Close-ups and beat-ups
ABC's Australian Story will be profiling Julia Gillard tomorrow night, and if the promo is any indication, the tone will be frankly adulatory. I have no real problem with this: there's room for this sort of 'soft' profile of political figures, though I wonder whether Philip Ruddock or Amanda Vanstone will be getting a similar vaseline-on-the-lens treatment anytime soon. I'll be interested to see how the question of Julia's leadership ambitions will be handled: again, from the promo, it looks like they get kid-glove, Barbara Walters handling.
Funny, isn't it? Because you'd be forgiven for thinking that there's a clause in the Australian Constitution which requires Peter Costello to make a lifetime-binding oath to foreswear ever-ever-ever seeking the leadership of his party, or of even entertaining any private opinion on the matter. This oath is to be renewed to the press every six months, or sooner if deemed necessary by any public-sector journalist faced with a slow-news day.
Here in Victoria, we've just been through a couple of weeks of 'leadership tensions' in the State Liberal opposition which were, from beginning to end, a complete confection of the local ABC office. It's a quaint journalistic convention, this 'rule out' gambit: the most empty-headed, wet-behind-the-ears cadet journalist is free to ask - in effect, to demand - of a Government minister that he 'rule out' any hypothetical course of action that said journalist cares to dream up. I wonder if it's as common in other political cultures.
Still, it's not too hard to understand why the public sector of the fourth estate treats the ALP so differently to the Coalition on this matter. Leaving aside the matter of bias, why would they need to manufacture stories of internecine brawling when the ALP dishes up the real thing so consistently? These beat-ups are also harder to manufacture on the ALP side because, let's face it, in the foreseeable future, what sane adult would actively seek the leadership of that party?
ABC's Australian Story will be profiling Julia Gillard tomorrow night, and if the promo is any indication, the tone will be frankly adulatory. I have no real problem with this: there's room for this sort of 'soft' profile of political figures, though I wonder whether Philip Ruddock or Amanda Vanstone will be getting a similar vaseline-on-the-lens treatment anytime soon. I'll be interested to see how the question of Julia's leadership ambitions will be handled: again, from the promo, it looks like they get kid-glove, Barbara Walters handling.
Funny, isn't it? Because you'd be forgiven for thinking that there's a clause in the Australian Constitution which requires Peter Costello to make a lifetime-binding oath to foreswear ever-ever-ever seeking the leadership of his party, or of even entertaining any private opinion on the matter. This oath is to be renewed to the press every six months, or sooner if deemed necessary by any public-sector journalist faced with a slow-news day.
Here in Victoria, we've just been through a couple of weeks of 'leadership tensions' in the State Liberal opposition which were, from beginning to end, a complete confection of the local ABC office. It's a quaint journalistic convention, this 'rule out' gambit: the most empty-headed, wet-behind-the-ears cadet journalist is free to ask - in effect, to demand - of a Government minister that he 'rule out' any hypothetical course of action that said journalist cares to dream up. I wonder if it's as common in other political cultures.
Still, it's not too hard to understand why the public sector of the fourth estate treats the ALP so differently to the Coalition on this matter. Leaving aside the matter of bias, why would they need to manufacture stories of internecine brawling when the ALP dishes up the real thing so consistently? These beat-ups are also harder to manufacture on the ALP side because, let's face it, in the foreseeable future, what sane adult would actively seek the leadership of that party?
posted by cuckoo at
11:37 AM
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