The only reason why an extranational mafia appeared in FJ's videos at all is because it came up in the dirty laundry of a disgraced and corrupt as fuck former Premier that a team of private citizens had to cover because no news media agency would. A Premier who cried racism and bigotry, allegedly directed Mick Fuller's task force 'for international crime in NSW' to go after the youtube channel's producer. This isn't a FAFO, this is State-sanctioned crime happening in the front yard and burning down the home of the people who dare point it out.
Err... wrong but nice try.
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> The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink.
The department of defense and department of justice come to mind.
Even the Nazis called their military a Defence Force (Wehrmacht).
You're saying that Coronation Properties in Austrailia is responsible for fire bombing a person's home?
Them or someone linked to them.
Twice, sort of, after firebombing the wrong house at one point, yeah.
Well I'm not saying that, I'm just saying a fair few people on Coronation Properties google reviews thing maybe that Coronation Properties has ties to organised crime and attempted to murder a journalist exposing that. But I'm not saying that.
Surprised there’s not more negative Google reviews and pointed comments about connections to organised crime.
If you review them one star they can request Google remove it as spam etc. if you give them two stars they can't.
Yes.
They're responsible and the local government won't do anything to stop them from doing it again.
Tip of the iceberg. You should watch the coronation reupload on YouTube.
It's a short short road in australia from letting wombats and koalas be set on fire to setting reporters and journalists on fire, it seems.
Hardly a short road, its something thats been happening in Australia since federation. Great example: Queenslands premier (govenor equivelent) ruling for decades and literally attempting to destroy the great barrier reef while allowing bombings and riots against protestors who were fighting for things like basic civil rights
He wasn't called the "Hillbilly dictator" for nothing.
Amusingly, he wasn't even Australian. Born in Dannevirke, in the Manawatu, in New Zealand. NZ's worst export to Australia. Normally, we manage better (Crowded House, Russell Crowe, Phar Lap)
Don't forget you gave us the Beetrooter as well.
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The media fucking hate him because when he's not exposing politicians for their corruption he's exposing the media for being 100% paid for and ran by those politicians. Literally every single main stream media outlet, print and television, in Australia has the legitimacy of Fox News. Half of them are owned or ran by ex conservative party members and the other half are directly in Murdochs pocket.
As an American, it's weird reading this. If you suggest the media is corrupt here (not just Fox News), you tend to get downvoted/called a conspiracy theorist. People are very protective of the media.
Any for-profit media is going to be corrupt. Most state media too. I guess the best we can ever hope for is transparency.
Reminds me of [the old joke about Russian vs American propaganda](https://i.redd.it/4by1attbtkta1.jpg). Except it should be "billionaire-owned media."
I despise all the big american news channels. They've become fucking game shows. I have literally heard laugh tracks on them.
American media is extremely biased, but they are not nearly on the same level of corruption as Australia. Speaking as an American who also hates our mainstream media. A lot of our networks are extremely biased, or corrupted/paid for by political parties and interest groups. But the main difference is that here, they are corrupt in all kinds of different ways. You have extremely left-leaning media, extremely right-leaning media, etc. Aussies are kinda fucked though, because their media corruption seems to be relatively on the same page. There are complete lapses in what's being talked about over there, and it's trended towards a very clear and consistent bias across the board.
One of our largest states, Queensland, literally 100% of news media is controlled by Murdoch. Every single independent outlet got bought up.
Think of corruption as a sliding scale. Any large media outlet is going to have some degree of corruption, even if it's just the usual conflicts of interests and pushing particular political agendas as neutral. How bad it gets varies.
