You don’t hate the media enough. Here at the Topher Project, I’ve been covering extensively the lies and corruption of our ABC, particularly in the case of the 1975 Pedo tapes,

which the ABC pretended had been destroyed and continue to cover for to this day. I covered that in two parts, episode 219 and 226, for those who would like to learn more about that. And I’ve covered more recently the ABC’s lies on their 7:30 report, claiming that the Nationals Party walking away from net zero was based on modeling from the coal industry when the ABC already knew that that was not the case and chose to mislead their viewers. Anyway, that’s episode 237 if you’re interested in that story. But this problem of a taxpayer funded national broadcaster flat-out lying, well, it’s not unique to Australia or the ABC. Britain’s BBC has just been caught red-handed, if a little belatedly, and this story matters in the context of an increasingly desperate media who are struggling to keep their once prime position in society as their business model falls apart in the case of commercial news outlets and public trust crashes to an all-time low in the case of national broadcasters. It’s important that we make sure that they don’t get away with their lies because either these national broadcasters need to stop lying or they need to be abolished. But allowing them to continue lying to taxpayers at taxpayers expense, well, that is simply not an option.

Now, this latest BBC lie was reported on by the Telegraph in the UK and has already been picked up by Sky News in Australia.

And normally I don’t do videos on stories that are already being well covered. I reserve my limited time and resources here at the Topher Project for stories or at least perspectives that aren’t being given the attention that they deserve in my opinion. However, in this case, I’m making an exception because this is a meta story, a story about the story, or at least about the storytellers. And we need to go back in time and talk about this. The infamous Trump koi feeding gaff that the media ran with relentlessly during Trump’s first term. Why does this still matter 8 years later? Well, because Christmas is coming. And that means that we’re all going to have to visit our Trump-hating ABC watching fast asleep relatives and friends. And this Koi gate story is one of, if not perhaps the most powerful, obvious, and provable examples of the media just flat out lying. Which means it’s the fastest way to win an argument with any of your friends or family who are still naive enough to trust the media. I’ll show you what to search for online and the pages and videos you need to bookmark so that you can prove to even the sleepiest of diehard media believers that they’ve been lied to over and over again on purpose.

But before we get to that, my name’s Topher Field. This is the Topher Project and I help busy Australians to cut through the crap and make sense of the nonsense that surrounds us. I am 100% viewer supported. So, if you appreciate what I’m doing here at the Topher project, then please support my work by buying me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net. And if you like my videos, then you will love my no-nonsense books, DVDs, and merch, which you will find at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com.

All right, I’m sorry to do this, but we need to start with the Australian Sky News coverage of the Telegraph’s coverage of the BBC’s coverage of Donald Trump because like I said, this story is about the storytellers as much as it is about the story itself. Let’s watch.

[From video]

A week before the US election, BBC Panorama released a documentary called Trump a Second Chance. And in it, they played the following clip. We’re going to walk down to the capital and I’ll be there with you and we fight. We fight like hell. But Trump didn’t in fact say this at all. The BBC spliced together two clips that took place 54 minutes apart. Here’s what Trump actually said. We’re going to walk down to the Capital and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. It’s different. It wasn’t until nearly an hour later that he then said the second part of the BBC’s version. We’re going to walk down to the capital and we fight. We fight like hell. [End video]

Now, Sky News are correctly reporting this story as deliberate BBC misinformation, and they go on to talk about the Russia, Russia, Russia scandal and other examples of the media flat-out lying about Trump. The trouble is that the truth on Sky News won’t change most people’s minds because people don’t use facts to make up their minds in the first place. And the people that watch the ABC don’t watch Sky News. So, you can’t use facts to change most people’s minds. So, let’s try something a little different. Let’s equip ourselves to do it in person.

Now, I’ve spoken often about the fact that getting someone to change their mind is actually easy after you do the hard bit. The hard bit is getting them to admit that they aren’t already 100% right. Once you do that, the rest is easy. But boy, is that first bit hard. The analogy I give, and I apologize because it’s a really crappy analogy, but it’s the best one I’ve been able to come up with. The analogy is going to collect mussels from a pier. Once you have them in your bucket, it’s easy. You can walk them to your car and drive them home or wherever you want them to be, no problem. But breaking those rotten little things off the pier in the first place, well, that’s almost impossible if you don’t have a hammer or some pliers or something to help you. The hard part isn’t taking them to their new home in your kitchen making a paella or some wine steamed mussels. That’s the easy bit. The hard bit is breaking them away from the position that they are in right now attached to that pier.

And it’s the same with ideas. Too often we’re focused on where we want to get someone to. We want them to agree with us all the way over here. But that’s not the hard part. The hard part is getting them to realize that the position they hold right now isn’t the right one. The hard part is getting them to let go of the pier. And in my opinion, the Trump dumping fish food into the koi pond fake story is one of the best ways to get people to realize that the position they’re in right now, specifically the position of trusting the media, isn’t the right one. Here’s some of the media coverage from 2017. CNN showing both men spooning the koi food into the pond and then Trump dumping his. They never show Shinzo Abe dumping his fish food into the water first before Trump did it. They conveniently choose a different camera angle. And only in the text overlay at the very end do they admit that Abe appeared to dump his first. But it’s too late. By then the message in this video is already loud and clear.

