abc donkey squad

Tim Blair
Saturday, April 26, 2014 (4:07pm)

Tens of thousands of Australians marked yesterday’s Anzac Day commemoration with solemn attendance at dawn services and street marches.

The ABC’s taxpayer-funded fact-checking unit, however, marked the day by attempting to debunk what it described as “five common Anzac Day myths”.
The fact-checking unit, established last year following an additional $10 million in ABC funding from the Gillard Labor government, challenges alleged “myths” including the Gallipoli landing site, inadequate British command and Australian weapon tactics.

More contentiously, the ill-timed online piece also disputes the fitness of Australian soldiers and the worth of stretcher bearer John Simpson Kirkpatrick, who famously entered battlefields with his donkey to rescue fallen Australian troops. Here’s how the ABC lined up its Aussie targets:
Historian Joan Beaumont from the Australian National University says the reality was that the Anzacs were ‘not really a race of athletes as they were sometimes called’.

Professor Beaumont says that although official war correspondent Charles Bean described them as being considerably fitter and taller than the men from the British working classes, in fact some of the physical standards weren’t high by modern standards.
Apples and oranges. Still, if we’re judging soldiers of 1915 by modern standards, why not compare the diggers of yesteryear to some of the pasty slobs currently draining our taxes at the ABC? Who would be your preferred ally in the trenches: a brave and lean soldier from the early 20th century or a pudding from Radio National?

The ABC also quotes Ashley Ekins, the head of military history at Canberra’s Australian War Memorial, on the subject of Simpson and his donkey. Ekins tells the fact-checkers that contrary to the popular belief, Simpson may not have saved any lives:
He did very brave work, he went into the gullies, he rescued men who were wounded, but mostly men with leg wounds … He may not have actually saved a single soldier who was going to die.
They may well have died if left bleeding in open territory. Deaths from severe leg wounds were not uncommon during WWI. More to the point, Simpson’s bravery under fire is unquestioned, even in the ABC’s report. So where’s the myth? What exactly is being debunked here? The report continues:
Professor Stanley, author of the book Simpson’s Donkey, says the Simpson story is a very confused one. For one thing, he says, it’s probable there was more than one donkey.
Give Professor Stanley the benefit of the doubt. It is possible that the ABC’s fact-checkers ran this quote without being aware that there is little historic dispute over Simpson’s donkeys. Captain Victor Conrick, a WWI Distinguished Service Order recipient and Gallipoli veteran, once reported: “Simpson carried out a very dangerous mission. He had several donkeys killed while on his job.”

An accompanying ABC video at the fact-checking site mentions several times that Simpson needed more than one donkey. On Anzac Day, this is what your taxes were paying for – century-late news that a genuine war hero was actually just some kind of common multiple donkey-user.

UPDATE. The Daily Mail‘s Candy Sutton emails:
Simpson’s donkeys were called Murphy and Duffy. There has never been any dispute that he used more than one donkey, and there may have been more than two.

As you point out, the revelations are almost a century old.

One of the written accounts of Murphy and Duffy, from the May 19, 1915, diary of Sgt JE McPhee, has been easily found on Google for at least seven years, probably more!
Candy knows her history. She’s the granddaughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Sutton, who recommended Simpson for the Victoria Cross. And from David Jones:
Just to underscore the stupidity of the ABC ‘fact checkers’ with some real evidence in contrast to their highly prejudicial and ill-timed view that John Simpson Kirkpatrick carried soldiers with ‘only’ leg wounds on his legendary donkey – as if a leg wound is a trifling inconvenience at the frontline.

My great uncle Trooper John McDonald of the Australian Light Horse died from leg wounds at Gallipoli in November 1915 after a Turkish grenade was hurled into a trench. Who knows, Trooper McDonald with his inconvenient leg wounds might have been carried down to the beach by Simpson and his donkey, not that it was a medical emergency according to the ABC’s first aid manual.

Well done on puncturing the pomposity of the ABC’s so-called fact checkers who were clearly seeking to be provocative for the sake of it on Anzac Day. There is a lot of the Chaser mentality at the ABC, sad to say.
Joseph O. isn’t so supportive:
Your article on the ABC being a bunch of donkeys for Anzac Day, was shocking. Shocking!!!

I have never read such a disrespectful piece about Anzac Day before. You use the Anzac story for your own benefit, to attack the ABC. You disrespect the intelligence of your audience and encourage your readers to accept what they are told about history, rather than to investigate. How can you honestly call yourself a journalist with this deplorable approach?

There is plenty that is not true about the Anzac story. Any decent education will tell you that. Those facts are key to understand and talk about. I’m just so angry at the nature of your article! How did this get published????
Easy. I wrote it and then we printed it. Although the ABC’s fact-checking unit may have an alternative explanation.

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/abc_donkey_squad/