Depressed by Australian politics? Take a trip to the US and witness the media conversation there. This is the original recipe for our post-modern show about nothing, featuring professional partisans rattling off practised punchlines like Jerry versus Newman.

On a sleepy Sunday at Dallas-Fort Worth, an airport the size of a small Australian city, chino-wearing business travellers hunch over laptops at fast-food joints lit by hundreds of screens showing the talking heads sparring over Obamacare or the debt ceiling or fracking or whatever else might raise a temperature.

The screens are muted, but the ubiqitous captioning services provide a record of the partisan ping-pong on Crossfire, a long-running and rigidly formatted CNN show that pits your token conservative pundit against your token “liberal” commentator. The issues themselves are really the backdrop to the real business, which is manufactured conflict for ratings points.

Obamacare, the president’s healthcare law, is currently dividing the Right, with Tea Party extremists threatening to use a total government shutdown to defund the scheme. Obamacare is hardly radical. But such is the utter whackiness of American politics that an attempt to make private health insurance affordable for working people is deemed to be an existential threat to capitalism. The reality on the ground is less important to the paid combatants than striking the right pose.

Talking to those few Americans who still pay attention to the hysterical point-scoring that passes for policy debate there, it appears evident that this system is busted – the hyper-partisanship has brought government to a standstill, literally. And for the cynical among us, it would appear this is just the intent of the heavily moneyed interests who own the politicians and the media in the USA.

Of course, the point of all this is to reflect on the possibility that Australia (increasingly a provincial echo-chamber for US political trends) is heading in the same deeply depressing direction. Certainly,  the self-conscious gear-grinding re-start of the ‘culture wars‘  in recent weeks bolsters that view.

The more optimistic take (and one worth clinging to) is that Australians still are pragmatic enough and have sufficiently strong bulls**t detectors to prevent the partisan-for-the-sake-of-it, beyond-cynical, professional circus politics that has derailed US government processes to take hold here.

The grassroots success of the independent Cathy McGowan in Indi and the ALP’s belated rediscovery of democracy – even the big protest vote for the Clive Palmer party – are evidence that the electorate is longing for something beyond the careerist, risk-averse, media-trained hackery that is represented in our media as ‘mainstream’ politics.

The growth in the conversation in social media, irrespective of what the mainstream equivalent serves up as the issues of the day, is another encouraging development, though of course the fashionably counter view is that Twitter is hardly representative of the broad disengaged middle. (My take on this BTW is that it patronises a broad swathe of people from all walks of life who may not directly be engaged in social media but who are taking a greater interest from the sidelines)

The truth is the hollowed-out, meaningless charade that is sold to us as ‘politics’ is a channel that few people bother watching any more. This is a show in which professional parties construct debates around sideshows based on confected issues because they can’t admit that they have neither the power nor imagination nor willingness to address the long-term challenges. And it suits the Murdochs of the world for people to embrace the cynicism and go to the mall.

The show about nothing is a diversion from the show about something. But you’ll need to change the channel to take part.


9 Comments

megpie71 · September 25, 2013 at 3:14 PM

Well, we got the government Mr Murdoch wanted. Pity we're finding out it's not the one we were after…

In the meantime, I'm doing my bit for the economy by dropping 5c into a jar for every bit of daft governmental policy, political cliche, or media hackery I run across. I started about a week or so back; I'm up to $7.55 already (and I don't even read the Murdoch press!). The money is either going to desirable political causes, or booze. Probably booze. I figure if the various groups of politicians I'm governed by are going to make me want to cry into my beer, they can at least fund the beer for me.

Elena Fermanis · September 25, 2013 at 10:34 PM

Well written, completely agree with the sentiment.

I was recently watching YouTube clips of Keating in parliament. It's a shame I was too young to appreciate such a fine political mind (not to mention witty comebacks). We need another one of him. I though Kevin Rudd would be that guy, but I was bitterly disappointing in the end.

Oh and to the poster above me, I'd definitely choose booze. I have a feeling if you continue if for at least three months you will be asking your friends to carry you home!

Rohan · September 26, 2013 at 1:40 AM

Funny how we persist with the self-satisfied fantasy that Australia is more sophisticated and culturally mature than the US.

In my estimation Australia is worse than the US when it comes to the calibre of the political issues under consideration and the superficiality of the discussion.

Telestream AV · September 26, 2013 at 1:54 AM

The only thing that keeps me hopeful about the future is the knowledge that traditional media is dying, and Murdoch's influence will die with it. Newspapers are in their final death throes, as you can tell if you look at their ever-decreasing ad revenue, and television will go the same way eventually – after all, the only thing you can still get on TV that you can't get on the internet is live sports. And with many sporting codes moving to live streaming (Netball Australia notably here, but if you look overseas there's a LOT of sport being live streamed – soccer in Europe, American football in America, the US Open tennis was all live streamed etc, etc, etc) and a pay per view revenue model, TV will no longer have a point of difference. Good for us, since we provide live streaming services (gratuitous plug, and I dare say good for democracy too.

I'm still not sure exactly what it will mean for how people get their information, but I'm pretty sure it's better than it all coming from Murdoch.

Anonymous · September 26, 2013 at 9:57 AM

Not a word out of place, unfortunately…
P Walter.

Anonymous · September 27, 2013 at 8:37 AM

We are now in a phase where the ABC is not worth viewing now days as if you view insiders all we see is Murdoch employees giving their opinion or if you listen to Jon Faine we are brow beaten by the IPA or watch The Drum we are flogged with the IPA or Reith or Downer or other ex Liberal hacks so I find the best way is to not tune into the ABC for my news.

Anonymous · September 29, 2013 at 10:20 AM

We may be getting our news straight from the PM's office. TA has just employed a former Channel 7 cameraman. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the Govt will be producing their own reports thereby cutting out journalists. The media clampdown has shown quite clearly that they want full control.

Rolly Christian · October 1, 2013 at 4:54 AM

“The truth is the hollowed-out, meaningless charade that is sold to us as 'politics' is a channel that few people bother watching any more. This is a show in which professional parties construct debates around sideshows based on confected issues because they can't admit that they have neither the power nor imagination nor willingness to address the long-term challenges.” Oh yeah that's the way its rolling.

Just like on ABC's weekly Q&A, superficial treatment on a hots-potch of “concerns” by media heads and pollie celbs alike out of their depth and trending off-topic and off the-cuff.

Image the shock if passionate, gracious, intelligent and civil debate broke out.
Image the shock if the axes to swing were set aside and we saw thinking intelligent humans deeply considering “real problems” in depth.

Improving outcomes for our First Australians would be my first in-depth cab off the rank. That's Q&A booked solid for a couple of months and with the hope of some constructive outcomes.

Immigration outcomes and or community crime would be the next couple of cabs to go deep with.

alascii · October 4, 2013 at 3:35 PM

I live in the US and only really watch TV at the gym.

That being said, the 24 hour news channels are mind boggling. The only time you ever see facts is when there is a shooting. And when I say facts are missing I don't mean that content is presented in an overly biased way.

I mean that you can watch CNN or MSNBC for 2 hours about Syria for example and learn absolutely nothing about what is happening. It will just be 2 hours of “a liberal feels this way”, “a conservative feels this way” and never the twain shall meet. I feel like I know less about what is happening when I leave the gym than when I walked in.

The exception of course is when there is a shooting. In this case the actual events are discussed ad naseaum.

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