Media WINS!

A heartfelt congratulations goes out to the media today.

They have now successfully proven that they have just as much clout and concern for the good of this nation as Clubs Australia or the big miners.  After all they finally got a Government politician to jump through one of their hoops after months of trying.

In my opinion, by feeding the media trolls and forcing the spill Rudd has specifically highlighted why he should not be allowed back into the top job.  If he has been the one doing the undermining of the Government with his leaks, then this entire process is all about him…not what’s best for the country or the government, just about him.

This makes him the Tony Abbott of the ALP…only concerned about getting into power and not about the consequences after it happens.  The fact that Tony Windsor has come out and explicitly stated that he will not support the Government if Rudd gets back in should put paid to any ascension by Rudd…unless of course they are all incurably stupid and media/poll driven.

By far the best possible outcome is that Rudd loses the vote resoundingly and goes quietly to the back benches.  Of course if it is indeed all about him and not what’s best, when he loses he would have a dummy spit and quit all together forcing a by-election…thereby proving the point that he is not the right man for the job.

Anyway let’s see how the events unfold next week.  In the meantime prepare for the orgy of self-congratulation by each and every member of the Canberra Goldfish Bowl…and look out for the smug smiles of the ones that manage to get their heads onscreen.

UPDATE:  A better way of saying what I’m trying to above.

UPDATE 2:  Tim Dunlop with a typically lucid take on it.

A new media strategy

It’s pretty obvious to everyone by now that the Government’s media strategy (if they actually have one) is not working at all.

From what I can see their strategy seems to be to not ruffle feathers even when provoked…anything to avoid the dreaded “gotcha” moment.  Of course this has the effect of the goldfish-brained media trying even harder for the gotcha, ending up in a death spiral of irrelevance and rampant sensationalism.  Even though the public are starting to see this media behaviour for what it is and starting a slow burn of resentment towards them, I don’t think this is happening fast enough to turn things around for the Government.  I thnik now is the time for them to get proactive and start pushing back harder against the feral media.  After all, they are not going to get a fair go no matter what they do, so why not show some spirit that the public will appreciate…no-one has respect for anyone who lies there and takes a kicking when they could fight back.

Here are some of my suggestions:

1.   When having press conferences about legislation and policy, refuse to answer any questions not related the subject.  How many times have we seen a PC dominated by inane questions about the latest non-troversy with no-one doing there job and asking about the matter of substance.

2.   In conjunction with this hold a weekly/twice weekly open slather press conferences where everything is on the table…this way there are specific forums for pertinent information to get out and then a place for the gossip and rumour mongers to have their fun.

3.   Don’t accept spurious lines of questioning from journos.  If their premise is wrong, tell them and don’t answer.  Refer them to places where they can get the correct information.  They are used to politicians bowing and scraping and letting them get away with shit in their dread to avoid a gotcha…if they push back the public will appreciate it more.

4.   Don’t engage with Abbott or the Opposition in the press.   They are not worth the carbon dioxide expelled when talking about them.  If the press raised things they have said, comment with “that’s interesting” and then point them towards the correct facts.  the less said about them the better.  It means Abbott will be driven to do more and more stunts to get attention, showing him to be the clown he really is.

5.  Bring some of the Question Time spark into the public arena.  On a day to day basis the Government totally pwns the Opposition in Question Time, leaving them to resort to kindergarten style insults and the inevitable censure motion that’s doomed to fail.  the public loves a bit of spark far more than the colourless droning that is currently visible.

6.  Have your own cameras during interviews.  It’s a bit petty I know, but if you have your own record you have a counter to dodgy editing.  It also means they can go to town on journos with impunity.  If they slice up the footage in a misleading manner, all they do is post the full interview on YouTube or other places and say “here’s what actually happened”.  This has the added bonus of tarnishing the media’s reputation even further, hopefully drawing back towards the light.

7.  Social media is the future.  The Government do a really good job with social media, in particular Twitter.  Some of the tweets from the House are downright hilarious, showing more of the personality of the pollies and this can only be a good thing.  More of Albo and Ed Husic tweeting their thoughts and observations can only be a big plus, however the straight policy announcements can’t be too dry…they need a bit of flavour.

 

Well that’s my thoughts.  I know it’s only a pipe dream, mainly because I think the Government’s media advisers are stuck in the 20th century and wouldn’t have a clue what the general public think any more, but it’s time for the Government to realise that the media is not their friend and is not a friend of the Australian public.  They need to work through or around them to get their message out…the media certainly won’t help them.

The Great Unhinging II – totally batshit insane

After my last post I thought the degree of unhinging in the media couldn’t get much worse, but bugger me if I wasn’t rapidly and thoroughly proven wrong.

