A weekly* look at stories various PR people tried to bury in the tail end of the news cycle before this last weekend. What are they hoping that we won’t talk about this week because “it’s old news” now? Let’s give those stories some oxygen, link to blogs discussing them, and reanimate their shambling zombie corpses.
Also, what stories are the headpieces stuffed with straw spinning for us first thing this week, and what particular advantage do they hope to gain thereby? i.e. is it just about “winning the news cycle” for this week only or is a longer play building strategic momentum?
N.B. please stay on topic – this thread is for holding up a mirror to the tactics of the spinning Hollow Men. Breaking news stories and/or policy debates based on them should generally be discussed in the latest Saturday Salon open thread if there is no post dedicated to the topic.
We would have to look at the spin for Julia. Do the opposition think it would be easier for Tone to beat a woman or what? I find it rather surreal. All the news(?)is coming from the opposition. Mr Denmore’s articles are apt, are they not.
We would have to look at the spin for Julia. Do the opposition think it would be easier for Tone to beat a woman or what? I find it rather surreal. All the news(?)is coming from the opposition. Mr Denmore’s articles are apt, are they not.
Debbieanne, that struck me this morning as well, watching the tabloid breakfast telly show. The very act of commissioning the various pollsters to even ask the Rudd V. Gillard question is framing the debate as being around some sense of uncertainty about who people will really be voting for if they vote for Labor. It’s a textbook display of attempting to shift the Overton Window.
Debbieanne, that struck me this morning as well, watching the tabloid breakfast telly show. The very act of commissioning the various pollsters to even ask the Rudd V. Gillard question is framing the debate as being around some sense of uncertainty about who people will really be voting for if they vote for Labor. It’s a textbook display of attempting to shift the Overton Window.
Sorry, what is an Overton Window?
Sorry, what is an Overton Window?
The Overton Window is a useful political theory concept that is well explained here at Corrente.
Basically it’s the idea that what is perceived to be the “middle ground” on an issue – the (so-called) moderate, non-extreme views held on a subject – is a “frame” of a window of possibilities, and that this frame is able to be manipulated by rhetorical/spin tactics – to shift to either “the left” or “the right” (overly simplistic as those two axes are).
It relates to talk you often see about how an issue is being “framed” – how certain views are being pushed out of the frame as not-possible-don’t-be-silly, and other views are being pushed into the frame as really-truly-possible-really-you-know-it-makes-sense.
The Overton Window is a useful political theory concept that is well explained here at Corrente.
Basically it’s the idea that what is perceived to be the “middle ground” on an issue – the (so-called) moderate, non-extreme views held on a subject – is a “frame” of a window of possibilities, and that this frame is able to be manipulated by rhetorical/spin tactics – to shift to either “the left” or “the right” (overly simplistic as those two axes are).
It relates to talk you often see about how an issue is being “framed” – how certain views are being pushed out of the frame as not-possible-don’t-be-silly, and other views are being pushed into the frame as really-truly-possible-really-you-know-it-makes-sense.
I’m going to put up the illustration here for those who’ve never seen it before:
I’m going to put up the illustration here for those who’ve never seen it before:
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2010/05/tony_abbott_and_the_roman_warm.php#more
From Deltoid we get this:
“Ian Musgrave has written an open letter to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, correcting him on his claim that “at the time of Julius Caesar and Jesus of Nazareth the climate was considerably warmer than it is now”.
But where did Abbott get the notion that it was considerably warmer in Roman times? Most likely from Ian Plimer ……”
It would be nice to see this rubbish spoken by Abbott publicly refuted and proper disapproval voiced by the media for his propagandising of school children.
This buffoon needs to be held accountable.
http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2010/05/tony_abbott_and_the_roman_warm.php#more
From Deltoid we get this:
“Ian Musgrave has written an open letter to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, correcting him on his claim that “at the time of Julius Caesar and Jesus of Nazareth the climate was considerably warmer than it is now”.
But where did Abbott get the notion that it was considerably warmer in Roman times? Most likely from Ian Plimer ……”
It would be nice to see this rubbish spoken by Abbott publicly refuted and proper disapproval voiced by the media for his propagandising of school children.
This buffoon needs to be held accountable.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/may/27/message-from-the-glaciers/?page=1
Revisiting an old denialist media beat-up.
From the link.
“Recent revelations that the Fourth Assessment Report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) erroneously claimed that there was a “likelihood” that Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035, “and perhaps sooner,” embarrassed the report’s authors; but they have not altered the reality that many glaciers in the region are, in fact, rapidly receding. Nor do they scientifically invalidate the panel’s overall conclusion that because “more than one-sixth of the world’s population live in glacier- or snowmelt-fed river basins and will be affected by the seasonal shifts in stream flow,” a serious downstream problem is unfolding.”
