Sunday, April 03, 2011

Investigator investigated

Here's what you get when "journalist" Antony Loewenstein dabbles in investigative reporting:
Crikey Ed: This story originally cited national occupational health and safety unit director Dr Yossi Berger in Victoria in relation to Zionist advocacy conducted in the AWU; this reference has now been removed due to inaccuracy.
Australian Workers' Union national secretary Paul Howes is mystified at the targeting of Berger, or maybe not:
Why he picked on Berger was completely beyond me - except that he has a Jewish-sounding name.

I suppose Lowenstein assumed that Berger must be part of the Zionist conspiracy.
Well acquainted with Loewenstein's inaccuracy, Howes decided to confirm for himself Greens candidate Jamie Parker's recent attack on Jews (as quoted by Loewenstein):
These Jews provide cover for extreme actions if they occur. If there's a sniff of you being critical of Israel, such Jews will attack you and cut you loose.According to Howes:I called Parker to double-check that he had indeed made the statement, and I'm glad I did because he told me he never said it.
Howes concluding:
So Lowenstein has form, and Parker, as much as I disagree with him politically, does not. Although I have no problem with people of different opinions expressing their views, I find it incredible that respectable outlets such as the ABC, Crikey and New Matilda publish articles on occasions when the author doesn't get their facts right.
If Loewenstein was published only when he got his facts right he wouldn't be published at all.

Update Loewenstein eagerly anticipates the Sydney Writers' Festival:
@reginapritchard thanks, looking forward to all my sessions at #SWF2011 to talk Palestine, prose and politics.
Loewenstein may be able to talk about prose but he sure as Hell can't write it.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Dan Lewis said...

OMG. Whilst not a retraction per se, that could be the first and only time we've ever seen anything even approaching a correction, by Antony "That's what He Said" Loewenstein.

When his Israel book was found to be full of the most basic errors (e.g. a map which put Lebanon somewhere between Haifa and Tel Aviv) he actually boasted about the "Second Edition" as though it was due to sales, and not due to pulping.

Every time JF has pointed out an error, it would quietly get fixed with not a hint of errata or blog update.

And now this!

Of course getting busted fabricating quotes would ordinarily be the end of a journalist's career.

In Loewenstein's case however, that would assume he had a 'career' to begin with. Having said that, despite this most egregious of errors, hardly the first time I might add, I'm sure he'll still be welcome at "our ABC" and Fairfax.

I'll ignore Paul Howe's reference to New Matilda as a "respectable outlet". The only respectable thing I've ever seen from New Matilda is when they closed up shop (having since reopened).

Who want's to place odds on Paul Howes' article appearing on Loewenstein's blog?

Someone should 'tweet' him about it, so he can moan and whinge about all the "hate mail" he's receiving...

6:00 PM  
Anonymous Anthony Lowenstine said...

Its clear that Howes and his union membership are obviously in the pay of the multi-national Corporate Serco and therefor have no credability on this issue whatsoever. Nothing that Howes says in his latest diatribe rebutts the central tenant of my original thesis. I am a best-selling author and have after all been published in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Gaurdian, Haretz, and appeared extensively on the ABC.

8:09 PM  
Anonymous ar said...

You wanna make shit up, cite "unnamed sources". Who doesn't know that?

8:13 PM  
Anonymous Dan Lewis said...

Loewenstein refused to talk to The Australian yesterday when they wanted his response to accusations that he'd lied and made stories up.

Clearly he doesn't talk to the corporationey media (who won't give him a job).

Such a brave man of integrity. And a bestselling author!

7:14 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Andrew Landeryou has an alternative take on all this:

http://www.vexnews.com/

9:59 AM  
Anonymous Dan Lewis said...

The full link is here:
http://www.vexnews.com/news/12806/these-jews-greens-mp-jamie-parker-wont-publicly-deny-anti-semitic-outburst/

It's delicious watching all these far-left loonies tear each other apart.

At best, Loewenstein is complicit in covering up Greens antisemitism. At worst, he simply lied about it. Regardless, he has a long history of quote fabrication and it remains a mystery why any serious media outlet would give him the time of day. New Matilda should be the pinnacle of his career.

11:04 AM  
Anonymous Gerry Gee said...

Loewenstein has been a writer of fiction from the very beginning and an ordinary one at that. A poor woman's version of Arlene Composta perhaps?

2:37 PM  

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