Bolt is right: where's the lefty complaint (from the likes of David Marr) about the Rudd government intense manipulation of the media?
(More than one journalist on Mediawatch last night complained it was worse than the Howard government.)
In other Bolt related commentary: I find Gerard Henderson's defence of GG Quentin Bryce a little puzzling. The overtly political role of her African trip seems to me very different from other GG's visiting nations to support Australian activities. (I know there was some of that in Africa, but damn little as far as I could see.)
Henderson even calls Bryce a successful Queensland State govenor. Funny, but from up here, she attracted plenty of negative attention. It's worth remembering this quote, which was repeated in The Times:
"She's a control freak. She's all sweet and understanding in public, but in private it was a whole different ball game," one disgruntled former staff member told The Australian newspaper.No wonder Kevin Rudd likes her!
I always thought that the one thing the left never understood about media manipulation under Howard was the way the media was complicit in its own manipulation. If Howard did anything, he simply responded to their need for shock-horror headlines by delivering stories that could be painted in that way. And the twitchy, neurotic habit of some lefties to overreact to every tiny malfeasance, whether real or imagined, of the Howard Government helped to make this possible.
ReplyDeleteNow that Rudd's in power this is probably going to work increasingly against Labor - some left-wing commentators don't have an 'off button', and hence the infighting over ideological differences and what constitutes a 'true' left-wing position is going to increase.
Interestingly, I think Howard always went out of his way to be available to journalists - contra the Rudd tactic, of not inviting big-time journalists to press conferences until the last moment. This was probably because of Howard's permanently-under-attack mentality - he was constantly trying to appeal to his perceived enemies.
By contrast, Rudd has plenty of friends in the media - and he's going out of his way to avoid them! Not a good look. That's one way to make enemies.
Rudd may have "friends in the media" in the sense that most journalists lean left of centre, but I have always had the feeling that he is not personally liked by anyone in the press gallery. As I have said before, the closer people are to him, the more they seem to distrust/dislike him.
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