There is more.
BTW I originally found this via Gary Sauer-Thompson’s excellent “Public Opinion” site.
http://www.sauer-thompson.com/
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/may/27/message-from-the-glaciers/?page=1
Revisiting an old denialist media beat-up.
From the link.
“Recent revelations that the Fourth Assessment Report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) erroneously claimed that there was a “likelihood” that Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035, “and perhaps sooner,” embarrassed the report’s authors; but they have not altered the reality that many glaciers in the region are, in fact, rapidly receding. Nor do they scientifically invalidate the panel’s overall conclusion that because “more than one-sixth of the world’s population live in glacier- or snowmelt-fed river basins and will be affected by the seasonal shifts in stream flow,” a serious downstream problem is unfolding.”
There is more.
BTW I originally found this via Gary Sauer-Thompson’s excellent “Public Opinion” site.
http://www.sauer-thompson.com/
The Gillard-gaining-on-Rudd line in the papers this morning is just a tactic by the MSM to roll the major narrative forward. In the media, you’re always asking what’s next; how do we develop the story from here? Formerly, this was a daily process. Now it happens three or four times a day.
There are just as good Opposition stories out there at the moment – Abbott’s lecture to school kids on temperatures being warmer than when Jesus was alive or Peter Dutton buying BHP shares while telling people the mining tax would stuff the resource industry. These are more newsworthy than micro-changes in the polls. But they don’t fit the Big Story that everyone’s feasting on.
Think of a bunch of lions feeding on the carcase of a hyena. There may be a fat, juicy live rhino behind them, but they’re enjoying their current meal too much. That’s about as deep as it goes.
The Gillard-gaining-on-Rudd line in the papers this morning is just a tactic by the MSM to roll the major narrative forward. In the media, you’re always asking what’s next; how do we develop the story from here? Formerly, this was a daily process. Now it happens three or four times a day.
There are just as good Opposition stories out there at the moment – Abbott’s lecture to school kids on temperatures being warmer than when Jesus was alive or Peter Dutton buying BHP shares while telling people the mining tax would stuff the resource industry. These are more newsworthy than micro-changes in the polls. But they don’t fit the Big Story that everyone’s feasting on.
Think of a bunch of lions feeding on the carcase of a hyena. There may be a fat, juicy live rhino behind them, but they’re enjoying their current meal too much. That’s about as deep as it goes.
That may be true Mr Denmore @8 but it is ver frustrating. Who cares who the PM is, we don’t vote for them anyway. I wish they would stay for just a little while on the important stuff, Screw (excuse the language) the personalities crap.
That may be true Mr Denmore @8 but it is ver frustrating. Who cares who the PM is, we don’t vote for them anyway. I wish they would stay for just a little while on the important stuff, Screw (excuse the language) the personalities crap.
I think the fact that the hyena has an ‘ALP = illegitimate government’ sign around its neck, wheras the rhino has a ‘Coalition = natural party of government’ around its neck, may have more than a little to do with it.
I think the fact that the hyena has an ‘ALP = illegitimate government’ sign around its neck, wheras the rhino has a ‘Coalition = natural party of government’ around its neck, may have more than a little to do with it.
Channel 7 was just full of ‘it’ a minute ago.
Rudd vs Julia, etc, complete with Tony listening to a radio callback sycophant telling him how wonderful he was, at least 7 then showed he is in negative approval territory.
Spin, all spin.
Channel 7 was just full of ‘it’ a minute ago.
Rudd vs Julia, etc, complete with Tony listening to a radio callback sycophant telling him how wonderful he was, at least 7 then showed he is in negative approval territory.
Spin, all spin.
Advice if this sort of spin in the MSM sends your blood pressure skyward: Don’t read it, don’t click on it, don’t link to it, don’t write furious letters to the paper, don’t give the individual journos a sense that they are somehow influential. Treat the MSM as marginal and irrelevant, which is what it is.
The Australian’s circulation is about 132,000 and falling. That is miniscule for a national broadsheet. It is read for the most part by insiders and rusted-on supporters of the Liberal Party. These people are talking to themselves – and increasingly so.
Make Larvatus Prodeo your first port of call. The spin can work only if you are “spun” by it.
Advice if this sort of spin in the MSM sends your blood pressure skyward: Don’t read it, don’t click on it, don’t link to it, don’t write furious letters to the paper, don’t give the individual journos a sense that they are somehow influential. Treat the MSM as marginal and irrelevant, which is what it is.
