Tag Archive for 'political campaigning'

Borgism

Published
by
Mark
1 year, 1 month ago
in Queensland and State/Territory Elections
. 30 Comments

A taste of what’s to come in the Queensland election campaign has been airing on the telly over the last few nights. One of the advantages for Labor of the early election speculation is that almost anything they do that’s actually campaign-ish gets reported as news. So the Labor attack ad directed at Lawrence Springborg drowned out his economic policy speech yesterday. That may not be a bad thing, as the only initiative he came up with is, well, dumb, as Sam Clifford points out, so it actually serves to reinforce the negative message from the ALP. That’s (among other things) to suggest that Lawrence just can’t cut it. The timing of the attack and its substance appear to have achieved their objectives – not firing the starting gun for an early campaign, but shaping the coverage and perception of The Borg’s economic policy announcement.

Inside Kevin07

Published
by
Mark
1 year, 7 months ago
in Books, Writers & Writing, Elections, Federal Elections, Media, Politics and Polls
. 36 Comments

Hunter S. Thompson, who’s repeatedly if repetitiously quoted in Christine Jackman’s Inside Kevin07: The People. The Plan. The Prize., would be turning in his grave.

I’m unable to think of any good reasons for parting with $34.95 for Jackman’s book, which is touted as the ultimate insider account of the Labor Party’s campaign strategy in the lead up to last year’s federal election. As noted previously at this blog, any juicy tidbits have already been extracted in the News Limited papers, and the non-story of Peter Costello’s alleged popularity is still rumbling meaninglessly on as I write. (Incidentally, the fact that quite a bit of research mentioned in the book showing Costello as electoral poison wasn’t selected for “news” stories tells a bit of a tale in itself.)

The book’s importance – insofar as it has any – lies in what is in effect an auto-critique of the standard of political journalism in contemporary Australia, in what its publication says about the strategies of university presses and particularly MUP, and in whether it actually adds fuel to the fire of the “hollowmen” narrative of colourless political apparatchiks it tries to counter. Let’s take those in reverse order.

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