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?