The Australian’s circulation is about 132,000 and falling. That is miniscule for a national broadsheet. It is read for the most part by insiders and rusted-on supporters of the Liberal Party. These people are talking to themselves – and increasingly so.
Make Larvatus Prodeo your first port of call. The spin can work only if you are “spun” by it.
I see the Hawke “story” is all over the shop again today. Nary a mention of his denial, or that it’s hearsay from an Abbott staffer.
I see the Hawke “story” is all over the shop again today. Nary a mention of his denial, or that it’s hearsay from an Abbott staffer.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/coalition-torn-over-approach-on-gillard/story-e6frg6nf-1225866347227
Refering to the Rudd / Gillard leadership debate of Debbieanne, I found this article the other day, it seems the Liberals are in a bit of a state about who to trash and when
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/coalition-torn-over-approach-on-gillard/story-e6frg6nf-1225866347227
Refering to the Rudd / Gillard leadership debate of Debbieanne, I found this article the other day, it seems the Liberals are in a bit of a state about who to trash and when
…treat the spin doctors like a child having a tantrum … there’s no tantrum (or media spin) if the audience has walked away. As I write this, however, Eleanor Hall is mediating a ‘discussion’ on the Super Profits tax … nice to hear her cutting off the mining magnate with some facts … finally a few facts in amongst this spin!
…treat the spin doctors like a child having a tantrum … there’s no tantrum (or media spin) if the audience has walked away. As I write this, however, Eleanor Hall is mediating a ‘discussion’ on the Super Profits tax … nice to hear her cutting off the mining magnate with some facts … finally a few facts in amongst this spin!
Thanks for the explanation of the Overton window,I’d not heard of this before.I must confess to being puzzled this morning when I heard the leadership was being questioned in newspoll, but when I heard the hyena on ABC radio at 11.00 am it all made sense. The spin is that Gillard may be female but she is just another version of Rudd, the inference being that she is probably worse,tainted with all the stuff ups that Labor is mired in, a vote for Julia is a vote for blah,blah blah.
I wish Rudd would call the election,I’m getting really jack of this.
Thanks for the explanation of the Overton window,I’d not heard of this before.I must confess to being puzzled this morning when I heard the leadership was being questioned in newspoll, but when I heard the hyena on ABC radio at 11.00 am it all made sense. The spin is that Gillard may be female but she is just another version of Rudd, the inference being that she is probably worse,tainted with all the stuff ups that Labor is mired in, a vote for Julia is a vote for blah,blah blah.
I wish Rudd would call the election,I’m getting really jack of this.
‘The Australian’s circulation is about 132,000 and falling. That is miniscule for a national broadsheet. It is read for the most part by insiders and rusted-on supporters of the Liberal Party. These people are talking to themselves – and increasingly so.’
Oh that that were true, Mr Denmore. But the sad reality is that for some unknown reason, The OO sets the agenda for other media to follow, particularly The ABC, which in turn other media follow.
I believe there was a Crikey e-mail the other day to the effect that some ABC staffers were getting so sick of News Ltd setting The ABC news agenda that they were considering going public with their concerns. Let’s hope that they do.
‘The Australian’s circulation is about 132,000 and falling. That is miniscule for a national broadsheet. It is read for the most part by insiders and rusted-on supporters of the Liberal Party. These people are talking to themselves – and increasingly so.’
Oh that that were true, Mr Denmore. But the sad reality is that for some unknown reason, The OO sets the agenda for other media to follow, particularly The ABC, which in turn other media follow.
I believe there was a Crikey e-mail the other day to the effect that some ABC staffers were getting so sick of News Ltd setting The ABC news agenda that they were considering going public with their concerns. Let’s hope that they do.
Or yet another sh!t bubble from Smuggles, hannah’s dad @6. But I agree, every time he opens his mouth and lies cascade out, he should be called upon to provide the proof. Keep everyone very, very busy imo.
How true, adrian @17. which would be fine if the Australian actually printed anything that isn’t rumour, innuendo or out-and-out lies. There isn’t a journo worth his salt in the msm these days.
Or yet another sh!t bubble from Smuggles, hannah’s dad @6. But I agree, every time he opens his mouth and lies cascade out, he should be called upon to provide the proof. Keep everyone very, very busy imo.
How true, adrian @17. which would be fine if the Australian actually printed anything that isn’t rumour, innuendo or out-and-out lies. There isn’t a journo worth his salt in the msm these days.
