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The PM v Chris Mitchell: the feud hots up
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The suspicion that they just make stuff up at The Australian has been reinforced over recent days with Saturday’s claim that the Government asked Ken Henry’s tax review to model a capital gains tax on the family home with the aim of, in The Australian’s words, “slapping” such a tax on homes worth more than $2m. Wayne Swan issued a short statement on Saturday morning saying there had been no request, there was no modelling and there would be no recommendation to that effect. Ken Henry went further yesterday and said it was a “fiction”. Of course it was Henry last October who described as “wrong. That’s W-R-O-N-G, exclamation mark” an Australian article claiming the Reserve Bank had advised against the Government’s bank guarantee before the Prime Minister took the decision to guarantee deposits and borrowings. Back then, The Oz scrambled to try to claim that discussions between RBA and Treasury officials several days afterward somehow justified the story, which was purportedly based on a leaked email from Treasury. The AFP, apparently, suspected Godwin Grech of being the source of the leak, which suggests Malcolm Turnbull may not have been the first victim of faked emails. Then there was The Oz’s campaign against the education component of the Government’s stimulus package, which centred on a number of half-baked claims that were demolished by Julia Gillard in Parliament. The campaign eventually morphed into claims that the package was pork-barrelling designed to shore up the Government’s support in crucial seats by attracting the support of tradesmen. It’s clear that The Australian’s campaign against the Government isn’t slowing — even as it keeps trying to cause trouble for Malcolm Turnbull. Crikey understands that senior ministers have been trying to patch over what has become straight-out feud between the Prime Minister and erstwhile friend and Australian editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell. Rudd of course is godfather to Mitchell’s son Riley. The Australian last year announced that Mitchell had separated from Riley’s mother, journalist Christine Jackman, who knew Rudd before he entered politics (to the extent, of course, that Rudd has not been in politics since he left Nambour). Mitchell copped stick for having such a close relationship with Rudd — especially from Crikey. But the suggestion that Mitchell would take it easy on Rudd because of the relationship has never been borne out. Indeed, The Oz was the last rat to leave the sinking ship that was the Howard Government, spruiking the chances of a Liberal comeback almost until the end of the election campaign. But according to Government sources the estrangement between Rudd and The Oz really began in October last year, when Matt Franklin of The Australian ran the now-famous account of a conversation between Rudd and George W. Bush in which Bush is alleged to have not known what the G20 was. Mitchell — who declined to return Crikey’s calls for this story — was present at Kirribilli House when Rudd took the call, although not in the room where Rudd spoke to Bush. Rudd, who was deeply embarrassed by the ensuing controversy, was very unhappy about Mitchell’s role. But it was the faked email affair in June that particularly infuriated the Prime Minister and turned it personal. Rudd is said to believe that News Ltd acted “unconscionably” in its coverage — although it was the News Ltd tabloids, not The Oz, that mocked up the faked email as though it was real. In response, Rudd and Julia Gillard specifically began attacking News Ltd. And The Australian, which had launched its assault on Julia Gillard a couple of weeks before, was taken off “the drip”, with stories now being conspicuously placed with other outlets. Mitchell — no shrinking violet either — hasn’t taken a backward step. Journalists and commentators have fallen into line and ramped up the normally anti-ALP tone of much of their coverage, despite the complete hash the Coalition is making of Opposition. “It’s like two pugilists letting rip”, one insider said. A number of senior ALP figures are known to be concerned about the feud, figuring there is nothing to be gained from a brawl with News Ltd, and that Rudd should put his personal feelings aside. The broader context to the feud, however, is that this is a Government which has learnt from and gone well beyond the example John Howard set in his media communication. Howard, who was burnt by the incessantly negative coverage he received from the Press Gallery in his first stint as Opposition Leader, refined the art of going over the heads of the Press Gallery and communicating directly with voters, primarily via AM radio. Rudd has gone much further, embracing any medium that allows him an unfiltered opportunity to convey a tightly-constructed, and highly repetitive, message. FM radio, long essays and light entertainment programs, as well as regular