As I wrote last month, "we expect and need to hear the truth from the Opposition."
This morning's Australian details an email sent by Coalition media adviser Peter Phelps to his colleagues on September 8:
"You don't get news stories by trying to change perceptions, you get them by reinforcing stereotypes," said the email, penned by Peter Phelps, media adviser to opposition cabinet secretary Michael Ronaldson.
Stories worth pursuing should cover: "Fat cat public servants not caring about taxpayers, pollies with snouts in the trough, special interest groups getting undeserved handouts from tax taken from hard-working Aussies, a favoured pro-Labor contractor who seems to be getting all the work for a particular job etc," the email said.
"While policy discussions are nice, the simple fact is that in opposition, the majority of our successful news stories are going to be ones which are a little quirky and which draw the attention of journos."
It says more senior Turnbull advisers who later saw the email were "outraged" and moved quickly to inform Mr Turnbull and rebuke its author.
And notes:
Earlier yesterday the opposition attempted to attack the government by revealing that the Department of Veterans Affairs had spent $1.3 million on an executive training retreat and $10,000 subsidising a departmental sports day.
But the attack backfired when Veterans Affairs Minister Alan Griffin revealed that the Howard government spent at least three times more on the events when it was in office.
Has it come to this?
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12 comments:
"You don't get news stories by trying to change perceptions, you get them by reinforcing stereotypes,"
Well it may be cynical but is it actually correct? Is any reasonably informed person surprised by this regardless of who the opposition is?
After a quick small statistically flawed bi-partisan poll I have a 100% stereotypical yes it's correct response including from people with journalistic experience with major mejia operations.
Maybe this post is stereotypical in itself?
"Has it come to this?"
Since when was it not "this"?
People don't care about the truth...they only read what they want to read, hear what they want to hear, and see what they want to see.
Give them the truth and they ignore you. Tell them a story and you'll captivate them.
And good final point their KS, haha.
He's right. Journalists are lazy and unimaginative, faced with the job of exploring policy issues or hanging with the pack on the latest beat up, they'll pick the easy option every time.
Do a better job and those chasing the media's attention will have to focus on the policy stuff to get any attention.
Is Rudd's 'Hollowmen Unit' any better?
Hey Kev, tell us again how you're going to slash CO2 emissions by 2050 with twice as many people, and coal exports going gangbusters. That's some serious spin. Dunno how he keeps a straight face.
We need more journos like you, but the question you are know doubt wondering about is how do you get paid when people stop buying newspapers?
excuse the typo "know" for "no" above.
The worst Opposition in Australia's history. Totally clueless on every issue of importance and left with digging through trash cans for some interesting garbage.
It might entertain. You might give the people a good laugh but they wont vote for you.
Liberal Party is now the official Pathetic Party.
The only surprising things about this email are
a) that it surfaced
b) that it needed to be written down in the first place.
What is the opposition media room? Training school for dummies?
What was said was so obvious as to be quite unexceptional. Which doesn't make it right, but given teh media we've now got, what can be expected.
That it surfaced says incredibly good things about some people within the Coalition.
That there are good people in the Coalition would suggest there is room in this country for more parties. The two-party system is well passed it's used-by-date. Both parties don't stand for anything except getting elected and representing vested interests.
Right on Anonymous (the last comment "Anonymous" I am referring to)
I am very sick and tired of re-election styled politics.
It should never be about re-election, it should be about doing things that are in the best interest of the country and it's future (key word "future").
Yep, the memo just described the world as it is, not as we'd all like it to be.
If Turnbull's sensible he should be shocked, shocked I tell you, in public while quietly adopting the advice in private.
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