Here in Australia, the taxpayer funded SPS ran a story about the media beat-up headlined, “Trump criticized for dumping box of fish food into koi pond in Japan.”

They have the picture. They say that Abe was delicately spooning out the food and the US president was then seen upending his entire wooden box into the pond. The taxpayer-funded SPS then add to the pylon repeating the claim that this was dangerous for the fish including giving air times to random Twitter accounts saying that the fish might die. And only then if you scroll down far enough do they finally acknowledge in a single sentence that it was Shinzo Abe the Japanese prime minister who emptied his box first and then they quickly move on to more warnings about how overfeeding fish is bad. One line of truth buried deep inside an article of lies and misdirection paid for on our taxpayers’ dime.

Here’s an unedited video of the encounter hosted on of all places the Guardian. And this video clearly shows what actually happened. Now you’ll find this video if you search Guardian Trump and Abe fish food. I suggest you search for it and bookmark it so that you can find it easily in the future because the true believers in the media still believe the lie. And who can blame them? Everywhere we look, we see articles and videos edited to either not mention or to barely mention the very relevant fact that Trump was just following Abe’s lead. Even PolitiFact, the notoriously partisan fact checkers, have had to admit that the story was fake. Although they soften the truth by saying early reports got it wrong. No, they didn’t get it wrong. They lied.

The PolitiFact fact checkers do actually do a decent job calling out journalists who lied by name. And it includes this important information. Other reports we viewed around the same time, such as those from CNN, the New York Daily News, and the Telegraph, mentioned that AB was first to dump his box, but usually did so several paragraphs into the story. A story by The Independent mentions that Abe was the first to dump his box, but the headline gives a different impression: “US President Trump’s Abe by upending box of food into Tokyo Palace Koi Karp Pond.” But while the mainstream media and taxpayer funded media were busy spreading lies and misinformation, it was left to the alternative media, in this case notably the tech website Gizmodo, who are no friends of President Trump, to actually tell the truth.

In the wide world of media mistakes, Koi gate is probably somewhere between a spelling error and posting the wrong hyperlink.

But you can be sure that we’ll be talking about Koi gate for some time as an example of what’s wrong with the media because nobody is operating in good faith anymore. The year 2017 and beyond is simply a contest to see who can be outraged over the most minute details of any scandal. All while very real scandals are dismantling American democracy. Well, of course, they had to get their little anti-Trump jab in there. But they’re absolutely right. 8 years later, we are still talking about Koi gate. And rightly so, because the lies continue and the bad faith of the mainstream media and the taxpayer funded media is now more obvious than ever before.

So, what do we do about it? Well, I suggest you start by finding an unedited video of the feeding of the fish and bookmark it or downloading it to your phone. And the next time you come across a true believer, especially one with Trump derangement syndrome, ask them to tell you. And this is important. Get them to tell you what happened at the koi pond that day. What was that thing that Trump did in Japan? He was feeding the koi fish at the palace. Now, if they really are a true believer with Trump derangement syndrome, they will confidently tell you that he dumped his box of food while AB was delicately spooning his. My response when I come across people like that, yes, I remember now that is how the media reported it. But what they didn’t say is that Trump was following Abe’s lead because AB dumped his box first.

Now, an argument will surely follow, but you’ll have the video right there and ready to go. But remember, you’re not trying to win an argument against that person. You’re trying to get them to break away from the position that they hold, even if they break away just a tiny little bit. In this case, you’re trying to get them to break away from their belief that the media can be trusted. So, don’t focus on winning the argument against them. No, no, no. Make the media your common enemy. The media did this to you. How dare they? I mean, there are lots of legitimate criticisms of Trump. How dare the media muddy the waters with fake news and spend taxpayers money on cheap gotcha journalism? Make the media your common enemy.

Because the purpose of having this conversation is not to walk away from Christmas lunch with a win against your friend or relative. That just adds to the division and helps no one. The purpose is that they walk away with a slightly different view of the media, the media that they had previously trusted so much. Because the reason the media keep lying is because the lies keep working. And no matter what your politics is, a media that cannot be trusted is an enemy of us all.

My name is Topher Field. This is the Topher Project and I help busy people like you to keep up with the world as it changes around us and to cut through the crap and make sense of the nonsense that we are fed in the media and by our politicians. And along the way, I do my best to equip my viewers with practical information, real actionable steps to help you as you navigate this increasingly partisan, dishonest, and divided world. If you appreciate what I’m doing here at the Topher project, then please help me to keep going by buying me a coffee via the button at topherfield.net. And if you like my videos, then you will love my books about government, power, human rights, and civil disobedience, as well as my multi-award-winning documentary, Battleground Melbourne. And you’ll also find my t-shirts and hoodies in a range of designs, all available at goodpeoplebreakbadlaws.com.

Thank you for watching all the way to the end. The algorithm loves you and so do I. Please like, share your thoughts about the media and your own experiences with taxpayer funded lies in the comments. Check out this video that YouTube thinks that you will like as well.

And as always, think free.