Musical Dispatch from the Front – The Truth – August 2025
Frank Baarda
From page 238 ‘My Yuendumu Story’
My BS-detector was to receive a significant boost when I did Matriculation (year 12) at Moe High School. Mr. Lesley, who was our English teacher, used to bring newspapers purchased out of his own pocket to class, a copy for each student. We’d discuss the front page, question it, analyse the stories for verifiable truths or the lack thereof and check them out for bias and question the sources and so on.
That was in 1961. The Media Landscape has since sunk into an ever deeper noxious BS swamp.
Yesterday the first ‘make sure there are no pages missing etc’ copy of ‘Musical Dispatches from the Front’ was printed. I’m expecting it in the Post within a fortnight and will then be ordering the first batch for distribution (Hurry, order your copy).
In this compendium of Dispatches there is a plethora of examples of the disconnect between the quotidian reality of life in Yuendumu and the mostly negative media portrayal of it.
The distorted perception of Yuendumu (exacerbated by misleading media) by many people who haven’t been here (and some who have) is unfortunate and painful. They are unaware of having been fed BS. That many of these people think they have the answers to the straw men questions they themselves created, is not just painful but aggravating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90WD_ats6eE
Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin' (Official Audio)
… And don't
criticize
What you can't understand …
My experiences have made it difficult for me not to spot naked emperors, room elephants and boys crying wolf every time I grit my teeth and self-flagellate by watching the news.
A case in point is the reporting of last Sunday’s walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
A Dispatchee was there and this is some of what he wrote:
It was so positive a thing to be part of - well over 100,000 (though “officially" of course always given a lower number) - But near the head of the March and already at the far edge of the March For Humanity- there were still people at the furthest edge who had not yet then reached the approach to the Bridge …
Give me an eye-witness account anytime.
The following I gleaned from Independent Media podcast ETTE (Jan Fran and Antoinette Lattouf) on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdscJoRnlXk
In an editorial in The Australian, my friend’s so positive a thing was reduced to ‘Mindless walk emboldens Hamas’
The Financial Review lead with a headline provided to them by that fount of wisdom, the NSW Police: Catastrophic situation avoided as 90,000 people march on Harbour Bridge
As Jan Fran astutely observed this headline was about something that didn’t happen.
The ABC’s 7 pm Sunday bulletin opened with:
Tonight Fears of a crowd crush …
Again, a headline about something that didn’t happen.
In the NT, a 24 year old Sudanese Australian (described in the press as ‘of Sudanese appearance’) drove his car out of Alice Springs and failed to turn up to work. His vacant car was found the next morning. A search party which included 50 police failed to find him in 5 days (and near freezing nights). The search was called off but the family of the missing person and other volunteers continued the search. The man was found by the Aboriginal Campbell family near Jay Creek the next day.
On the news the Police thanked the public for their assistance. The family thanked the Campbells.
What shall we do?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHMjH2LbNSA&t=5s
Oliver Mtukudzi - Todii (Official Music Video)
Saludos,
Frank