Comments on: More Newspoll Shanahanigans

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Can someone please give Tony Papafilis an award. He does the best Michael Palin dead parrot sketch impersonation I have ever seen.

By: Mr Denmore

Mr Denmore — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't the next election another three years away. So why, apart from justifying the press gallery justifying its own existence, is the media still crammed to the gills with race calls about the latest opinion poll?

Do the hacks actually realise how little most people pay attention to all this fluff?? And, of course, The Australian's tory hacks can't lie in bed straight. So anything THEY say about politics has to be discounted.

Even the ABC has fallen into this trap of leading every night's bulletin with the daily noise of politics. And that's what it is - NOISE. Interesting to those people who treat politics like a sporting spectacle, but totally irelevant to most of us.

By: JamesK

JamesK — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Peter, the australian equivalent of Pravda is The Age.The Australian could be renamed The Daily Telegraph, perhaps?….except I do not know if they would print Phillip Adams. I read him as well as Shanahan….perhaps I should visit Dr. Tarvydas?

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Shanahan deserves respect - I mean, the ‘Political Editor of The Australian’ - just the title should elevate him to legendary status to the masses.

By: Tom McLoughlin

Tom McLoughlin — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Well I wish I could find where, but pretty sure I was sceptical about the poll crash scenaro, in print, maybe on a crikey string, or New Matilda. Noticed Bolter on Sunday show too. All that really happened last week was a serious work out on both sides, but pretty much a draw. What intrigues me most now, and notice Nelson reflecting on how this is a democracy “for God sake”, is that Fuelwatch, so it dawns on me, is actually a Get Up cyber engagement/empowerment model. With 250K subscribers that’s a real politik agenda worth pursuing. And Grocery watch despite the sniggers. Ouch. It’s the internet stupid! With or without a few cents in petrol costs per litre. Who says Heavy Kevvie doesn’t have a political strategy for the carbon price step change. Like Saint Thomas, Ross Gittins you are such a doubter.

By: Wes Fabb

Wes Fabb — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

The supreme purveyor of pro-Coalition spin, Dennis Shanahan once more evokes an incredulous smile. Although he didn’t declare ‘honeymoon over’ today, he seems to believe that newly-elected governments enjoy a period when the members of the public have honeymooners’ stardust in their eyes and can see no fault, but that disillusionment soon sets in and attractiveness fades. That distorts the metaphor. How many honeymoons quickly deteriorate into disillusionment? Some do, but most settle into a comfortable relationship that lasts for years, sometimes a lifetime. So could it be that the public, which took several years to become disillusioned with the Howard Government to the point that its marriage with the Australian people became terminal, is willing to give the Rudd Government a similar period of grace? Is it reasonable to expect that after only six months many of those who voted Labor would realize they’d made a terrible mistake and reflect their disillusionment starkly in the opinion polls? That hasn’t happened; few marriages evolve that way.
So let’s discard the concept of a ‘honeymoon’ and accept that so far the public is not disillusioned with the Rudd Government, and is willing to give it a fair go to implement its election promises.

By: Mike M

Mike M — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Well said!! ….the Oz has devoted far too much time to observing political tactics and nothing like enough to the merits of the policies.

Looks like their man in Canberra is becoming a bit obsessive……and forgetting that life goes on as per normal outside the political circles he seems to mix in.