Read LP’s tweets here.
Update: Well, that was most unenlightening.
Joe Hockey has seemed to be in a very grumpy mood all campaign, and he was allowed to get away with his usual bizarre contradictions. Swan’s lines on infrastructure and human capital could have been recycled from 2007. Meanwhile, Kerry O’Brien appears stuck in a time warp – the template being the 1987 election campaign where Paul Keating skewered John Howard on a costings black hole. Very poor performance by O’Brien, allowing both to get away with just reciting their talking points. The emphasis on leaks really was a waste of time, with the only salient point – that the Coalition is evading scrutiny, being lost in a morass of counterpoint which seemed to occupy about half the time allocated.
None of the very serious problems we have in this country even really got an airing.
This ridiculous stand-off isn’t new. Maybe it’s time for ALL media to combine in a ‘scrutiny wall’ using a reputable accountancy house to vet the figures. Present a united front against obfuscation/delay/ideological grandstanding such that you offer no alternative to the major parties.
We do it now with media involvement in the architecture of political debates so why not lay down the gauntlet for budget honesty.
I’ve said this elsewhere but this tit vs tat ‘they are worse than us’ game is the reason why the Greens will hold the BOP in the Senate.
And a good thing too, they might, just might stop treating us like mugs.
Now, I didn’t watch the above debate, but speaking of none of the serious problems getting an airing – I quite enjoyed hearing on Lateline from Jay Rosen (Prof of Journalism at NYU) on journalists engaging in ‘horse race journalism’ during elections rather than trying to consider what citizens really need/want to know about. He was critical of journos becoming part of the political class, being interested in strategy over substance, and politics as a kind of sporting contest. He was at one point said – ‘I hear you have a program called the Insiders?’ Leigh Sales said ‘Yes we do’, and he kind of shook his head saying ‘and the journalists are the insiders?’ I sensed Leigh Sales was hoping he wouldn’t pursue this line of inquiry too vigorously. I wonder what he’d say if he also knew that the host of Insiders then does a sports insiders show half an hour later. Anyway, I thought he was refreshing, and I hope the other ABC journalists were taking note.
Yes, Rosen was excellent.
Hockey seemed like a grumpy old man.
The ABC has been a real shocker in this campaign. And for a year or two beforehand, as a matter of fact.
New post:
http://larvatusprodeo.net/2010/08/13/the-abcs-pursuit-of-wayne-swan-on-leaks/
Heard Barnaby on Radio National yesterday with Fran. He wasn’t as lively, grumpy or exuberant as a few months back. What has calmed him?
I’d love to hear something from Wendy Bacon at the Centre for Independent Journalism on the way the media is reporting the election campaign.
Most of the journos seem to have just lost their way in a morass of point and counterpoint, one-upmanship and jockeying for safety if the Libs do get back in again. Howard made them submissive and they remain so.
Ambigulous @8: bromide?