Comment

John Hewson
The Coalition and the real hate media

As editor of the British tabloid rag The Sun in the 1980s, Kelvin MacKenzie had a favourite description of how to make the lives of public figures unpleasant – his journalists were instructed to “stick a ferret up their trousers”. It’s a matter of legend that whenever an editorial line proved unpopular (never mind wrong) MacKenzie would burst from his office, shouting, “Reverse ferret!”

This might as well have been the catchphrase of last weekend, the Murdoch outlets having so thoroughly championed a party so deeply unloved by the electorate at large.

It should finally be recognised that Sky News and certain newspapers are no longer news services, and they are in part responsible for the resounding thrashing of Peter Dutton and his team. No less complicit are some aggressive and out-of-touch talkback radio stations.

For a long time, these outlets have operated as the media arm of the Coalition, seeing themselves as players in a political game. They chose their champions, kicked their foes and obfuscated any debate. Our country is poorer today as a result.

For the past three years, they have found it impossible to admit they lost the previous election, let alone genuinely look at why. They have learnt nothing and did it all again this time. Operating from within the same vacuum, sustaining lies and hatred and simply refusing to listen to any other opinions, ideas or policies.

Pretending that Albanese was invisible for nearly three years turned out to be a fatal flaw in their plan. For three years these outlets insisted the prime minister was doing nothing, not getting the right meetings, or simply absent. They sustained these fallacies by refusing to report real news on what he was actually doing about the cost of living, energy and so on, all the while crowing about the great alternative in their mate “Dutts”, even insisting the opposition leader was “running the show”.

Even the bookies believed their bullshit, such has been the power of the press.

Then disaster. Five weeks out, as campaigning hit its straps, they had to actually report in real time what the prime minister was doing, every day. This bit hard. He had policies that he could back up, he was confident and composed, in charge, on top of the detail, and he connected easily with people from all walks of life. They couldn’t have got this more wrong. Here was the real deal, a Rabbitohs supporter from the burbs, a genuine fan of Australian rock. Having kept him hidden for so long, they simply couldn’t handle the reality, or the competition.

Overall, throughout the campaign, the media tended to dumb down the political discourse, focusing more on its entertainment value – the colour and movement – and ignoring policy. Those who travelled on the buses with the leaders were easily constrained by the leaders’ messages of the day, unwilling or unable to dig into the detail behind them. At best, they hoped for a “gotcha” moment or some crowd disruption in the daily presser to supply just enough grabs for the evening news.

All this suited Dutton and his News Corp mates. He would simply claim he’d fix the economy and control inflation, be the leader who restored home ownership and the Australian dream, knowing he would never be called on for the detail but could expect headlines for the claims.

By comparison, on the Labor side, Australians also got to see a well-functioning, unified front bench. Thus far the good and exhaustive work done by the likes of Jim Chalmers, Penny Wong and Don Farrell had gone unheralded, totally ignored and misrepresented along the way. If they were ever mentioned it was, at best, rude; at worst, bordering on defamatory. Chris Bowen was described continually by one particularly grubby radio host in the most obscene way, slurs picked up enthusiastically by hosts at Sky News.

Which is why it was so jarring, as the campaign unfolded, to see an increasingly desperate Dutton calling both the ABC and Guardian Australia “hate media”. In no way did they approximate the vitriol of the right-wing press and, as for coverage, his claims of bias were staggering given the total support and saturation coverage of his clearly under-prepared team. It is noteworthy that the assessment of the election result by both former prime minister Tony Abbott and his former chief of staff and now Sky News host Peta Credlin was there should have been more culture wars. More hate.

The nightly bias, spit and bile rants led by Chris Kenny, Andrew Bolt, Credlin, Paul Murray and the rest were designed to influence talking points and form strategy for the alternative government. Dutton built his leadership on a revamp of the Abbott–Credlin disaster, pursuing negativity and divisiveness on every issue and seeking to undermine the credibility of Albanese and his government. He refused to see any merit in any idea or initiative, whether it was in the country’s interests or not. Dutton persisted with this strategy, expecting to build on the success he’d enjoyed in thwarting the Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum, supported by his media chorus. This was a miscalculation; these votes were never going to be transferrable.

However, that said, Sky News, with their audience of frankly two and a dog, is not even the main culprit here. The print media was complicit, clearly forming the basis of much of the drivel that ran on the Murdoch-owned news channel. A daily visit to our local coffee shop told the story. Every day, The Australian and The Daily Telegraph in particular heralded glowing near-achievements of Peter Dutton, alongside thinly veiled attacks on Bowen, Chalmers and Wong.

It was also astonishing to see television debates awarded to Sky, all of which were poorly run, one-sided embarrassments, along with the soft, sop-piece interview with Paul Murray. That was unedifying and probably embarrassing even to Peter Dutton himself. Channel Seven’s debate and subsequent election coverage was well considered, entertaining and featured good panels and fair hosting. The guests were polite and informative without the hate-filled representations found on some other networks. When it came to Dutton boldly declaring in that debate that a dozen eggs cost $4.20, Albanese’s reply was an affable correction of his opponent (albeit he was still short by a dollar), showing a viewing public that he did understand the cost of living. That said, surely we can hope future debates of such importance will be conducted by the national broadcaster and available to all Australians. I feel it’s important to point out the ABC was a clear winner on election night, with ratings holding the top three spots by miles. Despite sustained attacks, the national broadcaster remains Australia’s most-trusted news source.

In all of this, the newspapers have ignored their responsibility to focus on the truth. They exaggerated, misrepresented and tried to shape the country’s future to suit their own agendas, but all they really succeeded in doing was failing the public. They simply ignored their responsibilities and didn’t report the news. Australians, they obviously felt, were not entitled to facts or to form their own opinions and make up their own minds.

Surely the influence of these ignorant media stooges has to come to an end. They are simply gauche entertainment for their MAGA devotees. The magnitude of this election victory in the face of such adversity must surely call into question their continuing relevance.

Sadly, we had to wait until Dutton’s concession speech to see the best of the opposition leader, when he seemed actually to be more at ease, perhaps more himself. What a pity.

Much has been made of the election result in the post-mortem and wash-up. It was catastrophic, the Liberal Party with barely any representation in the major capital cities is now simply a regional party without a regional strategy. Much can and will be made of how it came to this, but I can’t help but wonder what might have been. It’s not inconceivable that the likes of Allegra Spender could have been shadow treasurer and Monique Ryan shadow health minister, within a party far more widely in tune with women and youth, if they had been allowed to find a place within the Liberals. It’s not simply a matter of changing leader; the whole parliamentary team have to be engaged in policy development.

It was arrogant to pretend the election could have been won simply by being negative and divisive, with poor planning and thin policies. While the Liberal Party’s identity as a broad church was always aspirational, this is exactly what the party now needs to be. If they have learnt anything from recent history, it should be that they can’t take voters for granted.

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