It’s Australia’s annual weapons fair and Michael West Media has been banned from entry. Friendly media only. Land Forces 2022. What’s the scam?
The scam is that this fair is showcasing the biggest public money expenditures there are, the whole thing is funded by governments and attended by their suppliers, the world’s biggest weapons manufacturers. Yet they are barring entry to media which they deem may not be good for the show.
You know there’s a problem in media in this country when the same guy, Philip Smart, doing the PR for weapons charity AMDA is the same guy blocking our reporter Callum Foote from attending the weapons fair and the very same guy writing the big splash for Rupert Murdoch’s The Australian (unpaywalled) about how Land Forces is bigger and better than ever!
Banned: MWM too ‘aggressive’ for the merchants of death but we won’t shut up
Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker.