Husic and the Koran was not new and not news

Mostly the reason I haven't been blogging lately is simply busyness. There's stuff happening and I don't have as much spare time as I'd like.

But I'm going to to make an exception for the utterly brainless, stupid, bring-them-a-four-by-clue media excitement over Ed Husic's oath of office which, for an obvious and unexceptional reason, was sworn on the Koran instead of the Christian Bible.

That was reported, along with the abuse he suffered, as news by News Limited, here. For example.

And I call trolling. Why?

Because the same thing arose three years ago. Specifically, in September 2010, when Ed Husic was sworn in as an MP, and chose the Koran for his swearing-in. If the News Limited paywall doesn't defeat you, it's here.

In other words: in the twisted logic of the nasty trolls at News, there is a significant difference between being sworn as an MP over the Koran and being sworn into cabinet over the same book.

What utter, shameless, let's-create-a-fake-clicktroll-controversy linkbaiting this is.

Husic's religion was already known, and he'd already chosen his book-of-oath, three whole years ago.

But the desperate link-trolls of News Limited wanted something that would attract the inflexive racists of Facebook and Twitter. So they chose to highlight as a “first” something they'd already pimped as a “first” three years ago, solely on the basis of Husic's elevation to the ministry.

Win? Of course they did. The Harlot of Holt Street never loses.

But what depresses and outrages me is that even the ABC couldn't lift its fingers over the keyboard with sufficient alacrity to Google up the history: that the old news, “Husic is Muslim”, got treated as if that, plus the online acid, were the news. Instead of the obvious real story, which is “News Limited punts religious hatred for the sake of clicks.”

Husic's oath is three-year-old news which, in my cold, dead, editor's eye, is “no news at all”. Every aspect of todays story-so-called was already on the record. Only a link-baiting fool could call it news, and only an idiot with no will of their own could fall for it.

There are two "news" angles here. One is "News Limited whips racist slurs against Muslims", which is a genuine story that the limp, supine, impotent dills of other media don't touch. The other is "First Muslim minister.'

Husic's oath of office is not news, except in the twisted logic of one news organisation, which appropriates to itself the right to "set the agenda".

News is what News is. The ABC should hang its bloody head in shame: Rupert's agenda should not set the news agenda for serious current affairs. The ABC should not feed the trolls.