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Reality Check: A fearless prediction
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Okay. I know I’m big picture oriented and that my imagination rules but I can get it. The websites of the tabloids tell me so. With the left brain versus right brain test still at the top of the most read stories chart on three websites for the umpteenth day in a row I finally succumbed and took it. So let it be known that I am one of those right brainers who sees the lady spinning clockwise. Which means I am a risk taker and thus prepared to make the fearless prediction that tomorrow morning when I visit the 10 websites to prepare my daily political reality check that stories about the ABC program The Chaser will be up near the top of the list. They got a pretty fair run this morning with stories about politicians, shock jocks and others complaining that the team showed appalling taste with Wednesday night’s eulogy song. This morning’s appearance of Chaser white rabbits and the worm during Prime Minister John Howard’s morning walk was even in the Melbourne Herald Sun’s top five within a couple of hours. Three members of the Chaser crew, dressed as white rabbits, confronted the Prime Minister early today at McMahons Point in Sydney. “We know you need to pull a rabbit out of your hat, so here’s a few,” one of the Chaser team said. An obviously unimpressed Mr Howard said: “You blokes are a lot funnier when you pick on someone who’s alive.” The comedians followed Mr Howard for a few metres, but the Prime Minister ignored them and they went away. Later in the walk, one of the Chaser crew again confronted Mr Howard, this time dressed as “the worm”, which measures audience reaction during the election campaign debates. Mr Howard has made clear he doesn’t want the worm involved in Sunday night’s debate with Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd. “Don’t unfairly dismiss the worm,” the Chaser comedian called out. I have written before about the influence of satirical and entertainment programs, but at the risk of being too repetitive, this is exactly the kind of story that Mr Howard does not need. The Chaser is actually watched by young people in considerable numbers and a humourless, grumpy old man does not appeal to most of them as their national leader. The polls are already showing that and a few more weeks of this kind of fun and the great political divide between first time voters and their parents will be even more marked. The Chaser and Rove Live are doing more to damage the Coalition than anything Kevin Rudd has yet come up with. Mr Rudd sounded a bit of a wuss himself, actually, when he joined in yesterday’s condemnation of the song about even dreadful people becoming heroes after their death. Much more of that kind of “me tooism”. It’s Bob Brown who looks like an undertaker in a British comedy who will be the principal beneficiary of the anti-government youth vote. But enough of that speculation. Let me try and use the left side of my brain for a moment and apply logic to trying to perceive some order and pattern from today’s Reality Check survey of what was actually read on the web during the last day. Newspapers clearly have it right with the prominence they give to opinion polls — people clearly like the form guide approach to politics. Reporting of the latest Galaxy and ACNielsen polls is right up there nationally with the travails of Ben Cousins. The West Australian
Sydney Morning Herald
ABC Online
Adelaide Advertiser
Sydney Daily Telegraph
Melbourne Herald Sun
Courier Mail
news.com.au
The Age
The Australian
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