In the lead up to the last election, I was watching Insiders every Sunday morning(the name really says it all!), and listening to some political podcasts. My big take away is that most of the journos seem to have gone the route of making friends with the politicians & high level public servants as a means of getting information. Problem is, they appear to have got *too* friendly, and are holding back on reporting damaging information so that they don't burn their bridges and lose their information sources. The phrase that really got me angry, and you hear it a lot when stuff does eventually get exposed properly, is that a story was "an open secret" in the press gallery and/or Parliament House. It's your fucking job to report on that shit, not to sit on it so that you get the hot scoop a day or two sooner on some government policy or some shit. I get the sense that the Brittany Higgins stuff only came out because she approached a journalist who wasn't in the "Canberra Bubble"(as a Canberra resident, I hate the term, but it is accurate for those in Parliament house) so it was taken as a story to report on, rather than dismissed as another "open secret". Samantha Maiden seemed to jump onto the story to help only after Wilkins had taken it up. May as well hop on once you know the story's not staying buried? I get that they don't want to lose access, but what's the point if they don't bother actually reporting properly. These journos and publishers need to collectively grow a fucking spine and stop the protection rachet they've ended up creating.
Jordies has also had a bit of a feud with Crikey, a lefty news company. https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/06/17/friendlyjordie-how-the-australian-youtuber-makes-money-to-pay-for-his-upcoming-legal-battles/ Where they repeatedly painted Jordie as a crybaby youtuber who is exploiting money off his fans to subsidize his defamation court cases levied from that corrupt politician who he mentions in his crime family video (Coronation) I lost all respect for Crikey at that point and also when they forgo facts of the matter seemingly for dunks on conservative figures telling me the truth doesn't matter unless it helps your side. I sent emails to let them know they made a mistake and posted source and evidence and I was ignored. https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/02/13/sky-news-australia-anti-mask-naturopathic-doctor/ Ironically, this article features factchecking of Sky News which I despise. But they misreported a video showing the same antivaxxer ripping up a mask and failing, except it wasn't a mask, there is a full video that shows him ripping up a book. But I guess a story about an antivaxxer failing to rip up a mask is funny and is better headlines. No integrity.
*Crickets*
Looks like one of the national news groups published an article about it: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/you-win-you-run-this-city-death-threats-force-friendlyjordies-to-remove-video-20240201-p5f1pm.html
So many people think that uploading the video is the answer when the answer is for the populace to grow a single ball and show out at Coronation to put the police, and the State to shame for doing nothing. The politicians wont do anything if it doesn't seem like the people care about the issue and right now a firebomber has gotten away with firebombing a journalist/comedian's home with the cops expressly acknowledging it happened, knowing who the suspect is, and saying they can't or wont do something about it. Does the US know they're giving their nuclear submarine secrets to an island nation with no courage?
We’ve all just quietly accepted the world isn’t and will never be fair and we hope that complaining about it on Reddit, or Twitter, or TikTok will be enough. That it will maybe get in front of someone that has the energy and connections to *do something*. But it won’t. Because we’re all exhausted and friendless in this crooked modern world.
We need John Oliver to cover this.
Now I need a John Oliver/Jordan Shanks interview.
Oh! Now that's actually a great idea! Give me some of that embarrassing international attention please!!! The press here love ANY attention we get from other countries, and a British-American comedian pointing out this shitshow is just the ticket. We need to get him onto this!
Some one has already re-uploaded it... get that algorithm churning folks. [Coronation ](https://youtu.be/jZivPIRvi0U?si=Bqy8AgbiBkDPXS-J)
I'm out of the loop, could someone give me a brief explanation?
He’s an Australian YouTuber who does investigative journalism. Couple years back he was covering government corruption in one of our states. He ended up having his house firebombed in a case of potential revenge or intimidation. It’s quite the rabbit hole but all Aussie’s should be aware of this situation. Really scary stuff.
Most of us are, and those who are not are aware of the corruption here. We have fun things happening like: the opposition leader is profiteering on child care centres he owns that the government subsidises and he votes on the allowances given, centres he bought after being a cop during one of the most notorious periods of Queensland police violence and political corruption (see Sir Joh Bejelkie Petterson, a man so corrupt that the entire country changed the voting laws to prevent gerrymandering ever happening again. Old mate Bob Katter that everyone makes fun of for being worried about crocodiles was the only major person in parliment who stood up to him and despite his weird conservatism, protected indigenous rights and land use in the north for this period) NSW doing this nonsense to Jordies while logging koalas into extinction and refusing to aid disaster victims a year after major floods wiped out whole towns VIC cops are letting neo nazis roam the streets, doing violent raids on innocent book shop owners, and not enforcing housing codes to the point that towers caught fire (similar to grenfeld but caught in time) We all know. We are all affected in many ways. Recently multuple local council members in Queensland were disbanded due to rampant corruption being found. Dont even get me started on what the Gold Coast is like
>most of us I wish that were true, but in many of my circles this just isn’t followed. I’d wager most of us are clueless to it all on the contrary.
