A PDF copy of the new Rachel Landers book, Who Bombed The Hilton? (published by NewSouth Publishing), has been acquired. And if Rachel Landers did not bomb the Hilton Hotel back in 1978, then she certainly did it now (metaphorically speaking). A cursory glance at the content of Rachel's book reveals it to be highly noxious and peppered with obscenities. The only definite conclusions to be reached from the book are about the author herself. Rachel Landers is clearly a troubled person, both delusional and obsessed.
Who Bombed The Hilton? is an opportunistic, bottom-feeding book. It is based almost entirely on double or triple hearsay and feckless conjecture. Someone may or may not have said something to the police. The police filed a report to the government that may or may not be an accurate representation of the testimony (if any). The government stored in some archives that report, after someone in the government may have redacted it (or even tampered with it). Then, almost 40 years later, Rachel comes along and inspects those archives, selectively extracting and interpreting what suits her fancy (and the fancy of her sponsors). With such flimsy context, on the rare occasions when Rachel admits that something she says is "potential hearsay" or "pure speculation", we know that it is very tenuous indeed. But just scroll down a few paragraphs, and soon you will find Rachel repeating that preposterous fabrication as if it had probative value.
In her epilogue, Rachel tries to compensate for her lazy style of yellow journalism, devoid of human decency. However, in the very first paragraph of that epilogue, wherein she attempts to rationalize her unethical conduct, she only exposes her hypocrisy and ignorance instead. Rachel declares: "When I made the decision to explore the Hilton bombing archive I also made a vow not to trust the living." One can only wonder what source Rachel imagines all of the information in the archive would have emanated from (several decades and several layers of hearsay ago). Were the Special Branch and ASIO using Ouija boards? And one can only wonder what makes those moldy documents more appealing to Rachel than the living people who generated them and, even more important, the living people who were given no voice, no representation, in those documents. What makes those moldy documents more appealing to Rachel than the people still living today, the people whose privacy Rachel blithely violates, the people whom Rachel nonchalantly defames, not even taking the trouble to speak with them and hear their side of the story?
There is good reason why legal systems around the world stand on the fundamental human right to a presumption of innocence. Sadly, Rachel did not consider ethics before she reopened this scar on the psyche of Australia. Rachel tells us that former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser advised her that this is "a stupid topic to research and instead of wasting [her] time trying to winnow out the truth of the bombing [she] should be focusing on the contemporary plight of refugees". The honorable Mr. Fraser had it right. The plight of refugees is indeed horrific, and Australia's treatment of refugees is utterly deplorable. Furthermore, as it turned out, the Landers book is little more than a regurgitation of unsubstantiated opinions and a shameless exhibition of bigotry.
At the very end of Rachel's book, just before her smarmy epilogue, Rachel tries to buttress her ridiculously weak (in truth, non-existent) case by misrepresenting the content of a 2003 newspaper article in The Weekend Australian of February 8-9. Of course, a newspaper article is hardly evidence; and a misrepresented newspaper article is just a lie. But this final and false assertion made by Rachel epitomizes her book: shallow and biased research distorted by perverted imagination.
Who Bombed the Hilton? is a deceitful hate crime. This travesty of history was released by NewSouth Publishing, the publishing arm of the University of New South Wales Press. That in itself raises a disturbing question as to the standard maintained by the University of New South Wales and ultimately the Government of New South Wales, which commissioned Rachel's shabby work. Shame, shame, shame!
Who Bombed The Hilton? is an opportunistic, bottom-feeding book. It is based almost entirely on double or triple hearsay and feckless conjecture. Someone may or may not have said something to the police. The police filed a report to the government that may or may not be an accurate representation of the testimony (if any). The government stored in some archives that report, after someone in the government may have redacted it (or even tampered with it). Then, almost 40 years later, Rachel comes along and inspects those archives, selectively extracting and interpreting what suits her fancy (and the fancy of her sponsors). With such flimsy context, on the rare occasions when Rachel admits that something she says is "potential hearsay" or "pure speculation", we know that it is very tenuous indeed. But just scroll down a few paragraphs, and soon you will find Rachel repeating that preposterous fabrication as if it had probative value.
In her epilogue, Rachel tries to compensate for her lazy style of yellow journalism, devoid of human decency. However, in the very first paragraph of that epilogue, wherein she attempts to rationalize her unethical conduct, she only exposes her hypocrisy and ignorance instead. Rachel declares: "When I made the decision to explore the Hilton bombing archive I also made a vow not to trust the living." One can only wonder what source Rachel imagines all of the information in the archive would have emanated from (several decades and several layers of hearsay ago). Were the Special Branch and ASIO using Ouija boards? And one can only wonder what makes those moldy documents more appealing to Rachel than the living people who generated them and, even more important, the living people who were given no voice, no representation, in those documents. What makes those moldy documents more appealing to Rachel than the people still living today, the people whose privacy Rachel blithely violates, the people whom Rachel nonchalantly defames, not even taking the trouble to speak with them and hear their side of the story?
There is good reason why legal systems around the world stand on the fundamental human right to a presumption of innocence. Sadly, Rachel did not consider ethics before she reopened this scar on the psyche of Australia. Rachel tells us that former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser advised her that this is "a stupid topic to research and instead of wasting [her] time trying to winnow out the truth of the bombing [she] should be focusing on the contemporary plight of refugees". The honorable Mr. Fraser had it right. The plight of refugees is indeed horrific, and Australia's treatment of refugees is utterly deplorable. Furthermore, as it turned out, the Landers book is little more than a regurgitation of unsubstantiated opinions and a shameless exhibition of bigotry.
At the very end of Rachel's book, just before her smarmy epilogue, Rachel tries to buttress her ridiculously weak (in truth, non-existent) case by misrepresenting the content of a 2003 newspaper article in The Weekend Australian of February 8-9. Of course, a newspaper article is hardly evidence; and a misrepresented newspaper article is just a lie. But this final and false assertion made by Rachel epitomizes her book: shallow and biased research distorted by perverted imagination.
Who Bombed the Hilton? is a deceitful hate crime. This travesty of history was released by NewSouth Publishing, the publishing arm of the University of New South Wales Press. That in itself raises a disturbing question as to the standard maintained by the University of New South Wales and ultimately the Government of New South Wales, which commissioned Rachel's shabby work. Shame, shame, shame!
