Our weekly (mostly) look at media spin tactics: let’s dissect the PR and propaganda that aims to blow one’s own horn, bury one’s errors, resurrect the shambling zombie corpses of well-flogged deceased equines, and ooh look! A Big Distracting Thing!
The first question is always cui bono? The second question is what’s really going on?
Please note – this thread’s just for the analysis of media manoeuvres and their intended effects – discussion of other aspects of issues of interest belongs elsewhere. e.g. browse the archives | roundtables | open thread
I think this is an appropriate place for this, Glenn Greenwald says the outpouring of grief over the death of Christopher Hitchens is little different than the American MSM’s response to the death of Reagan.
Have to say, I think the crazy lawyer from Brazil is sort of right about the modern processes of elite driven cults of personality, and the true meaning of Hitchens’ warmongering.
I’ve felt rather distanced from the Hitchens tributes, simply because although I read a few of his columns and enjoyed them, I never really became a fan, so his shift to the right didn’t personally distress me as it did some others, and some other things he wrote I found contemptible. I am however intrigued, yet again, by how the death of a polarising political/ideological figure becomes a rhetorical football in the obituary pages, which I think is more what is mostly happening rather than actual grief as such. There’s an awful lot of pre-emptive atheist opinion pieces anticipating the routine triumphalism of evangelists imagining a prominent atheist roasting in hell (which have, as predicted, been punctual in their gloating and brutal imagery).
Interviewing Debbie Mortimer about asylum seekers, Waleed Aly repeatedly asked her whether she took “responsibility” for yesterday’s asylum seeker deaths, the idea being that by defending individual AS from being sent to Malaysia she was personally responsible for deaths that are thought to occur because of a change in government policy.
I expected better from Aly, but then again I used to expect better from the ABC.
Link
Bob Carter does his best to spin against Robert Manne’s essay on the climate change debate.
Helen @ 3. Yes agreed, Waleed was particularly tabloid I thought in pursuing this line. Ms Mortimer was patiently correct in not responding to him by sticking to the legalistic necessity for Australian governments to comply with the laws they create.
@3
I’ve been unpleasantly surprised at Aly’s style. Initially I didn’t know it was him and wondered if the ABC had recruited someone from the CIS or IPA to fill Kelly’s seat. His interview with Mortimer certainly contributed nothing to the public understanding of the role of lawyers and the legal process despite Mortimer’s attempts to inject these into the conversation.
Not sure this has been mentioned anywhere on LP yet, but we were told the other night that Waleed Aly is to front a new 2-hour RN drive program next year. It’s definitely replacing Australia Talks, but I suspect PM as well.
Thanks for the Hitchens link @1. Great read. The killer line is “he got the single most consequential decision in his life horribly wrong, petulantly wrong”. I’ve often thought that Hitchen’s “lurch to the right” might have had something to do with the fact he was entering an age where he needed to secure himself financially for his retirement and the “right” was where the money was. Mind you I’ve no idea of his personal circumstances just a hunch. Of course it proved to be a retirement he wouldn’t enjoy. Difficult to have much sympathy. My sympathy and thoughts are for the civilians who’ve been bombed, displaced, impoverished etc. in the war he so enthusiastically advocated for. One thing the article does do, unlike the msm whitewash, is remind us not only how callous he was about the suffering the war caused but how offensive he was to those who disagreed with him. I remember seeing on you-tube a public debate at a US university between himself and George Galloway MP which went for over an hour and provided real insight. The guy had an extremely ugly personality. Gorgeous George Galloway described him in his opening as the worlds first example of reverse metamorphosis, a butterfly who became a grub. Hitchens of course also tried to gatecrash GG’s famous US Senate hearings (on behalf of FoxNews I think) and was described by GG as a “drink soaked, ex-Trotskyite popinjay”. It would be interesting to hear what the ‘gorgeous-one’ has to say on Mr. Hitchens.
Having foisted FoxNews Lite on the taxpayers with their 24 hour “news” channel, Their ABC is now doing the same to Radio National.
Robert Manne on the disasterous decisions by the Rudd/Gilalrd Governments:
“I have to say that I think the Rudd government made a mistake and it pains me to say this, actually,” Manne said.
“I think it was a mistake to believe that if you humanised the policy you wouldn’t have a return of the boats.
“I think the Left, generally speaking, has been dishonest about that question.”
