Missing News: ignoring Haset Sali

The Australian today reports (subscriber access) that ABC News failed to give wider coverage of calls to ban the Burka by Haset Sali.

A former president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils and one of its founders, Mr Sali told the ABC that the Koran did not require women to cover their faces.

“I don’t often applaud Pauline Hanson — whether it’s a stunt or an initiative to highlight something that’s unnecessary baggage that has been dumped in with Islam — (but) it’s about time the myth of the burka being Islamic dress was blown out of the water,” he told the ABC.

“The sooner Muslim women get rid of this hideous garb the better.”

But that, as far as the ABC was concerned, was that. Although the corporation published online reaction to Senator Hanson’s speech from Muslim leaders and community members, it didn’t publish Mr Sali’s comments.

This is a significant news story that once again highlights ABC myopic coverage of anything critical ofIslam.

One reader's comments caught our eye. Simon (presumably from Canberra) lists items covered by ABC TV News in Canberra:

• One story about homosexual marriage.
• One story about climate change.
• One story about Indigenous art, or homelessness and unemployment (both our fault), or their deep spirituality - superior to anything invented by white fellas.
• One story about Muslims in Australia or stuck on Manus Island.
• One story about Safe Schools and how it protects vulnerable students - it really should be how some young person in need of psychological help is denied that help because they are told they are normal.
• A 30-second segment showing Leigh Sales promoting her interview with Tim Flannery about his new Catalyst Programme.
• One story about how Four Corners is going to expose unfair treatment of young offenders who it turns out have caused millions of dollars of damage and are left to run free as Dad, if it is his Dad, is off shagging some other woman and Mum is at home drunk. The story will later be shown to be wrong/unbalanced/deceptive.
• One story about trans-gender parents and how they are so loving.
• One, or two, or three stories about how we don't like Tony Abbott, the Coalition Government, or right-wing extremists like people who go to church and disagree with abortion.
• Two or three or four stories about Bob Brown, Andrew Barr, the Greens, or how Philip Nitzchke is helping people.
• Four stories about Rugby Leaugue and Soccer.
• Thirty seconds of weather.

That will do for the ABC TV News here in Canberra with Dan Borscher, with bizarre basin haircut and slurring of straight forward words.
Don't we fit in a lot in 30 minutes!