What do you think the pokies story is about?  According to the Australian press gallery, it’s a story about individual politicians and party politics. The prime minister they have dubbed ‘Jul-iar’ Gillard, incapable of keeping promises, has done it again – ripped up a deal, walked away from an agreement and put pure politics ahead of principle. It’s the story her opponent wants run. And , of course, the genuises of the press gallery dutifully report it (‘The Blame Game Begins’, says Seven News).


The story could have been about how a thuggish and self-interested clubs industry – trumpeting the interests of the ‘ordinary bloke’ – had f**ked over the wider population with a $20 million advertising campaign and threatened a few marginal seats. But in the narrow orbit of the press gallery, it was just too hard to report that. No, this was about “Ju-liar’s” capacity to keep a promise. The pokies compromise provides just another excuse for 900 words of analysis on how long the minority government can struggle on – what does it mean for Gillard’s leadership, what does it mean for the Gillard-Rudd shadowplay – yada yada yada.

The Australian media – largely because it is part of the machine itself – wants you to believe that ‘politics’ is about what happens in Canberra. They shine the light almost exclusively on the confected battle between tweedle dee and tweedle dum – the figureheads at the top of decaying political parties that everyone outside the Canberra vortex can see are just shells of organisations pretending to believe in something beyond power itself.  The issues they fight about are just props for the pantomime that the media reports on as “politics”. The real issues – the pokie industry that destroys families, the mining boom that’s threatening every other industry outside resources, the climate change that’s threatening the planet – these are just just kindling for the eternal bonfire that keeps the huddled hacks in the press gallery in the warmth of secure employment.

Real politics – how money and position and fear buy power – is actually much more interesting than that. That game is fought outside the political parties. Canberra is just the show at the end of the road. This is the politics the media doesn’t report – because it’s “too complicated to explain” or because no-one wants to get out of the cosy gallery life  or because it involves leaving parliament and talking to people outside the machine. To do journalism like that (and how it should be done) would be to show how the game is played; the complex webs of relationships and favours and the corruption of institutions. Instead, it’s just easier and cheaper to replay over and over the “politics”  of the Punch and Judy show of Tony and Julia – the sock puppetry hiding the underlying power relationships.

The press gallery doesn’t want to tell you about the interest group politics; the narrow groups with deep pockets who fund the journos’ bar tabs, both figuratively and literally. Unaware of their complicity in the game, the journos reduce it all to Team A vs Team B and ‘what does it mean for Labor’s primary vote?’ The idea is to keep it simple and monochromatic for the news editors in Sydney who tell them “the punters” are too stupid to get it.  So it’s Julia vs Tony over and over and over again.
And they wonder why voters have switched off.

Put aside Labor vs Liberal for a moment. The fact is Australia is governed by a handful of extremely powerful interest groups: The miners, the bankers, the “gaming” industry, the media. Journalists employed by mainstream media companies can’t tell you this, because they are part of the power structure themselves. They can’t take a step back and analyse the institutions that foster the very apathy that allows narrow interests to pursue their advantage unmolested. They want you to believe that the vital contest is between Labor and Liberal when the real and interwoven power structures of money and influence are unexamined. (BTW,  the threat the Greens pose to the cosy duopoly is closely correlated to the lies and hysteria the Murdoch press whips up against them).

As a former journalist, that to me is the most disconcerting thing – that journalists who pride themselves on their “independence” seem so naively unaware of how they are a tool in a game designed  by someone else.


24 Comments

squawkingalah · January 22, 2012 at 10:42 AM

I agree with you, Mr Denmore! Right on!

Anonymous · January 22, 2012 at 12:08 PM

Ok, you can understand why self-interest determines that journalists in the commercial media might be reluctant to step back and truthfully analyse the situation. But what is with the ABC? As an organisation theoretically answerable to no corporate honcho, no one but the Australian people themselves, what is stopping the ABC from talking about this truthfully?

Not only is the ABC not touching this, even worse, much of what passes for “news” and “current affairs” on their ABC is either a thin rewrite or an echoing reinforcement of the partisan / sectional advocacy poison that preoccupies the commercial media.

Talk about a sell-out of the people and our democracy.

ewe2 · January 22, 2012 at 1:09 PM

This comment has been removed by the author.

Megpie71 · January 22, 2012 at 1:13 PM

One of the older mantras of second-wave feminism was “the personal is political” – or in other words, politics doesn't stop at the steps of parliament house, or at the doors of the council offices. Politics follows you home. It's in the air you breathe, in the water you drink, in the food you eat, in the house you inhabit, the car you drive, the clothes you wear, everything about you. Someone made decisions, and if those decisions involved power being wielded (even on the most micro level), those decisions are political decisions.

Unfortunately, covering those sorts of decisions tends to get a bit too close to the bone for most media organisations. This is because they're too close to another set of political decisions – the ones about the things we get told about as “stories” in the news. There's a lot of politics involved in gatekeeping, and a lot of gatekeeping involved in media work.

