Perhaps one of my favourite bits of irony is when journalists go on Twitter to complain about Twitter…
It’s true, of course, that there’s a lot of ignorant and abusive people on social media who spout opinions without evidence, attack defenceless people and generally lower the whole tone of debate. I can see why some journalists are upset by this because these amateurs are doing for free what journalists get paid to do.
I know, I know. When they ask Dan Andrews a question, ignore his answer and then ask the same question, they’re just holding politicians to account. When they ask politicians to prejudge the findings of an inquiry they’re just trying to get a scoop; they’re not attempting trial by media. And when they ask Andrews if he’ll resign, it’s a simple question. It’s not like those people asking for the government in Lebanon to resign. No, the people in Lebanon are seeking retribution when they talk about resignations…
So it seems to go something like this. Journalists are there to hold politicians to account, but it’s not the public’s job to hold journalists to account for anything whether the public feels that it’s an inappropriate line of questioning or a lack of balance in the holding of particular politicians to account. It’s up to journalists to make that decision and it’s quite frankly none of your business and if you should dare to comment on their decision-making processes, let alone their ethics, why you’re a troll whose putting at risk the whole democratic process. Why shouldn’t we let the Liberal Party write our questions for us? I mean, it saves the trouble of getting them to send them through via our editors. It’s the sort of efficiency that we need in these troubled times for the media. In fact, we should save a lot of time and just print the Coalition’s press releases verbatim…
It’s intrigued me for years the way that the media has gone along with the idea that the Labor party is omnipotent while the Liberals are largely a victim of circumstances. Think back at how various issues have been portrayed. The Liberals are still banging on about how Labor were responsible for the deaths under the Pink Batts scheme even though it was faulty work practices. “It was too rushed and they should have been better trained’, but when Robodebt deaths occur that was something that just couldn’t be helped because how is the government expected to know the consequences of putting people under pressure. Unemployment under Labor equals a weak economy while unemployment under the Gliberal party is because of all those work-shy people who’d rather live in poverty and take drugs.
And so Victorian Labor is at fault for the pandemic raising its head again because the security workers should have had better training and been told that when you’re in charge of a person under quarantine you’re not supposed to be exchanging bodily fluids with them. That’s the sort of specialised knowledge that could only come with an extensive and expensive TAFE course run by a Liberal donor.
And it’s thanks to Victorian Labor that the economy will take longer to recover. Josh Frydenberg told us so and he should know because he’s about to deliver his second budget and nothing in it is the fault of the government but the bringing forward of the tax cuts is all down to the superior economic management of the Glibs because the best way to bring the budget back into the black is to reduce your revenue stream.
Now I’m not saying that Labor are without fault or that the media have no right to criticise. I’m just suggesting that a little more even-handedness would be welcome. I mean, if they could just point out the irony of the party that spent so long talking about strong borders could even think of joining Clive Palmer’s High Court challenge to border closures, or at least ask the Federal government why they backed it and then withdrew, it might be a good start.
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