With the media collectively going mental over one question posed to the PM in the 4 Corners episode on Monday, the leadership speculation dial has been cranked right up to eleventy.

For me, the most laughable moment happened this morning with the faux outrage exhibited by the Sunrise “news” people about Gillard fobbing off Mark Riley.  I know that news in the morning TV world is a trivial joke, but they take themselves quite seriously and put on their profound voices when speaking about it.  So it was a struggle to keep my Corn Flakes down when she was complaining to Bruce Hawker about the ongoing leadership speculation and how sick of it everyone was.  I don’t think I have ever seen a more profound lack of awareness considering that it has been the media driving this faux leadership challenge for the last 6 months, hoping desperately that if they keep saying it it will happen.  It takes someone with absolute cluelessness or a complete lack of morals to wash their hands of something entirely of their own making…or at least their profession’s own making.

Sometimes I wish the Government members would behave like normal people when being questioned and put them in their place…bring a bit of the Question Time spark to interaction with the press.  I mean let’s be realistic, they are never going to be given a fair go so why not stick it to them with a bit of vim instead of being limp-wristed about it.  As much as I would love the PM or Albo to tell a reporter with a stupid question to “fuck off you idiot”…which I’m sure a sizeable part of the public would love as well, there are other ways.  Instead of accepting the premise of some spurious line of attack why not turn it back on them, asking why they think this is important, or why is this of more interest than actual matters of substance for the country?  Chances are they would be edited to cast them in a bad light, but why not have your own cameras there and post it on YouTube…show the Government having a bit of gumption.  I’m sure it would win more fans than it would turn people off.

I think it’s becoming increasingly clear to even the normal viewers out there that the media apoplexy is much ado about nothing and that it’s nothing but a beat-up.  After all there has been an election since the “coup” so it’s not like she can be tarred as “illegitimate”.  After all, it’s not like people are howling for an in-depth expose on how Abbott knifed Turnbull in the back (by only 1 vote) then proceed to renege on a deal with the Government about the CPRS…and it’s not like we are ever going to get one either.

It’s now more than clear that we have more than one Opposition in this country…we have the Coalition Opposition, the News Ltd Opposition, the Fairfax Opposition, the 7 Opposition, the 9 Opposition, the 10 Opposition and the ABC Opposition.  With this latest effort they shown themselves to be actively campaigning to destroy the Government.  they are no longer reporting the news, they are trying to create the news.

The Great Unhinging – now with extra stupid

If there were any of you out there who thought that this year might herald a return to a more sensible political debate replete with fact-based investigative journalism, well it didn’t take long to be proven resoundingly wrong.

Despite a brief glimmer of hope last week when some journos thought about questioning Abbott’s profound lack of intelligence around the economy, they all went stacks-on back into the “leadership speculation” bandwagon with a huge sigh of relief…after all why tread new ground that might make them use dusty old neural channels when they can slip back into the comfortable old routine of poll beat-up, baseless leadership speculation and kicking the shit out of the Government for basically anything while accusing them of not being able to get their message out.

Any rational person would have thought that Abbott’s dismal “set the way back machine for the Howard years” epiphany at the NPC was a licence to go him boots and all, and for a sliver of time a couple did, but shortly their training re-asserted itself and the golden goose was left unruffled once more.

And this morning we had what was to my mind the cherry of moronity (??) on top of the sundae of stupid that is Australian political reporting.  A Newspoll was reported that stated that Abbott was viewed by the “people” (I hope to god I never meet someone this stupid…they’d be lucky to be able to stand upright) as being able to handle the economy by 43%-34%.  I don’t know what country these people live in, or what cave they’ve been living in for the past 12 months, but this just blew my mind.

And the final kicker was that Joe Hockey was viewed as being the equally preferred Treasurer as Swan!  This just made my morning…how anyone could see Joe Hockey of the missing $70bn, the non-audit audit, and the flick passed budget reply as being any remotely close to competent is a really dangerous sign.

After this performance I’m becoming increasingly convinced that there is a special enclave of people who disengaged from society around the 1960s who are being repeatedly tapped for all this polling…nothing else seems to make sense.  After all, why would you give kudos to someone who is going to stick it to you massively to get some more bickies for his mates at the big end of town?

Polliferation

Once again the new year rolls around and once again we have to suffer through the deluge of polls…with no let up in sight.

Despite the media’s best efforts at twisting the narrative, there appears to be a minor trend of rising support for the Government, but this far out from the election it really makes no difference whatsoever.

The big news is that despite absolutely no evidence to support it, all the headlines from the polls scream that Rudd is favoured over Gillard.