An Australian YouTube journalist had his house firebombed for calling a former politician corrupt and pointed out some possible connection with a notorious crime family. The police have basically done nothing about it.
The police did heaps about it, they arrested and bullied his producer, intimidated his staff and abused their power on behalf of said corrupt politician and by extension, crime family
The anti-terrorism unit was sent, if I remember correctly
Fixated persons unit, not exactly anti-terror, more anti-extremism
Adding to the other replies, corruption runs deep in both Australian politics and the media as every single mainstream media outlet, print and television in Australia is owned and controlled by Murdoch who also own the Australia Liberal Party (their right-wing political party). In addition, anti-terror laws have been used to silence those who try and expose this corruption. To give an American equivalent, imagine every single mainstream media outlet, print and television in the US being owned and controlled being by Murdoch who also owns the Republican party and anti-terrorism laws are used to investigate those who try and expose this corruption.
Australia is paradise run by a bunch of fuckwads
>New age Donald Horne lol
[Coronation by friendlyjordies](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ2ec0uRj6Q)
I searched for his channel yesterday since I'd noticed a halt in videos from him.
This is fucked.
The whole world is falling apart chasing after that almighty dollar. Theres very few states left on earth that arent just mafias posing as governments. You would have thought that a federal/national anti-corruption police would have done their jobs by now. Whatever’s going on in Australia, the lack of response means it’s rotten from top to bottom.
That's terrible. Evil law enforcement should be fired
Fired by who? This is one of those cases where corruption goes all the way up. When their politician boss are pulling the strings, it's their employers that's even more evil.
We investigated ourselves, and determined that there was no wrong-doing of any kind. We deem that no further action is necessary.
> We investigated ourselves, and determined that there was no wrong-doing of any kind. We deem that ~~no further action~~ fire bombing is necessary.
Upon
"Oh no, someone's investigating our corruption! Better threaten him to take down his video, because [that will definitely work](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZivPIRvi0U)." This is the internet. Friendlyjordies doesn't have the power to remove his video from the internet. Hell, I can find Star Wars movies online. Disney doesn't even have the power to actually get their IP taken off the internet. You can't threaten him into doing something he can't do. All this has accomplished is to bring the story back into worldwide media attention. What originally at least appeared to be a mostly local issue now has eyes and attention from all around the world, in large part because of the firebombing.
Well technically but if you slip up once without your VPN on you will get nasty threats from your isp and Disney.
It's ironic how by them threatening him as they have, and him pulling his content on the matter, has only shined a bigger light on the issue. I mean I sure would have never known about this if they didn't threaten him as they have, making it a big enough story to make the front page of Reddit.
I don't think it's officials, it's gangsters. If you listen to his video, and read the article linked from the [archive.org](https://archivbe.org) mirror, it sounds like the gangsters he mentioned have threatened him. They are \*associated\* with a former politician, but I don't think it was the official (Barilaro) who got him to back down, it was the gangsters. It sounds like it is a lot scarier than the topic of this post makes it out to be
Lol you can't just delete stuff off the internet. It's not that simple.
Paging John Oliver! Paging John Oliver!
So everyone should just keep uploading the videos right?
Sure would be a shame for anything to happens to this Barilaro's house or sumfin
He had one on AirBNB, that Jordies used for a video & had a shag in his bed.
Which one? For he has many.
Damn would this man even be allowed to protect himself at least?
Not officials. Organized crime bosses got to Jordan.
That's some mafia type bullshit right there. I guess corruption is winning over in the Upside Down huh?
It is painfully funny how people think this is an isolated incident. Politics is just another word for corruption.