Campbell on political ‘management’

Written By: - Date published: 11:30 am, October 20th, 2009 - 2 comments
Categories: Media - Tags: ,

With the absolute dearth of informed political commentary in this country it’s a breath of fresh air to have Gordon Campbell back from the US. In his latest column at Scoop he makes a good point about the state of our political media:

Management. There was a lot of talk about it at this particular press conference. Denied detail, the gallery fell back on veiled critiques of how Key and his Ministers have been managing the business of government. The Rugby World Cup, the ACC changes couldn’t they, shouldn’t they, have been managed better? Shouldn’t the government be managing its coalition partners better? Maybe they should, but the virtual reduction of the press gallery to the status of management advisers was a telling indication of the dream run that the Key government is having.

When the media and the critiques issuing from Phil Goff and the Labour Party are focused almost exclusively on the mere management style of your agenda, the content is already half way home.

Couldn’t agree more. This, along with the reduction of political analysis to the phrase “not a good look”, suggests we’re not being particularly well served by either our fourth estate or the Labour opposition.

When I talk to ordinary people about politics, they genuinely don’t understand what’s going on. They know there’s something going on with the Rugby World Cup, and some changes to ACC, and some have vaguely heard about this emissions trading thing, but they’d struggle to give you a half-way coherent explanation about why any of these things are happening or what it means for them.

Is it any wonder why?

2 comments on “Campbell on political ‘management’ ”

  1. roger nome 1

    Any stats on blogging in NZ as a share of the news market? Would be interesting to know. Looks like could all be up to us now…

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