@Mr Denmore,
Exactly. That’s why I decided to make this a regular weekly feature – being able to spotlight it, dissect it and analyse it helps one get past the initial emotional response to the rhetoric and work out a rational counteractive. The first step is knowing it when it’s in front of you.
@Mr Denmore,
Exactly. That’s why I decided to make this a regular weekly feature – being able to spotlight it, dissect it and analyse it helps one get past the initial emotional response to the rhetoric and work out a rational counteractive. The first step is knowing it when it’s in front of you.
Tigtog @2, I don’t really see how all the MSM leadership speculation about Julia Gillard amounts to an attempt to shift the Overton Window. What is it that was previously considered “beyond the pale” that is now being framed as acceptable? A Gillard Prime-Ministership?
It’s a deliberate beatup, of course, but I think it’s just the media falling back on an old favourite. Remember the number of trees that were massacred for the sake of leadership speculation about Peter Costello?
Tigtog @2, I don’t really see how all the MSM leadership speculation about Julia Gillard amounts to an attempt to shift the Overton Window. What is it that was previously considered “beyond the pale” that is now being framed as acceptable? A Gillard Prime-Ministership?
It’s a deliberate beatup, of course, but I think it’s just the media falling back on an old favourite. Remember the number of trees that were massacred for the sake of leadership speculation about Peter Costello?
@Tim Macknay,
I do see your point that on one level this is just the usual leadership speculation beatup, just because they always draw eyeballs, and whenever their Tony’s got nothing colourful to say this sort of guff is a useful fallback stir of the pot.
I do see something Overton-Window-y going on with all the push toward the framing of Rudd as suddenly a doubtful Mr Dodgy with anger management issues when up until very recently he was framed as a boring Mr Stodgy who was a churchy swot. It’s still an attempt to shift the frame of perception, it’s just not along the classic Left-Right axes of Overton’s original model, it’s along the Too Boring-Too Dangerous axes instead.
@Tim Macknay,
I do see your point that on one level this is just the usual leadership speculation beatup, just because they always draw eyeballs, and whenever their Tony’s got nothing colourful to say this sort of guff is a useful fallback stir of the pot.
I do see something Overton-Window-y going on with all the push toward the framing of Rudd as suddenly a doubtful Mr Dodgy with anger management issues when up until very recently he was framed as a boring Mr Stodgy who was a churchy swot. It’s still an attempt to shift the frame of perception, it’s just not along the classic Left-Right axes of Overton’s original model, it’s along the Too Boring-Too Dangerous axes instead.
I listened to that too Agnes and in the end I feel that the mining magnate’s math fail was pretty plain to all. However I doubt that those who didn’t hear it ever will.
I listened to that too Agnes and in the end I feel that the mining magnate’s math fail was pretty plain to all. However I doubt that those who didn’t hear it ever will.
Yeah its more subtle than a left right thing.
The scale is Rudd’s inevitability if you like, instead of the usual left right scale.
6 months ago Rudd looked part of the furniture, but the “beyond the pale” idea thats been pushed hard is the idea that Rudd won’t be PM after (or at) the next election.
Just talking about JG as a potential PM makes that idea more possible, and pushes the window further toward that possibility.
There’s also the beat up stuff you mention, but its not just a beat up.
Yeah its more subtle than a left right thing.
The scale is Rudd’s inevitability if you like, instead of the usual left right scale.
6 months ago Rudd looked part of the furniture, but the “beyond the pale” idea thats been pushed hard is the idea that Rudd won’t be PM after (or at) the next election.
Just talking about JG as a potential PM makes that idea more possible, and pushes the window further toward that possibility.
There’s also the beat up stuff you mention, but its not just a beat up.
Hannah’s Dad. Abbott can’t even get his historically verifiable facts right, let alone any misrepresentations of the climate data. There is nearly a full century between the times of “Julius Caesar” and the alleged existence of this “Jesus Of Nazareth”. Caesar was assassinated on the 15th of March 44 B.C., the traditional date of the death of Jesus in the most common version of the myth is 33A.D, which is 77 years later, during the rule of Caesar’s grandson, Tiberius (the adopted son of Augustus who was in turn adopted by his uncle Julius).
Hannah’s Dad. Abbott can’t even get his historically verifiable facts right, let alone any misrepresentations of the climate data. There is nearly a full century between the times of “Julius Caesar” and the alleged existence of this “Jesus Of Nazareth”. Caesar was assassinated on the 15th of March 44 B.C., the traditional date of the death of Jesus in the most common version of the myth is 33A.D, which is 77 years later, during the rule of Caesar’s grandson, Tiberius (the adopted son of Augustus who was in turn adopted by his uncle Julius).