The news organisations should be immensely proud of themselves…this is an outstanding effort of the tail wagging the dog.  The intense effort in the media beat-up about Rudd challenging for the leadership (well challenging any time over the past 6 months in fact) has borne fruit with the polling organisations now including this furphy in their questions and then the media whores recycling their own filth as apparent news, in one glorious vicious circle of lies and bullshit.

To me the pinnacle of the bullshit was this morning when the morning “news” shows trumpeted that “twice as many people preferred Rudd to Gillard”, when the percentages were 52/30…but then since when did mathematics get in the way of a good beat-up.

Ah well…back into the fray of grimacing through the bullshit that passes for news in this country in the vain hope of picking up some nuggets of fact through the dross of lies and bullshit, interspersed with plenty of “the Federal Opposition says”…

 

UPDATE:  The Newspoll this morning reports the 2PP as unchanged 54-46.  Naturally our reality-challenged media are all reporting this as “flatlining” support for the ALP.  Of course as we all know 2 instances of the same results in a 2 days period means no increase in support…regardless of any underlying longer term trend.

If anyone was in any doubt about how ratshit our media really is, the performance over the past week should have eliminated all doubt.  With almost no exception our media is scouring every news item for a way to spin it as either bad for the Government or good for the Opposition…witness the cherry-picking of facets of each poll to highlight perceived weaknesses for the Government.  When the 2PP goes in favour of the ALP they highlight the primary, when the primary increase they highlight the PM support, when this improves they trot out the Rudd/Gillard comparison, which has been vastly inflated by LNP voters preferring Rudd without any hope in hell of them voting for him.

They are now all toeing the News Corp line and going stacks on the Government…with no exception.  Wankers.

Apparently negotiation = back down

Watching the news this morning I heard a story that the government was prepared to negotiate with the Opposition to reinstate offshore processing by throwing Nauru back into the mix.

Did the media have a rational take on this, highlighting the pros and cons for both sides?  Like fuck did they!

It was wall-to-wall bleating about the Government backing down and Abbott victorious with a crushing defeat for Gillard.  Last time I checked, actually getting what you wanted i.e. the Malaysia deal for regional offshore processing being reinstated, was classed as a win.  Sure they have to concede ground on Nauru, but from what I have heard it will be used as a staging area until the Malaysia processes and facilities are up to scratch.  Only in their most vivid fantasies could the Coalition claim this as a win because Nauru will not be permanent, TPVs will not be re-established and the Howard era policy will not be reinstated.  Not much to smile about there really.

Of course all the media will do is throw around the word “Nauru”, conveniently neglecting to clarify the circumstances and context and this will be seen as a huge Abbott victory.

It’s amazing how well served we are by our media.  /sarc

 

Finally on a more uplifting note, I would like to wish any readers a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  See you back for more vitriol in 2012.

 

Clubs Australia claims another victim

…this time it’s Father Chris Reilly’s credibility.

I happened to catch an interview this morning on Sunrise where Father Chris Reilly got stuck into Nick Xenophon, Tim Costello, Andrew Wilkie and the Government for pursuing the pokie pre-commitment strategy, claiming instead that child abuse was a far bigger problem.

Now I have no beef with saying that child abuse is a serious issue, but to categorically state that trying to help problem gamblers was a waste of resources just beggars the imagination.

Surely Reilly can see that the knock effects of pokie addiction impact on more that just the addict…some studies state a figure of 7 other people affected by each problem gambler.  Knowing the impact it does have on families I can fully understand this.

It certainly doesn’t explain why Reilly went off on his rant, covering the gamut of talking point like individual politicians holding the Government to ransom, minority government not working, he doesn’t understand minority government etc.

It did come out that Clubs Australia donated $100K to his cause, which isn’t a bad thing but certainly makes him look like he’s supporting their point of view.

It’s just sad that Chris Reilly jumping in to something it doesn’t look like he really understands fully (and this became apparent the longer the interview went on) has ended up tarnishing his reputation.  Hopefully it won’t end up affecting all of the good works he does for Australia’s youth.

Government masterclass

With the resignation from Speaker of the House and the consequential goings-on, the Government have given the Opposition a masterclass on how to do Parliament.

In one stroke the Government have stretched their voting buffer from 1 vote to 3 votes, including the crossbenches, and couldn’t you hear the whining from the LNP.

Mind you they only had themselves to blame for it.  With their pre-selection kerfuffle against Peter Slipper, they effectively pushed him into the position as his only way out.  And like they wouldn’t do the same thing if the positions were reversed.

By far the funniest thing to come out of the coverage so far is both the disappointment of the commentariat and the despair of Abbott.