(As for the ABC, they're not answerable to “the Australian people themselves” – in the most immediate case, they're answerable to the Minister for Communication and the Arts. Who is a politician from one of the two major political parties. In the wider case, they're answerable to the wider media – who are answerable to their corporate masters, and who make the highly political decisions about what we're allowed to hear about the ABC from external sources.

Overall, the ABC has been forced to “compete” with the rest of the mainstream media, given a much lower budget, a much lower threshold for complaint, and a much lower level of status for so doing. It's not really surprising they now look like a pallid wraith of the Murdoch press).

Anonymous · January 22, 2012 at 9:50 PM

Mr Denmore, there is some coverage of issues and what you describe as “real politics”. It's just that you'll find none of it on the Canberra page (and it is the Canberra page, not the national page – that's clearly a big problem).

Instead, you'll find this kind of coverage scattered through the rest of the paper – a bit in general, a bit in business, even a bit in the sport section.

I don't think there's anyone inside the media (but outside the press gallery) who doesn't realise the present model is completely broken.

Changing the broken politics coverage model requires not just a change of philosophical approach but also, on a practical level, dealing with a handful of baby boomer journalists – no prizes for guessing who – that are blocking change through their long tenure and institutional power.

Anonymous · January 22, 2012 at 9:50 PM

Mr Denmore, there is some coverage of issues and what you describe as “real politics”. It's just that you'll find none of it on the Canberra page (and it is the Canberra page, not the national page – that's clearly a big problem).

Instead, you'll find this kind of coverage scattered through the rest of the paper – a bit in general, a bit in business, even a bit in the sport section.

I don't think there's anyone inside the media (but outside the press gallery) who doesn't realise the present model is completely broken.

Changing the broken politics coverage model requires not just a change of philosophical approach but also, on a practical level, dealing with a handful of baby boomer journalists – no prizes for guessing who – that are blocking change through their long tenure and institutional power.

Neil · January 22, 2012 at 9:52 PM

Indeed. Perfectly articulated as usual.

And the platform given to the likes of The Institute of Public Affairs – who pretend what they do is fair dinkum journalism and not lobbying on behalf of their undisclosed big business paymasters – cheapens Fairfax's and our impartial ABC's media brands as a trusted source of information.

Or, as I prefer to think of them nowadays, our IP-ABC and The IPAge.

Anonymous · January 22, 2012 at 11:13 PM

Exhibit A: 3 minutes and 37 seconds of race calling – http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-01-22/gillards-broken-pokies-deal/3786546

pk · January 23, 2012 at 2:34 AM

Steven Mayne tweeted this after the announcement:
“ALP Right told Gillard to sack Carr from Cabinet, ditch Jenkins as speaker and then dud Wilkie. In return they block Rudd challenge. Awful”

I don't know whether this is true but it underlines your comments that there is a lot more going on in the pokies debate than the public has been informed about.

We don't need journos to tell us this is a gutless move. We need them to figure out what forces came to bear on Cabinet to force this decision. Whether it was backroom dealing, the Packer influence, NSW Labor clubs, whatever. Until this happens, we are never going to understand whether Gillard is a poor leader or a victim of powerful anti-Labor forces.

fred · January 23, 2012 at 3:06 AM

The biggest political story in Australia is the slow creeping power of corporations in our political life (through donations and political advertising campaigns) Soon we will end up like the US, which is just a corporate donorocracy. Yet nobody (including the political parties) seems aware of the issue. It's time to push corporations out of political life in this country and put our democracy solely in the hands of citizens.

Jake Gittings · January 23, 2012 at 3:23 AM

If she were a stronger leader, she wouldn't be a victim, she would be able to seize and direct the agenda.

Mr D · January 23, 2012 at 3:26 AM

Agreed, Fred. I'm not sure the wider public has yet twigged to the fact that the government effectively is being run by a few lobbyists and an advertising agency. Whatever the truth, it seems pretty clear now that the template for knocking over contentious reform has been made – hire a slick agency and put together a campaign that conflates the client's narrow interest with the national interest. If you can say it's all a threat to true-blue-oi-oi Australiana, all the better.

The Labor Party is a corrupt and spent force, full of careerists and people who cosy up to gangsters, embezzlers, 'hoteliers' and other frauds. The Liberal Party has been taken over by religious nutjobs, xenophobes, homophobes and sundry reactionaries who model themselves on the fact-free politics of the GOP in the US.

Sooner or later, you'd expect the great unwashed to wake up and realise they're being had by both sides.

Anonymous · January 23, 2012 at 3:28 AM

I am disappointed that you have articulated my darkest fears, because as a former journalist you would know.

Anonymous · January 23, 2012 at 3:28 AM

I am disappointed that you have articulated my darkest fears, because as a former journalist you would know.

Peter · January 23, 2012 at 3:58 AM

I like to call them LibLabs. Seems to have a nice pun on a Labrador: a retriever for corporate interests.

Peter · January 23, 2012 at 3:58 AM

I like to call them LibLabs. Seems to have a nice pun on a Labrador: a retriever for corporate interests.