Turning to Kevin Rudd, sitting beside him, Manne continued: “I think that what you did was humane but you didn’t calculate what you should have calculated, that the problem would return.
“I think the Left is wrong to say and you’re wrong to say that your policy didn’t get the boats to return.
“I think it’s now a terrible problem for Labor.”
Suck it up ALP Left and the Greens – these deaths are on your hands.
News coverage of US withdrawal from Iraq mention 4,500 US military deaths and ‘tens of thousands’ Iraqi deaths. You’d think it would be possible to put a more solid estimate on the number of Iraqi deaths.
Nice to see you rejoicing in people’s deaths, Razor.
@13 – not rejoicing – just telling the ALP Left and Greens to stop avoiding what even Robert Manne plainly sees as their responsibility. Time for them to show some maturity and humbleness, admit they are wrong, say sorry and restore the previously succesful policy of using Nauru and TPVs.
I can understand an unwillingness to accept any of my arguments because of my political bias.
Anyone here want to argue with Robert Manne?
Who died and made Robert Manne the boss of the left?
SIEV-X happened while we were putting kids behind razor wire. There isn’t a direct correlation between our cruelty or lack of, and deaths at sea. That’s just the latest fashionable argument du jour, because you can argue for outsourced concentration camps and still appear so, so compassionate. Or as some guy put it: A figleaf for racism.
Your determination to argue from authority is telling, Razor.
Razor, there’s a difference between the ALP and the Left, believe it or not.
I agree with Manne that the ALP have been dishonest (or, at best, self-deceiving) about reffo policy, but in contrast most of us on the left have consistently argued for humane treatment of reffos, and for getting rid of the laws that encourage people smugglers to use unseawotrthy boats and inexperienced crews.
In short, Razor, we should just be living up to our obligations under the various international treaties that deal with the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.
It’s all about the rule of law.
@18 David, it is the processing laws which are the attraction – the attempt to redirect the argument to the types of boats and crews is dissembling of the base reason why people are risking their lives and the lives of their children.
ALP Left and Greens
Kevin Rudd and Chris Bowen are from the ALP Right.
@18 – bugger it, i’ll take the bait. People smugglers are in it to make money – they know that they will lose whatever boat and crew they send. They aren’t going to send the Superstar Leo down with a Norwegian crew are they?
@21 – sorry, didn’t realise that only the ALP Right was responsible. The ALP Left and the Greens obviously must have wanted the TPVs and Nauru solution maintained. Must have missed that . . .
didn’t realise that only the ALP Right was responsible
Razor, who said that they are? But when key players like, you know, the Immigration Minister, are from the Right, it’s hard to argue that they’ve got nothing to do with it.
Although this is exactly what you are doing.
sam – if you think I am making excuses for the ALP Right then you are seriously deluded. Lie with dogs – you get fleas. The ALP Right are just as culpable as the Left or the Greens. In fact i would argue they are even more so because they are the dominant faction in the ALP and yet on this issue they rolled over and implimented it.
In which case, Razor, why @11 did you say it is the Labor Left and Greens – no one else – who have blood on their hands?
@26 – because they are theones predominantly pushing the barrow for policies that encourage people to risk their lives. The ALP Right pandered to them rather than drove the arguments.
There’s no proof that TPV and Nauru ‘worked’. Correlation isn’t causation.
That’s a weak excuse at best and not even factually accurate. A check of the record in 2008 and 2009 will reveal cross-factional support for dismantling Nauru etc. It was Rudd himself who led the charge on this.
Brilliant logic there, Razor.. So, I’m now assuming that warmonger wingnuts like yourself will “suck it up” and take responsibility for the million or so excess deaths in Iraq??
Your opinions are vile.
I certainly agree with Robert Manne that the govt. has been irresponsible in anticipating an increase in claims for asylum by people arriving by boat. The best idea would be to make it far easier for people to make the journey in a much safer manner, that and a massive increase in the number of people we accept (let demand drive supply) and a swift and certain process of assessment should solve the problem.
Unfortunately Razor’s glee at what they think is the master stroke of sheeting home blame for the recent deaths at sea to the left, abhorrent as it is, is one that we’ve come to expect from the moronic right. Such shallow people, championing the failed invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan where they have the blood of so many on their hands but not have the decency to extend a helping hand to those same people when they crawl out from under the wreckage of the Howard/Bush/Blair legacy.