@jules
Let’s face it, the MSM can make a beat up out of anything. So what they choose to beat up says something in itself.
@jules
Let’s face it, the MSM can make a beat up out of anything. So what they choose to beat up says something in itself.
Here’s the link to Eleanor Hall’s World today item with Mining people
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s2901433.htm
Here’s the link to Eleanor Hall’s World today item with Mining people
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2010/s2901433.htm
jules @23
Hmmm. The thing that has made Rudd Labor’s demise a real possibility is the collapse in Labor’s opinion poll support, not the media commentary on it. The idea that it’s an Overton Window shifty thing suggests some sort of long term ideological agenda which I just don’t think is there (except in the Australian of course). I’m with Mr Denmore @8: it’s a feeding frenzy driven by Rudd’s polling collapse (which is pretty spectacular, as these things go) and not much more.
jules @23
Hmmm. The thing that has made Rudd Labor’s demise a real possibility is the collapse in Labor’s opinion poll support, not the media commentary on it. The idea that it’s an Overton Window shifty thing suggests some sort of long term ideological agenda which I just don’t think is there (except in the Australian of course). I’m with Mr Denmore @8: it’s a feeding frenzy driven by Rudd’s polling collapse (which is pretty spectacular, as these things go) and not much more.
Anyone watching Kerry O’Brien interviewing Tony Abbott? Because he’s digging a huge hole in his credibility.
Anyone watching Kerry O’Brien interviewing Tony Abbott? Because he’s digging a huge hole in his credibility.
Thats so right tigtog. Its all about the choices the MSM makes.
5th generational warfare is often viewed as a network v network thing. But that really is an oversimplication. There’s another interpretation of it that was along the lines of waging war without letting the opposition know.
Often this basically means psychological warfare, but advertising is a form of 5gw.
Waged against you by businesses in the aim of gaining control of your resources (ie your money, attention, loyalty etc etc.)
I reckon there is a 5gw being waged right now. Its more an intuition than a logical deduction so I’m not gonna defend that position.
It is worth looking at the MSM and the blogosphere in this light tho, even if its just an intellectual exercise. It certainly appears that the right wing, especially the nutjob fascist side of it is flogging the rest of us in a 5th gen war for the control of the culture.
Its like they didn’t lose the culture wars, just retreated and have changed tactics. Then gone hard for everything.
It would be a lot easier for me to dismiss this paranoia if the MSM in Australia wasn’t dominated by the views of one individual who definitely supports a creeping cryptofascism in the western world.
Thats so right tigtog. Its all about the choices the MSM makes.
5th generational warfare is often viewed as a network v network thing. But that really is an oversimplication. There’s another interpretation of it that was along the lines of waging war without letting the opposition know.
Often this basically means psychological warfare, but advertising is a form of 5gw.
Waged against you by businesses in the aim of gaining control of your resources (ie your money, attention, loyalty etc etc.)
I reckon there is a 5gw being waged right now. Its more an intuition than a logical deduction so I’m not gonna defend that position.
It is worth looking at the MSM and the blogosphere in this light tho, even if its just an intellectual exercise. It certainly appears that the right wing, especially the nutjob fascist side of it is flogging the rest of us in a 5th gen war for the control of the culture.
Its like they didn’t lose the culture wars, just retreated and have changed tactics. Then gone hard for everything.
It would be a lot easier for me to dismiss this paranoia if the MSM in Australia wasn’t dominated by the views of one individual who definitely supports a creeping cryptofascism in the western world.
Thanks Zorronsky @ 26.
And @ 28 … I don’t think anyone told the Mad Monk that being an opposition leader is not just about having a negative opinion about all things coming from the government, but that he has to have some credible and viable (and realistic!) alternative ideas.
As for the spin … It’s all dreadfully emotive. The media are so very excited about all sorts of possibilities and scenarios and the general public is wide-eyed and open-mouthed and gullibly going along for the ride, having whatever opinion is given. Sure wish they’d all stop and breathe and just consider the facts. Have they all developed ADHD?
Oh look! There’s a rabbit…
Thanks Zorronsky @ 26.
And @ 28 … I don’t think anyone told the Mad Monk that being an opposition leader is not just about having a negative opinion about all things coming from the government, but that he has to have some credible and viable (and realistic!) alternative ideas.
As for the spin … It’s all dreadfully emotive. The media are so very excited about all sorts of possibilities and scenarios and the general public is wide-eyed and open-mouthed and gullibly going along for the ride, having whatever opinion is given. Sure wish they’d all stop and breathe and just consider the facts. Have they all developed ADHD?
