Angus McAlpine recently ran as a Greens candidate for the seat of Footscray, using the campaign slogan “Put a Plumber in Parliament”.
His campaign was derailed when the media discovered he had been a rapper in a past incarnation and had created some hip-hop tracks featuring lyrics that contained potential references to date rape and violence against women.
Now, we all know the media has a tendency to sensationalise stories for ratings, but this was a rare opportunity to investigate a real-life example of media duplicity, and find out exactly how far from the truth the media is willing to stray.
Today I sit down with Angus and get his side of the story, and discuss the real-life impacts of stories the mainstream media tells.
Links mentioned in this episode:
Intro clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmM8rE_LdFA
Grhyme Productions on Bandcamp: https://grhymeproductions.bandcamp.com/
News stories on Angus’ campaign:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-14/more-video-of-rapping-greens-candidate-emerges/10496640
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/greens-candidate-exposed-as-rapper-called-fatgut-who-wrote-about-date-raping-women-and-hurting-his-girlfriend/ar-BBPE15z
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-13/victorian-greens-stand-by-footscray-and-sandringham-candidates/10494022
http://www.starweekly.com.au/news/footscray-greens-candidate-apologises-sexist-hip-hop-past/
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-12/victorian-election-greens-woes-not-due-to-preference-deals-alone/10612276
https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/9wxh02/greens_defend_rapping_candidate_angus_mcalpine/