appearances on AM radio programs like Neil Mitchell, are favoured by Rudd. Rudd and his team are focussed on ensuring they control the content of the handful of seconds’ attention most voters give to politics each day — and shape events when voters are fully tuned in. There’s also the basic media reality that newspapers carry only a fraction of the significance of commercial television news. The Australian sells around 140,000 copies each weekday. The Seven, Nine and Ten network news bulletins, which all use the same Canberra-generated political content no matter where the licensee is located, can offer audiences many multiples of that each night; in Seven’s case, up to 1.4m people on a weeknight. It was instructive that on the night of Monday 22 June, after the Grech email had been revealed as a fake, Rudd went live on Nine News, and then Today Tonight — another million-plus audience. It gave him a mass audience platform to get out an unfiltered message attacking Turnbull. Newspapers are influential with other journalists and “inside the beltway” but are no longer a viable means of mass communication for politicians even if they were disposed to use them. They’re a wide-scale boutique media form, a relic from a more literate and less visually-oriented society. One of the traditional roles of the media in political journalism — in some ways, the entire raison d’etre of the Press Gallery — is to act as intermediaries between politicians and voters. That role is being rendered irrelevant as this Government, even more than its predecessor, pursues a communication strategy in which the Press Gallery is only one of many communication tools and, having a mind of its own, generally not the preferred one. In that mix, newspapers can offer specific benefits — they can run long-form essays, for example — but don’t even provide a mass audience anymore. Moreover, the audience they deliver, being better-educated and better-informed than most voters, are far less susceptible to spin and propagandising. It may be that Rudd shares the view of Jeff Blodgett, the Obama campaign director who visited Australia to speak at the ALP National Conference at the end of July. I asked Blodgett about the impact of conservative media. His view was that they simply fulfil their business model, which is to serve a conservative base, and have minimal impact beyond that. Blodgett had in mind Fox News, but the same reality check applies to The Australian, whose readership is smaller, older, richer, more white-collar and more male than even other newspapers. The Prime Minister may feel having an ongoing feud with a media outlet like that is never going to hurt him. |
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16 Comments
Nonetheless, now that the ABC has morphed into Fox news (Foreign correspondent report on Venezuela, The East Timor rice contract affair, The Insiders) the conservatives are getting regular access to the ABC viewing public (about 16%) . Hopefully, this audience is a little better able to discriminate fact from fiction than the OZ readers.
I couldn’t care less what Kevin Rudd thinks of Mr Mitchell, the Oz or anything else - but until he looks his questioner in the eye during Question Time - I must feel less of him as this is the act of a gutless man.
Show us you are honest enough to do what we voted for Kevin.
Joan Croll
Get off the grass Joan!!!! Question Time is all about dramatics, being on stage, performing, use your props, the promps are right behind you and sometimes in front.Your mate Howard used his collegues to great effect, Cossie was at his best ‘performing’ to his audience, his devotees on the benches. Dont come the ole look the enemy in the eye, Rudd plays to where he feels at home. Your accusation makes it sound as if he is the first. Obviously you are not an avid watcher of QT, the arena where Ministers are in the spotlight and love every minute of it, regardless of their political bent. Good try at an underarm delivery Joan, sorry “no ball”.
Thank you Mr Joyce - I do watch QT but not regularly - however I do not approve of the use of this forum - whatever its history may be - for childish performances from either side.
If the Government would answer the question and stop hitting the dog of an Opposition in any reply- we may learn something worth hearing.
On your instruction on the real reason for QT - and your other advice Mr Church - I’ll stop watching QT - if you will send me a message on the day Mr Rudd looks into the eyes of a serious questioner in a serious answer to the question.
JC
Mr Joyce, I thought the possibility of a of tax on a $2m plus family home was a serious question from the Opposition, given that Mr Henry is a serious fellow?
However the non-reply of both Swain and Rudd on this matter will send hundreds maybe thousands to their smart people to work out how to foil this whiff of such a tax.
Meanwhile I am having a quiet laugh at your efforts to educate me as you obviously regard me as a lesser person - and thus unaware of the ways of the world ?