Oh look! There’s a rabbit…
A bomb threat on a Cathay-Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver as a lead story on Monday morning media probably falls into the slow news category rather than spin. It was all for nothing – no bomb found – until you think about the ‘war on terror’ something the media and others love to keep on beating the drum.
A bomb threat on a Cathay-Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver as a lead story on Monday morning media probably falls into the slow news category rather than spin. It was all for nothing – no bomb found – until you think about the ‘war on terror’ something the media and others love to keep on beating the drum.
It’s a pity hardly anyone watches the 7.30 Report, because Abbott crashed and burned tonight, essentially saying that his “scripted” position on any particular policy and his “off-the-cuff, spur of the moment” position weren’t the same thing.
O’Brien, going very light on him in the circumstances, basically let him dig himself into an even bigger hole from there.
It’s a pity hardly anyone watches the 7.30 Report, because Abbott crashed and burned tonight, essentially saying that his “scripted” position on any particular policy and his “off-the-cuff, spur of the moment” position weren’t the same thing.
O’Brien, going very light on him in the circumstances, basically let him dig himself into an even bigger hole from there.
Tim Mac. See my above reply.
I reckon it is.
But … its just one of those things. The Overton window is a metaphor or tool and if you use it to … er, “frame” your perceptions of the public view or con census.
There is bound to be a loose network of right wing nuts, and that network probably intersects a network of capitalist scumfucks with no regard for anyone or anything cept their own personal interest. It doesn’t even have to be a conscious one – right wingnut groupthink or conspiracy the effects are the same.
That 5gw thing I was talking about before could just be one of those emergent properties that comes from the situation. (Those properties -1. The nutjob right has a better grasp on collective thinking and how to manipulate it than the left, despite its individualist rhetoric, and 2. its also got more at stake now, cos Rudd isn’t Howard lite, (tho he’s a sell out prick imo,) Howard was a total corporate stooge.)
Tim Mac. See my above reply.
I reckon it is.
But … its just one of those things. The Overton window is a metaphor or tool and if you use it to … er, “frame” your perceptions of the public view or con census.
There is bound to be a loose network of right wing nuts, and that network probably intersects a network of capitalist scumfucks with no regard for anyone or anything cept their own personal interest. It doesn’t even have to be a conscious one – right wingnut groupthink or conspiracy the effects are the same.
That 5gw thing I was talking about before could just be one of those emergent properties that comes from the situation. (Those properties -1. The nutjob right has a better grasp on collective thinking and how to manipulate it than the left, despite its individualist rhetoric, and 2. its also got more at stake now, cos Rudd isn’t Howard lite, (tho he’s a sell out prick imo,) Howard was a total corporate stooge.)
@Tim Macknay,
That seems to be a rather chicken and egg question, to me.
@Tim Macknay,
That seems to be a rather chicken and egg question, to me.
The Abbott video is on the 7.30 report website – http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/
He is a sophist of the first order.
The Abbott video is on the 7.30 report website – http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/
He is a sophist of the first order.
This Gillard non-story is almost entirely a Murdoch stable fabrication
http://news.google.com/news/more?cf=all&ncl=d2RPUi_J_n25gCMqyhqP6XmYwcHdM&topic=n
This Gillard non-story is almost entirely a Murdoch stable fabrication
http://news.google.com/news/more?cf=all&ncl=d2RPUi_J_n25gCMqyhqP6XmYwcHdM&topic=n
The Abbott story is getting plenty of coverage on telly this morning. Gillard got off a good soundbite:
“There’s apparently Gospel Truth Tony and then there’s Phoney Tony.”
The Abbott story is getting plenty of coverage on telly this morning. Gillard got off a good soundbite:
“There’s apparently Gospel Truth Tony and then there’s Phoney Tony.”
It wasn’t just that he said what he said couldn’t be trusted. His entire performance was abysmal, just abysmal. Amateurish.
It wasn’t just that he said what he said couldn’t be trusted. His entire performance was abysmal, just abysmal. Amateurish.
Tones drops himself further into it by claiming, in his defense after the 7.30 Report performance, that one thing he has never done, as bad as Kevin Rudd, is flip on the ETS.
Never mind and thank god for their ABC as they have already dropped that, personally phoned in, bold- faced lie from reports and are spinning lines like “already talkback callers are commenting on Abbott’s refreshing honesty” and conveniently moving on to a story about Labor branch stacking.
Tones drops himself further into it by claiming, in his defense after the 7.30 Report performance, that one thing he has never done, as bad as Kevin Rudd, is flip on the ETS.