@28 – how many people were in detention when Howard lost?
If you are going to argue the correlation isn’t causation then you need to be able to explain what other factors caused the massive increases that do correlate with the policy changes.
Why is this direct stoush happening on this thread rather than on the Salon? This thread is for analysing media spin, not just for repeating it at each other.
P.S. I’m putting this thread into full moderation – from now on only comments which are directly on topic will be approved i.e. linking to and discussing examples of spin tactics displayed in the mass media or analyses of such. If you want to argue the issues to which the spin tactics are being applied, take it to a topical thread or to the latest Open Thread.
tigtog, you are no fun at all.
Anyway, onto spin. The stock market fell sharply today and one of the reasons given in our all-wise media is the death of Kim Jong Il.
I kid you not. Some journalists will just pull stuff out of their arse.
Indeed they will, Sam.
BTW, I’m not entirely averse to folks actually analysing some of the massive spin that has been produced on the issue of asylum seekers, so long as they offer something substantive regarding the usage of media tactics to influence opinions rather than falling into partisan/ideological assertions which belong on other threads.
Not sure if this qualifies as spin or threat by the (mis)use of media.
NSW Police are currently chasing a man wanted for two alleged murders who is holed up in rugged bushland centred on the Barrington Tops. He has been wanted for questioning for some six years but through apparently superb bushcraft has managed to elude capture. After shooting a policeman in the shoulder earlier this month, the reward for his capture has been doubled to $250 000.
With little for NSW Police media to report short of capture, accounts of ‘pub’ vigilantes, interested foreign bounty hunters abound. The 110th anniversary of the hanging of Jimmy Governor (The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith) who was caught in this same area was noted last week in the Newcastle Herald. The notorious Capt Thunderbolt was another colourful identity from the Nowendoc district where Mr Nagen was nearly apprehended.
Observers can only imagine the police resources now being directed to someone who would wound an officer and the potential embarrassment if Mr Nagen cannot be caught.
This frustration was evident last week with police sources warning of the full force of the law coming down on anyone who assists the fugitive.
As if $250 000 was not enough incentive? Is it sufficient to attribute bush survival skills as reason enough for evading capture? What are the limits of police technology? Are we seeing the beginnings of another (21st century) myth?
ABC local Radio reported Nagen’s capture late afternoon Saturday – a newsflash that turned out to be false. No explanation of it’s source was given.
Around the edges, sure, particularly in blogs and places devoted to that Religion Question. Yet I think the confronting stuff that will be printed about Hitchens in the mainstream and professional left US media is/will be limited, and it will all be predicated on “now, after several days and thousands of words of tributes, let’s have a counterpoint argument from a still pretty respectable source.”
This is why Greenwald has gone for the rhetorical jugular by bringing up the devil Ronnie Raygun straight away, and, well, it does sound like he’s accusing a lot of sincere people of being reactionary stooges for feeling loss at Hitchens’ death, when all he’s really trying to get at is media narrative forming.
If I had been Glenn I think I would have been better served in that first half of the article by mocking the American MSM for painting the man’s death as being no different than the coverage of someone like George Harrison’s passing, i.e. “look, here’s a sophisticated figure all sophisticated people can pay sophisticated tribute to, after all it’s not like he ever did anything to get upset about, to bring his humanity into question.”
Hitchens would have spent most of his time in New York or DC, and yet he died in a Texas hospital.
I wonder if he had patrons paying for the best care money can buy.
Pablo, the SMH were painting him as a respectful thief last week (I think) and suggesting the community are not totally unsupportive of him. Definitely reminiscent of Thunderbolt. I imagine the traps aren’t real happy with that sort of reporting though.
Apparently North Korean newsreaders wept as they announced Kim Jong Il’s death.
Now, if we had that kind of news reporting in Australia, would it constitute “spin”?
Sometimes I think we don’t know how lucky we are.
As I understand it Phil, the newsreaders did weep openly. Strictly speaking then, it wasn’t spin.
Of course, the question of why newsreaders are weeping on camera is the real issue here.
Yup. That’s where the spin started, with Kim Il Sung all those years ago. That was one damn fine job of propaganda. It will be genuinely fascinating to see if it lives through the next change.
As for our newsreaders, they just make me cry.
