On the weekend I saw something on television that I found quite disturbing.

It was not the fake enthusiasm of an X Factor judge, nor was it the announcement of yet another NCIS, as show that will have a gazillion spin offs just like CSI, maybe they should just do one called WTF.

What disturbed me was actually a commercial.

We all hate to see our taxpayer money wasted, particularly on commercials. However the commercial I’m referring to was not a government commercial, although some have commented that the company being advertised is little more than the Coalition governments marketing department.

The commercial that disturbed me so much was the current commercial for News Ltd’s Daily Telegraph that can be viewed below.

I know what you may be thinking, it was not the sight of Andrew Bolt and Miranda Devine that made me uncomfortable, although I normally do find them and their far-right views quite disturbing, it was the guy sitting opposite them that really disturbed me.

It would seem that while the taxpayer pays his wage the Premier is off filming commercials for News Ltd, I would question whether that is a good use of taxpayer funds. Then again, Baird is a guy that as Treasurer managed to misplace a cool Billion dollars, so I guess he considers donating his taxpayer billed time as a political favour as small change.

For years there have been theories about how News Ltd is biased towards the Coalition, now News Ltd have embarked on an advertising campaign that seems to be calling Premier Baird one of their own team. If anyone ever needed confirmation of News Ltd’s bias this is it.

Also alarming is who they have Mike Baird associated with in the commercial, Miranda Devine and Andrew Bolt. Andrew Bolt has already been found by a court to have breached the law in his racial vilification of a minority group, and Devine is also known for her anti-Islamic scare mongering and far-right views.

If they had sat a woman in a burqa near that particular group it could have ended in one of those racist rants that keep coming out on YouTube. It must comfort Tony Abbott to see one of his Party’s Premiers sitting there smiling with a couple of “preachers of hate”.

For those of us in the public, we can now align Premier Baird with the extreme-right views of those he spent his taxpayer-funded time sitting with for the commercial.

Still, for some of those on the train it must have been a culture shock being on public transport, although I doubt they learnt much about how the other half live.

I wonder if Premier Baird was paid for his time and if he intends to declare it, or if he intends to refund back to the taxpayer whatever he was paid considering he was being paid by the public at the same time.

Given that this commercial was shot using taxpayer-funded public transport, I hope the Premier ensured that the taxpayer sent an invoice to News Ltd for the leasing of their property at a reasonable rate rather than mates rates. After all, public transport is meant for hitch-hikers and freeloaders.

News Ltd and the Coalition are making mocking the public and have formed the assumption that the public are too stupid to realise it.

Elected officials are supposed to be there to promote the public’s interests, not there to promote a private enterprise for political favour.

Given Mike Baird has so much time to spare, I shot him an email to see if he’d take part in a promo for Independent Australia.

I’m not holding my breath for a positive response.

I note that there is as yet no commercial for the Herald Sun featuring the Victorian Premier as yet.

Seems the Napthine government is even too poisonous for News Ltd?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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