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August 3, 2010
I've often argued that the Australian media is pretty bad if evaluated from the perspective of the role of the fourth estate as the watch dogs for democracy. They are content to recycle media releases, engage in a "he said, she said" journalism to represent the complexities of policy debates; and have dumped policy in favour of politics.
Instead of a media that questions and critiques policy proposals we have the media presenting politics as entertainment. This weakens the effective functioning of our national public sphere.
Last Friday Grog's Gamut had a critical post on the way the media operates during this election that added depth to this critique of the media. It indicates how the media have become part of the political narrative. Gamut says:
Here’s a note to all the news directors around the country: Do you want to save some money? Well then bring home your journalists following Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard, because they are not doing anything of any worth except having a round-the-country twitter and booze tour.It is a sad thing to say but we could lose 95 percent of the journalists following both leaders and the nation would be none the poorer for it. In fact we would probably be better off because it would leave the 5 percent who have some intelligence and are not there to run their own narrative a chance to ask some decent questions of the leaders. Some questions which might actually reveal who would be the better leader of this country.
The point he makes is that the media ask about the appearances of politics and ignore public policy issues. Politics rules these days.
He adds:
I think they for the most part ignore it because analysing policy is hard – you actually need to have some understanding of the issues and how they will affect the economy, the people, the Government. It is even harder to then crystallise it in to an informative and interesting 1000 words.Many in the media when they try analyse Government documents get it completely wrong.
The reason the Canberra Press Gallery get it wrong is twofold. First, their conception of politics is a partisan one. A recent example is Jettison super clinics: doctors by Mathew Franklin and Lanai Vasek in The Australian:
Doctors have demanded Julia Gillard scrap her GP super clinics program.They have warned that the taxpayer-funded clinics are stealing patients from existing surgeries.The Australian Medical Association has also questioned whether the clinics are being built in marginal seats for Labor's political gain, rather than in the areas where they are needed.
The medical argument is that the centres the potential to be "very negative" if they were not properly integrated with existing services, that should be built in areas of socio-economic disadvantage and workforce shortage, although such areas already had existing GP clinics that could be built up to provide more services with government assistance.
Are the GP super-centres properly integrated with existing service? That was not explored. Are the centres being built in areas of socio-economic disadvantage and workforce shortage. No research on that. Do the centres offer different kinds of heath services to that provided by GP's? No analysis of that. All that is offered Franklin and Vasek is partisan politics in the form of commentary about health policy.
If Franklin and Vasek were interested in health policy in their campaign journalism they would have introduced ideas of chronic illness, allied health care, integrated team care, and longer consulting times. If it was about politics in a substantive way they would mention the AMA's hostility to this kind of health care; its opposition to primary care reform that undercut the GP as gatekeeper; and its opposition to GP Superclinics. The article is just junk partisan spin functioning as the publicity arm for a particular lobby groupthat is being used to continue the daily attack on the ALP. The Australian's front page is the attack weapon.
However, the critique of the media goes deeper than the partisan bias of The Australian and the Murdoch tabloid Press campaigning to help win an election for the Coalition.
The second reason the Canberra Press Gallery get government policy documents wrong is that they don't have the skills, training or knowledge of policy areas This is really noticeable is in economics. The journalists do not question the Coalition on their mythmaking about government debt and budget deficit; or their implicit denial that the global financial crisis actually happened.
The Canberra Press Gallery just accept the lies that are being rolled out about Australia being ruined by the burden of debt; and are unable to question the claim that the only economic policy is to reduce government debt.
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in his Unleashed article on the role of The Australian newspapers in the mining tax row Michael Gillies Smith observes:
This is Big Business fighting any attempt at reform that goes against its interests.