The Media and the Australian election

It’s a sad commentary on modern politics that no mainstream politician would dare suggest we vote for them because they’d best advance the public interest. They know that we know their greatest interest is in advancing their own career so, to attract our votes, they offer bribes.

They’ve trained us to see elections as transactional, not aspirational. You want my vote? What are you offering? And is that better or worse than the other side’s offering?

That’s how, with climate change and so many other, lesser problems needing attention, we’re devoting most of this campaign to grappling with the great challenge of our age … the cost of living. Really?

Now, I don’t blame people on low incomes with big commitments who really do struggle to get by for wanting to see what the two sides are offering that might make their lives easier.

But you don’t have to be struggling to tell yourself your life’s a struggle, and you wouldn’t mind voting for a pollie offering you a few more bangles and baubles.

Bernard Keane at Crickey, who is one of Australia’s best political commentators said this:

The reasons why Morrison has proven to be competitive will be examined endlessly if this scenario plays out. Much of it will have to do with the power of the political party News Corp, which operates in coalition with the Liberal Party and its campaign strategists, while its staffers masquerade as journalists. But the role of the actual media will also be scrutinised; the complaint that Labor made itself too big a target will be replaced with the complaint that Labor made itself too small a target; the more nuanced take might be that it failed to provide a defining reason for voters to identify with Labor.

The Media and in particular News Corp have a lot to answer for.  From Denis Muller at the Converstation:

What does a democracy do when a dominant news media organisation goes rogue during an election campaign?

In 2022, News Corporation is confronting Australia with this question once again, as it did in 2019, 2016 and 2013, and as it did in the United States in 2016 and 2020.

“Going rogue” here means abandoning any attempt at fulfilling one of the media’s primary obligations to a democratic society — the provision of truthful news coverage — and instead becoming a truth-distorting propagandist for one side.

The evidence that News Corp has gone rogue during the current federal election is plentiful. It can be seen every morning in its newspapers across the country, and every evening on Sky News after dark.

If you need proof of the bias then just look at the treatment of the Teal Independents, a group of mostly female independent candidates standing against Government MPs in conservative held seats.  Their reason for standing is that the Government is that crap on climate change that it should be removed as soon as possible so that a responsible approach can be adopted.  But Murdoch is not taking this well and his papers have chosen to act as repeaters of Liberal attacks on the Teal independents.

The attacks are extraordinary especially considering the easy ride that the likes of Bob Katter and Clive Palmer receive.  This earlier video of Katter talking about gay rights still amazes me.

And Palmer’s United Australia Party have been pushing the line that both major parties were planning to transfer all of Australia’s health assets and hospitals to the “Chinese-controlled” World Health Organisation.

And unvaccinated Pauline Hanson has contracted Covid.

More recently the Murdoch press have urged people to support the bulldozer over the journeyman.

But interestingly the Sydney Morning Herald has come out and said that Morrison should be ousted.

Tomorrow will be an interesting day.  And if somehow Scotty from Marketing wins progressives everywhere will have to have a deep long think on how we campaign.