Never mind and thank god for their ABC as they have already dropped that, personally phoned in, bold- faced lie from reports and are spinning lines like “already talkback callers are commenting on Abbott’s refreshing honesty” and conveniently moving on to a story about Labor branch stacking.
Tigtog, the media’s misreporting of the insulation scandal had, at best, a moderate impact on the polls. They came down from the 56-44 to the 53-47 range. This was also after Abbott became Oppo leader, which ended the disunity in the Libs and made them look less like a rabble, which may well have had a greater impact on the polls as the insulation story. Various members of the Press Gallery have tried to raise a “Rudd’s a oncer” line and similar narratives several times over the past two and a half years, without any impact on the polls.
The real collapse in Rudd’s support, bringing the polls down to a level where the Opposition look competitive, didn’t happen until Rudd’s “bad news” week, when the child care centres were cancelled, and the decision to postpone the ETS came out. Is seems quite obvious to me that the polling collapse was driven by decisions, and announcements, by the Government, not the media commentary. To argue that the poll collapse was driven by biased coverage is to dramatically overplay the media’s influence on public opinion, IMHO.
The media may try to influence opinion from time to time, but it’s not all that successful. Back in 2003, there was almost unanimous media support for the Iraq invasion, driven, at least in part, by editorial interference by the proprietors, but that unanimity failed to sway the public, who when polled consistently recorded ~80% opposition to the invasion. Similarly, in 2007 the various beatups about Rudd failed to sway the polls. This ineffectiveness suggests that, whatever it is that influences public political opinion, the media’s narrative plays, at best, a peripheral role. I tend to think that a media narrative only has legs when it actually coincides with public opinion, rather than the reverse.
Tigtog, the media’s misreporting of the insulation scandal had, at best, a moderate impact on the polls. They came down from the 56-44 to the 53-47 range. This was also after Abbott became Oppo leader, which ended the disunity in the Libs and made them look less like a rabble, which may well have had a greater impact on the polls as the insulation story. Various members of the Press Gallery have tried to raise a “Rudd’s a oncer” line and similar narratives several times over the past two and a half years, without any impact on the polls.
The real collapse in Rudd’s support, bringing the polls down to a level where the Opposition look competitive, didn’t happen until Rudd’s “bad news” week, when the child care centres were cancelled, and the decision to postpone the ETS came out. Is seems quite obvious to me that the polling collapse was driven by decisions, and announcements, by the Government, not the media commentary. To argue that the poll collapse was driven by biased coverage is to dramatically overplay the media’s influence on public opinion, IMHO.
The media may try to influence opinion from time to time, but it’s not all that successful. Back in 2003, there was almost unanimous media support for the Iraq invasion, driven, at least in part, by editorial interference by the proprietors, but that unanimity failed to sway the public, who when polled consistently recorded ~80% opposition to the invasion. Similarly, in 2007 the various beatups about Rudd failed to sway the polls. This ineffectiveness suggests that, whatever it is that influences public political opinion, the media’s narrative plays, at best, a peripheral role. I tend to think that a media narrative only has legs when it actually coincides with public opinion, rather than the reverse.
Virginia Trioli’s assertion that Kevin Rudd’s “blow-up on the 7.30 report”.. was eagerly lapped up and expanded during this mornings Breakfast offering.
Virginia Trioli’s assertion that Kevin Rudd’s “blow-up on the 7.30 report”.. was eagerly lapped up and expanded during this mornings Breakfast offering.
The David Campbell affair. I never watch 7 News but I got the gist of it. Campbell was photographed coming out of a gay sex club which he had driven to in a Ministerial car.
Last time I looked, in NSW Ministers could use Government cars for personal use.
And, last time I looked, peoples’ sex lives were their own private business.
Sure, he’s going to have some issues to work through with his family. And there are questions about the morality of the betrayal of a terminally ill spouse. But again, that is Campbell’s personal business.If the ill-considered judgements and acts we all at sometimes fall into in our in our personal lives are to used as markers of integrity in our professional lives its highly likely everyone in the country lacks integrity at some time or other.
This wasn’t just a spin or a beat up by 7. It was a gross intrusion of privacy and a misuse of media power.
The David Campbell affair. I never watch 7 News but I got the gist of it. Campbell was photographed coming out of a gay sex club which he had driven to in a Ministerial car.
Last time I looked, in NSW Ministers could use Government cars for personal use.
And, last time I looked, peoples’ sex lives were their own private business.
Sure, he’s going to have some issues to work through with his family. And there are questions about the morality of the betrayal of a terminally ill spouse. But again, that is Campbell’s personal business.If the ill-considered judgements and acts we all at sometimes fall into in our in our personal lives are to used as markers of integrity in our professional lives its highly likely everyone in the country lacks integrity at some time or other.
