Wednesday 1 February 2012

The state of political journalism

Sometimes I despair for this country. Yesterday Tony Abbott gave a speech at the National Press Club. I haven't seen the speech, nor have I read the transcript. However, it's interesting how the reports of the event vary. The media seems to have reacted positively, talking about how Abbott was able to cut through and attack the Government's economic performance.

Unfortunately, it seems that he was given an easy run by the media - the tough questions were most noticeable by their absence. Greg Jericho takes this up on his blog (it's a shame it didn't become this week's article for The Drum). Greg discusses the NPC speech and the coverage it received. He makes this telling point:
I keep wondering why journalists are so stymied by Abbott, but really the reason is clear – he’s a journalist. The guy was a leader writer for The Australian. He thinks in anecdotes. He thinks the one does actually represent the all. There’s a school with a poor BER spend? Why then $16b was wasted. Gerry Harvey says in an interview that he could do set-top boxes for less? Why then it must be true. Run with it! So when he spouts lines in the same manner that journalists would report them, well geez… what do journalists do… hmmm maybe ask if he is going to go positive?

Most in the press gallery are hamstrung because he thinks like they do. Paul Bongiorno actually had the temerity to stand apart and introduce some facts taking about the fact all credit agencies rate Australia AAA, that the cash rate is lower than when the Howard Govt was in office, and the response was “lower taxes, less waste yada yada yada”. It was a good effort by Bongiorno, but he had little support.
Instead we treated to endless reruns of the "Australia Day riot" (a point address by Andrew Elder on The Drum).

No comments:

Post a Comment