JC
For gods sake JC, did you even read this article? There was no possiblility of a tax on homes worth more than $2m. Ltd News newspaper just made it up. Should the government really address every question proffered that is based on something completely made up?
What about if next question time the opposition asks the government about it’s plans to invade South Africa? Is that sort of rubbish really worth the time to respond to?
God has a capital G - and thanks for clearing that up for me Jose
JC
JOSE CARRERAS: As soon as someone starts invoking the name of god you should know they don’t have a leg to stand on. Because the minute they know they’re losing, wham, out comes the ‘g’ word. Let her be, she is a loose pop-gun.
Good article, but the comments???! If Krudd was the figurehead for whom many, erstwhile leftists voted, he would have come out and siad “YEH, CGT on silvertail house churning”. He didn’t coz he ain’t but better than the alternative, more Rodent.
JC, if you have the chance, watch PMQ for the odd occasion Ms Gillard rises - a human being, intelligent and (one hopes) empathetic. She’s done the hard yards of rubber chook and faction/machine meetings and is still standing.
Yes AR - there’s a woman who does look everyone in the eye - I suggested her for PM years ago saying - ‘she has balls’ - in a letter to the SMH years ago and was rubbished by someone who thought I was insulting her. She’s wonderful the best we’ve seen for years. Fun - smart and quick ..
I was simply trying to make the point that Kevin - for whom I voted and whom I support completely - would appear much stronger - if only he would look his questioner in the eye - .
This is obviously the wrong forum to attempt to raise a slightly different issue?
JC
No JC it is the right forum, it only requires you to explain yourself a little more, generalisations demand retort, specifics win hearts, some thing Malcolm the Mad has difficulty with. Thats specifics not hearts, he doesnt have a human organ of that name, he has a thing that pumps a brand of fluid unknown to us mortals. It ensures a steady flow of stupidity, lack of political savvy, impulsiveness, deafness to common sense, irrational thinking, arrogance and susceptibility to rumour, gossip and fantasy utterances by News Ltd Jurnos. Yep you are on the right track JC.
RAYMOND CHURCH: There are times when my perception of Malcolm he Mad is that he is a microcosm of the Liberal Party. He has, in abundance, the born to rule ethos compounded by hauteur, arrogance and a sort of ‘You’re here to help me but you don’t help me because you are so bitterly stupid you cannot understand me, so I have to keep explaining to you, over and over again’ attitude, together with a ‘If you didn’t get it that time, try this version instead. Still not got it? Well we’ll try yet another version’.
For some strange reason there are quite influential people who perceive Malcolm Turnbull to be a man of the present, leading a Party of the past perhaps?
To me, he is the epitome of the eighteenth century man. The sort who went out to India, made a fortune, ordered the wogs around, had his large format photos taken with the regulation slaughtered tigers of the latest shoot of Sir Ramatoule Uppabum the Maharajah of Meerut. Then retired to Brighton (Eng) feeling the world had passed him by and spent hours writing to the Times complaining about the Prime Minister.
Regretably, this sort of person today, gets to run for political office. I think it’s called having your cake and eating it too.
Venice after yesterdays ‘performance’ during QT in the House by the Opposition, I am now convinced the lunatics are indeed running the asylum.
I am fortunate (or not) my lunch hour coincides with question time so I catch the circus performance regularly. My interest at the moment is how much longer Speaker Jenkins will tolerate the insolence from Princess Pyne, who masquerades as Manager of Opposition Business. I had thought Joe Hockey was a little over the top, but given the nature of the job and Joe’s friendly disposition he usually raised a smile when told to seat the ample rump. Alas the actions of Pyne bring no credit on himself or the high position he holds. I doubt it is doing a hellava lot for the current public perception of the Opposition as well.
RAYMOND CHURCH: You do me the world of good. I’m having a bleak time at the moment. Bitter, hate-filled and greedy children, the legal profession, all sorts of unwanted trouble. However, I read your comments and immediately I feel better.
Thanks and cheers!
Venise
Pleasure Venise, not that I have the ability with words you do, but one can but try.
Have been attempting to fathom out a raving right ranter at the thread “Rudd’s stimulus has nothing to do with the economy”. Another lost cause
Cheers