What do we think of the political media in Australia? Obviously there are some great individuals out there working as journalists, but the overwhelming impression of political journalists and editors – as expressed by an admittedly narrow section of the Twitterverse in a very non-scientific poll – is interesting.
This deliberate stunt was inspired by a similar (though less consciously shallow) effort by our national broadcaster, which was so starved for web content it it that it asked its readers to sum up their opinions of Julia Gillard in three words to construct a word cloud. Despite the obvious tendency for these polls to be rigged, the resulting map was deemed front page ‘news’ on the ABC website, which sparked an understandable outcry over the media manufacturing news out of nothing.
True to form, the ABC sought to “balance” the books the next day by pulling the same stunt over Abbott, as if that made the whole silly exercise legitimate. So a public broadcaster continually complaining that it is under resourced might like consider what it is offering that is not available on the likes of Sky and NineMSN. This is tabloid, bone-headed, populist, cut and paste ‘journalism’ at its absolute worst and as bad as anything available on commercial networks and Murdoch wrappers.
You want some story ideas Mr ABC editor? Assign someone to find out who funds the IPA (whose young fogeyish libertarians you feature so regularly). Do a piece on what is likely to come out of the government’s media convergence review. Investigate how much is our Afghan commitment costing us and ask where is the national interest here? Write a piece on the return on investment in the resource industry right now and compare with what’s happening in manufacturing and tourism. Then compare the tax takes. How many alternative energy start-ups have upped stumps for California or Europe because of this country’s dithering over climate change action? Get a CEO on the phone. What about getting you digital mapping people employed on an interactive graphic showing where the boat people are coming from and how insignificant their numbers are in proportion to the overall immigrant intake. Those are real stories that take effort and research skills and which don’t fall into your lap. Journalists write stories like those. Typists do what you’re doing – recycling Opposition press releases and making up doodles.
By the way, in no way does this blogger pretend that the above hastily constructed word map is an entirely accurate depiction of the attitudes of the wider community towards political journalism in this country (though I suspect it comes close). But then this blog doesn’t pretend to be a news site.
12 Comments
Roger Wegener · June 22, 2011 at 2:12 AM
Tomato?
Mr D · June 22, 2011 at 2:23 AM
Tomato throwers
Link · June 22, 2011 at 2:33 AM
Where do I get one?
Anonymous · June 22, 2011 at 4:32 AM
“The Opposition Says…”
Cuppa
cecily · June 22, 2011 at 6:47 AM
Thank you!
I was pretty disgusted with the whole thing really, initially because I've been hiding offline a bit and didn't realise what was happening so my three words for Julia Gillard weren't even formulated leave alone included. Then I realised how purulent the exercise was (as if it provides something close to an accurate representation of the public's opinion, and who cares what the public think anyway, she is our Prime Minister so deal with it and move on) and was glad I'd missed the opportunity and in the end refused to read it.
What a farce. Thank you for highlighting how pathetic this was.
Notus · June 22, 2011 at 8:42 AM
I thought the word cloud was a bit close to push polling. The other point was that the cloud happened to feed into the tactics of the Coalition during Question Time and Abbott's stunt for a plebiscite.
To your point of “typists do what you're doing”, well in the public service, they were made redundant in the 1980s.
Colin Campbell · June 22, 2011 at 8:23 PM
Big news in Adelaide on the ABC was B1 and B2 being stolen from the offices in Collinswood. Stay classy ABC.
Rhiannon · June 22, 2011 at 9:08 PM
That's practically a Utopian vision, Mr Denmore! Strangely enough it doesn't sound un-achievable…
Helga Fremlin · June 23, 2011 at 3:44 AM
Thank you, Mr Denmore! You have hit the (media) nail on the head – just listened to the latest edition of 'The World Today' on Radio National. Always rubbishing the government – and 'the opposition says' again and again. Also, not only are the media IPA but also CIS–concentrated.
By means of consolation, I am listening to Handel's 'Jephtha' at the moment – now that's uplifting!
Keep up the good work,
Helga from Daylesford, Victoria
Fred The Oyster · June 23, 2011 at 2:12 PM
I for one question the validity of your so-called “word cloud”. It is an obvious fabrication as the word Bullshit is not only not incredibly large but is completely absent. This reeks of push-polling…
Pip · June 24, 2011 at 7:34 AM
Oh, Fred the Oyster, please, lighten up.
Mr. D's 'cloud' stunt simply highlights the depths to which the ABC has sunk at the hands of Mr. Maurice Newman, Chairman, ABC, and good friend of former PM, Mr. John Howard.
From Wikipedia:- about the Institute of Public Affairs.
Political links
The Institute has close ideological and political affinities with the Liberal Party in Australia.[citation needed] John Roskam, the IPA's Executive Director, worked on the Liberal Party's 2001 election campaign.[citation needed] He has also run for Liberal Party preselection.[9] Prime Minister John Howard (Liberal Party) delivered the 60th C D Kemp lecture to the Institute in 2004, titled Iraq: The Importance of Seeing it Through.[10]
With the demise of the Howard Government, the Institute has played a significant role in generating intellectual analysis and criticism of the Rudd Government's policies.[citation needed]
Funding
In 2003, the Australian Government paid $50,000 to the Institute of Public Affairs to review the accountability of NGOs.[4][not in citation given]
The IPA funded by its membership which include both private individuals and businesses. Among these businesses are ExxonMobil,[5] Telstra, WMC Resources, BHP Billiton, Phillip Morris,[6] Murray Irrigation Limited,[7] and Visy Industries.
IPA donors have also included Clough Engineering, Caltex, Shell and Esso.[8] Other donors were electricity and mining companies, as well as British American Tobacco (BAT).[8]
It's an easy exercise to connect the dots.
Anonymous · June 26, 2011 at 12:21 AM
Give 'em heaps, Mr D!