Dan · January 23, 2012 at 4:46 AM

No Mr D, the “great unwashed” will not wake up and realise they are being had. At least not until our whole system comes crashing down around them. When the spivs on one side and the nutjobs on the other start doing (or not doing)things that actually have a direct and demonstrable effect on their well-being, then perhaps they'll take note

The most depressing thing in Australian life at the moment is that both major parties are as bad as each other. There is nowhere to turn (no Greens, not you – you could not run a bun fight in a bakery).

Link · January 23, 2012 at 5:50 AM

I heard a guy on teh Drum the other day say that only 51% of Americans had jobs. I immediately realised this statement, whether true or not, put the journo who 'reported this' into the 49% of Americans who do have jobs and ipso facto did it matter what he thought and was it relevant to the majority?

I realise this is simplistic, and the journalist wasn't actually a US citizen. Nevertheless, I think there is as others enunciated Adam Curtis, Julian Assange et al, there is an unwritten, consensus view/understanding that supports and promotes dodgy power regardless of how toxic and largely destructive it is. Journos in Australia, by and large couldn't be bothered and don't want to poke a stick into a hornet's nest nor risk making themselves unpopular with the 'big end' of town or politicians (who want even less to make themselves unpopular (with anyone, least of all he who has the gold).) Most people including twat journalists, are primarily concerned with keeping their jobs, feathering their own nests and basically being the embodiment of the vain, selfish, violent, bullying, culture they so love to report on–because they claim, this is 'what we want'. Arseholes.

Anonymous · January 24, 2012 at 12:51 AM

A comment at Larvatus Prodeo…

FFranklin
January 23, 2012 at 11:04 am

http://larvatusprodeo.net/2012/01/23/spotlight-the-spin-87/#comment-356109

Got home on Saturday afternoon after a nice few hours at my local TAB and turned on ABC24 to catch up with the pokies brouhaha. The first thing I saw scrolling across the bottom of the screen was “Smith blasted for release timing of Defense allegations”. Blasted by whom you might ask! That’s right blasted by none other than “the opposition says”. Given “the opposition says” would blast Smith over the type of shoelaces worn by servicemen of what relevance was this scroll other than a cowardly smear.

After the PM’s press conference announcing her policies there was a series of people interviewed. One was a woman brought along to a Mr.X press conference who’s daughter committed suicide unable to cope with pokie debts. The way in which she was goaded by the ABC journalist to bring her family grief into this debate and in a very personal way towards Julia Gillard was one of the most disgusting interviews I’ve seen since the campaign of sneer and smear by the ABC against the ALP govt. began over four years ago. I can only assume that the only reason the ABC journalist did not ask the poor woman if she blamed Julia Gillard directly for her daughters suicide was because she forgot. Really nasty stuff.

Next up was an interview with Tony Abbott in some bush setting with a single ABC female ‘journo’. Although never shown the girl sounded fourteen years old, was timid (or intimidated / in awe!) and she nervously asked a couple of increasingly banal dorothy dixers that I’m betting many a backbencher would find too embarrassing to ask of their leader on the floor of parliament.

At the end of each head kicking interview we returned to the studio host and the little fellow appeared to be having trouble stopping his cheesy grin turning into a giggle fit. I think those working at the Young Libs Glee Club that is ABC24 really need to do some workshops on subtlety.

Anonymous · January 24, 2012 at 5:02 AM

If the great unwashed do wake up and want to spread their opinions and demand their interests be accommodated, can they have their interests represented by News Corp, or the ABC.

The #Occupy movement got evicted from Melbourne City Square with maximum force in a running battle that lasted over 6 hours. Victoria Police were rewarded for their efforts by a pay rise in excess of the 2% wage caps the the government mandated for public servants

Anonymous · January 24, 2012 at 11:00 AM

Very succint and accurate article Mr Denmore.
Fred
[not the same one as the fred above]

730reportland · January 25, 2012 at 3:21 PM

Great to see you say this in strong terms Mr-D. Joolya will get a head kicking for walking away from the Wilkie Pokie deal, you can bet on that.

Spittle will be flying over at Mac-Radio and the typing monkeys will be throwing their poo over at
blogs.very.limited.news/propaganda

Informed voters in so-called democracy, bullcrap.

Anonymous · January 26, 2012 at 3:53 AM

Very interesting article. Two sides fighting over not much between them, and the money interests really running the agenda. This is the reason why we need people like you Mr Denmore and social media in general to provide ongoing signposts for the “great unwashed”.

I hope that nothing short of complete censorship of the internet will stop this process.

Dr Pepper · January 28, 2012 at 8:55 AM

I agree, Mr Denmore. On the reporting of fake politics, Malcolm Turnbull does too. He says at:

“Consider the shrinking Canberra Press Gallery – the vast bulk of its coverage of federal politics is now about personalities and the game of politics.”

A notable part of that game is the shenanigans in the Reps. This is the country’s parliament yet the Reps doesn’t decide anything or amend legislation (even with a hung parliament). It just approves the bill the government puts before it. If the Senate amends the bill the Reps then obediently passes the Senate’s changes.

Do any members of the press gallery who report on the Reps and the Question Time theatre ever ponder the fact that the House of Representatives doesn’t do anything?

Have any of the courtiers who take down every word and print it as Hansard ever noticed that the content is irrelevant to legislation?

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