This wasn’t just a spin or a beat up by 7. It was a gross intrusion of privacy and a misuse of media power.
Let’s talk about the resignation of David Campbell, former NSW Minister for Roads and Transport. He drove to a bathhouse in Sydney, where he was filmed leaving by Channel Seven. That’s it, there’s no other story. Ministers are allowed full public use of their cars after hours, there’s no question of any actual misconduct at all.
Whatever he did inside is a matter for three people; him, his wife, and whoever he did it with. It’s apparently now acceptable for closeted public figures to be outed simply as fodder for a cheap headline. Let’s not even think of the effect it’s going to have on GLBTI culture in Sydney to think that whenever you go into a club or bar you might have a camera crew staking you out—this is a new low for political scalphunting.
Please note, readers, that Channel Seven’s senior political reporter is Adam Walters, former media advisor to Morris Iemma, onetime partner to Reba Meagher, a dumped former Minister.
It was payback from a cynic.
Let’s talk about the resignation of David Campbell, former NSW Minister for Roads and Transport. He drove to a bathhouse in Sydney, where he was filmed leaving by Channel Seven. That’s it, there’s no other story. Ministers are allowed full public use of their cars after hours, there’s no question of any actual misconduct at all.
Whatever he did inside is a matter for three people; him, his wife, and whoever he did it with. It’s apparently now acceptable for closeted public figures to be outed simply as fodder for a cheap headline. Let’s not even think of the effect it’s going to have on GLBTI culture in Sydney to think that whenever you go into a club or bar you might have a camera crew staking you out—this is a new low for political scalphunting.
Please note, readers, that Channel Seven’s senior political reporter is Adam Walters, former media advisor to Morris Iemma, onetime partner to Reba Meagher, a dumped former Minister.
It was payback from a cynic.
Well said Paul Burns and Liam.
7 News Director Peter Meakin was on the airwaves this morning trying to justify this garbage reporting. It’s apparently all about hypocrisy and Campbell’s portrayal of himself as a happy family man. Of course he could be a happy family man – why his actions are necessarily contradictory with that wasn’t explained, because the question wasn’t asked.
You’d seriously begin to wonder why you’d become a politician these days, particularly on the Labor side.
Well said Paul Burns and Liam.
7 News Director Peter Meakin was on the airwaves this morning trying to justify this garbage reporting. It’s apparently all about hypocrisy and Campbell’s portrayal of himself as a happy family man. Of course he could be a happy family man – why his actions are necessarily contradictory with that wasn’t explained, because the question wasn’t asked.
You’d seriously begin to wonder why you’d become a politician these days, particularly on the Labor side.
Wasn’t Reba Meagher dumped for mis-use of a government vehicle?
Wasn’t Reba Meagher dumped for mis-use of a government vehicle?
Indeed Zorronsky. Indeed.
The sheer hypocrisy is awe-inspiring.
Indeed Zorronsky. Indeed.
The sheer hypocrisy is awe-inspiring.
The Campbell story is the most disgusting homophobic garbage I’ve seen for a long time. To go to the effort of sitting outside a bathhouse and waiting for this bloke to emerge is obviously premised on a seedy, sex scandal angle, no more. The fact that he was leaving what is allegedly is a homosexual venue is supposed to make it all the more repugnant and thus heighten the titillation addicted public’s interest. There is no basis whatsoever for this man to resign, the people at 7 should be publicly humiliated for this vilification.
The Campbell story is the most disgusting homophobic garbage I’ve seen for a long time. To go to the effort of sitting outside a bathhouse and waiting for this bloke to emerge is obviously premised on a seedy, sex scandal angle, no more. The fact that he was leaving what is allegedly is a homosexual venue is supposed to make it all the more repugnant and thus heighten the titillation addicted public’s interest. There is no basis whatsoever for this man to resign, the people at 7 should be publicly humiliated for this vilification.
Can’t help but agree with Andrew West
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/manufactured-scandal-leaves-another-political-career-in-tatters-20100521-vzzq.html
Can’t help but agree with Andrew West
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/manufactured-scandal-leaves-another-political-career-in-tatters-20100521-vzzq.html
Is that the same Adam Walters that broke the story Liam?
Is this payback or something?
And yeah
All this class warfare. I can’t move for all the rioting workers.
But since they brought it up, maybe we should have a real one.
Is that the same Adam Walters that broke the story Liam?
Is this payback or something?
And yeah
All this class warfare. I can’t move for all the rioting workers.
But since they brought it up, maybe we should have a real one.