Sequence 4 | Source: Cronulla Riots — Role of the media 1
A campaign of mobile phone text messages was mounted over that week, targeting residents of the surrounding Sutherland Shire, and inciting racial violence for the coming weekend. There is suggestion that extreme right-wing white supremacist groups were active in distributing these texts; certainly members of these groups were conspicuous in inciting violence from the 5,000-strong mob during the affray (Hannan and Baker, 2005; Huxley, 2005; King, 2005, Sydney Morning Herald, 2005). The Telegraph dutifully reprinted one such message in its pages, taking it to the readership of the largest circulation newspaper in NSW: ‘This Sunday every Aussie in the Shire get down to North Cronulla to help support Leb and wog bashing day … Bring your mates and let's show them that this is our beach and they are never welcome … let’s kill these boys’. The broadsheet Sydney Morning Herald, while showing disapproval, saw fit to publish this message the very day before the riots, including its exhortation, ’Let's show them that this is our beach ... Let’s claim back our shire’. Right-wing talk-back radio personality, Alan Jones, had read out the same text message on 2GB during the highest-rating commercial breakfast program: ‘Come to Cronulla this weekend to take revenge ..,’ and he responded with approbation to racist vigilantism from talk-back callers. In fact, when the campaign to ‘reclaim’ Cronulla beach was in full cry that week, Jones attempted to reclaim the kudos, boasting, ‘I’m the person that’s led this charge’ (Marr, 2005).
Source: Scott Poynting in Greg Noble (Editor) (2009) Lines in the sand: the Cronulla riots, multiculturalism and national belonging, The Institute of Criminology Press, Chapter 3, page 46. Republished with permission.
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