@35
Sam…
unfortunately, the passing of the NK dictatorship to a new ‘dear leader’ flags a phase of potential instability in the Korean peninsular. The new guy has to flex his muscles a bit and shows who’s boss.
So it is not at all unlikely that markets are affected… not completely arsed.
I wonder if Fox newsreaders will spontaneously weep when sun king, il Rupert, moves on, departs, expires…?
This was not reported on the ABC.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/abc-radio-presenters-matthew-abraham-and-david-bevan-found-guilty-of-bias/story-e6frea83-1226225731746
Of course, it is useful to be able to say to those who accuse the ABC of left wing bias, that the only example of such bias that has been substantiated is bias against a Labor Minister. Or perhaps that’s spin?
I knew a bloke who studied ‘Marxism’ in North Korea. A few others went to China. Early 1960′s. The bloke who went to North Korea would never talk very much about his experiences there. Went quiet when asked. He was a seaman and had been since 14 years so he’d kicked around a fair bit and knew something. Sometimes, after a few drinks, he’d say, apropos of nothing “Keep your eyes on North Korea”. N.K. is genuinely Orwellian. There will be no military coup against the latest Kim clone because the military are so deeply and literally brainwashed that they’re incapable of organising one. Worse, they don’t see the need for a coup. They, unlike the grunts, have full stomachs and a harem of sexual slaves. (Hi spooks).
Good one, joe2.
We will have visions of Piers, Bolt etc. prostrating themselves in grief before a crowd of weeping NewsLTD/ABC hacks.
joe2 “I wonder if Fox newsreaders will spontaneously weep when sun king, il Rupert, moves on, departs, expires…?”
Wonder no more joe2 – they won’t.
Biggest spin of the week has been on behalf of the ALP:
1. Musn’t make political mileage of this tragedy in Indonesia
2. Coalition won’t even meet to talk about this (correspondence released)
Pathetic
Marks@47. It was, actually. Thing is, they made a point of not distributing widely. A neat spin trick in itself.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-19/acma-finds-abc-adelaide-failed-to-be-impartial/3739162?section=sa
PeterTB I do not think that quite wins. Tone, and his availability for talks on Christmas day, trumps it.
joe2 @ 51 – I’m surprised that acma pulled them up only for that interview. It was nothing out of the ordinary for them and although they appear to have a history with Foley, they treat a lot of their interviewees very similarly, and in my opinion quite unfairly. But it probably brings in the ratings…..
Waiting to see how this can be spun as Abbott/Ruperts fault.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-21/flu-scare-sparks-mass-hong-kong-chicken-cull/3742750
Joe2@52
It’s more of a sacrifice to Tones da religious than to Jules da atheist .
The PM should call the bluff, yes?
Talk about spin, jumpy. December 25th is a secular family holiday as much (if not more) than a religious holiday, so atheists (and believers of non-Christian faiths) enjoy a day spent with their friends and families at least as much as the Christians enjoy the religious celebration. Why would the PM want to intrude on the nation’s family holiday by foisting herself on the daily news (unless something otherwise notable occurs on the day)?
Tigtog @ 55 I almost forgot to thank you, jumpy and Joe2 for the inspiration for
Tony Abbott’s Christmas Song
Next weekend in Canberra,
So all the papers say,
Tony Abbott, Rupert’s boy,
Will work on Christmas Day!
Journalists and cameramen
Dare not disobey.
They must record his every word
And just for normal pay.
[Moderator note: full poem snipped for length, please read at PatriciaWA's blog.]
I’ll let that one through to the keeper, Patricia in WA, but I think further discussion of Tony’s media stunt needs to be a bit more analytical, please (perhaps the Salon thread is generally the best place for the snarky poems to appear?).
Tigtog@57 – please delete mine @56 if it’s too snarky and lightweight here. There are much fuller notes in prose on the intended satire and its inspiration from your discussion on spin re Abbott’s latest stand on asylum seekers at http://polliepomes.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/mrabbotts-christmas-card-and-song/
PatriciaWA, it’s not that snark and lightweight is totally wrong for this thread, or indeed any thread, it’s just that stoushbait+snark that takes up several pagedowns tends to be potentially derailing, and is particularly poor netiquette on a thread which has already been put into full moderation because it was drifting into off-topic stoush on a previous issue. Perhaps in future just posting the first verse and then a link to the full poem on your blog?