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Following demands for a public inquiry into the covert intelligence operations by the Victoria police in October last year. The contentious issue of whether Victoria needs secret police has provoked wide coverage by the media. Civil libertarians believe that covert police are an affront to the freedoms of democracy, and a misuse of power. Victoria police, however, maintains that accurate and timely information is vital to achieve public protection from political crime and violence. “Who Will Guard the Guards?” , an editorial, attempts to prove to the public how untrustworthy the secret police are. It uses selective reporting by highlighting only those events that show the police to have prejudices. According to the editorial, the ‘secret’ police ‘infiltrated’ groups of ‘feminists’ and ‘sundry Kooris’ and ‘monitored’ ‘a catholic priest’ ‘and a uniting church minister’. The editorial wishes to persuade the readership that the secret police are sexist, racist and atheist without actually lying. The case study of the ‘Teddy bears picnic’, held by the Child-Care Action Group places all its emphasis on the fact that there were children present. This is an attempt to evoke outrage in the reader, using the knowledge that children are innocent and dear to the hearts of most people. Following this biased case study, the generalisation that police don’t respect governments or Victorian’s liberties is woven into the editorial opinion. The editorial states that police are ‘notorious’ for doing what they are assigned to do: ‘keep political activists under surveillance’.
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