The talking heads on the media are devastated because they no longer have that knife-edge in Parliament where one stuff up could switch things around…providing them with endless no-brainer leads about the “seriousness” and “tension” in every single thing that ever happens.  Excluding of course the fact that all legislation is being passed and that Abbott repeatedly abuses the workings of Parliament with his ridiculously frivolous censure motions…on a daily basis.

Then of course there is the stuntman himself.  It wasn’t surprising at all that the first thing out of his mouth was the bleating of “the death of democracy”, when in actual fact it was a perfect example of Parliamentary democracy at work.  Wouldn’t you normally expect the deputy to take over from the speaker in any other situation?

Of course with the 3 vote buffer he can no longer afford to wait for a stuff up for power to change hands…he will actually have to do some work and hold out for another 2 years.  You can tell he’s not in it for the hard work.

The biggest concern I have with this is that I hope the Government still pursue the  reform agenda and don’t back away from the pokie pre-commitment changes because they no longer need Wilkie’s vote absolutely…it’s a change that needs to be made and most people will agree with it once the Clubs Australia noise machine dies down.

Challenging viewpoints

As has been highlighted on the Blogwars thread, one of the more challenging aspects of debating on the internet can be the perspectives of the other people.  Their long held personal convictions can be a large impediment to any discussion simply because your thoughts don’t gel with their worldview, no matter how correct you may be.

I personally have come across this on many occasions and I’m sure everyone else has at some point.

So I wanted to try something different.  Instead of just blatting my thesis out there in toto giving ample leeway for cognitive dissonance to creep in, I want to try a more reductionist approach.

By breaking down your message into simple, verifiable points with a yes/no response I think you have a better change of breaking through.  How about this for a sample:

1. During the last election campaign, did Julia Gillard commit to pursuing a price on carbon via an emissions trading scheme if she won Government?
2. Did Julia Gillard win Government in her own right at the last election?
3. Was Julia Gillard required to negotiate with Independents and the Greens to form Government?
4. Does the process of negotiation require giving concessions to achieve your preferred outcome?
5. Did Julia Gillard provide concessions to the Greens and Independents during this negotiation process?
6. Has Julia Gillard undertaken to implement an emissions trading scheme, albeit with a fixed price period initially?

Do you think these statements are accurate enough to disallow any semantic wiggle room?  Can anyone disagree with any of the statements and keep a straight face while doing so?

Does anyone have any other examples?

 

UPDATE:  Extra points from Recalcitrant Rick in comments:

7.  Did Tony Abbott have an opportunity to form Government by negotiating with the Independents?

8.  Did those negotiations fail?

9.  Does this mean that in fact the current Labor Government is legitimate?

Blogwars

There’s been a bit of kerfuffle about recently in some of the blogs I follow and it appears to have come to a head in the past day or two (for those who don’t already know, it was Gutter Trash and Cafe Whispers).

It has had something for all the family:  trolling, misrepresentation, out-of-context quoting, hurt feelings, moderation, retirement and the big banhammer.  But why did it need to come to that?

To mind blogs are a form of discussion group, a nerdy virtual example of the book club.  As with discussion groups each one has its own personality, so using the blogs mentioned above the Cafe would be closer to the book club variety, whereas GT is closer to blokes hanging around a barbie, or drunk footy players in a locker room.

Now these personalities work for each other…GT revels in the cut and thrust (or actually more likely the bludgeon and smash) of the rough and tumble, whereas the Cafe has a more communal atmosphere.  It also leads to differing outcomes for the various discussions…the Cafe environment allows for people to discuss their points in a more reasoned manner, whereas GT threads often degenerate into talking point regurgitation, wilful ignorance and refusal to accept the underlying logic behind your opponents arguments.

The problem seems to arise when there is some cross-pollination.  From my experience in both blogs, Cafe dwellers can quite easily lob into the Gutter and post away merrily in their own style…as long as they have a thick skin, have a high stupidity tolerance,  and are willing to return fire.  But the converse doesn’t really work quite so well.  When GT posters jump on to the Cafe and try to use their own inimitable style they find they can’t quite get away with their usual antics.  The thread derails, talking points and preciousness don’t really wash and they get called out.  Which is where we are right now.

 

The point is that you need to be mindful of the tone of the place you are posting at.  Attempting the ingrained habits from a more rough and tumble locale will get you rapidly flagged as a troll and treated accordingly.  Conversely, jumping on a blog with more…flexible standards and expecting them to behave to higher standards will rapidly out you as a precious little flower.

Just go with the flow…if you’re one of those types who simply must provoke and incite aggro wherever you go, deal with the fallout and don’t go running to your blog-mummy when you get spanked.