Following on from the opener to the Tamed Estate released in both Michael West Media and Pearls and Irritations, we will be conducting a rolling watch for media failures and manipulations.
After the gas drop by Scott Morrison we have seen three more examples this week of early drops to the mainstream.
Drop 1: Taylor’s Low Emissions Technology Roadmap Statement
The first was Angus Taylor’s Tuesday gloss of the first Low Emissions Technology Roadmap Statement. The media release was dropped the night before to The Conversation’s Michelle Grattan, The Guardian’s Katherine Murphy, The SMH’s David Crowe, the ABC’s Melissa Clarke and AFR’s Phillip Coorey and Elouise Fowler the night before.
While this is an example of news outlets publishing ministerial media addresses, Taylor’s announcement did not go uncriticised come morning. Like the Gas Gush in the media last week, the Low Emission Technology Roadmap drew criticism the following day from Malcolm Turnbull, who appeared in the ABC and was highlighted by Katherine Murphy in The Guardian. The Conversation also followed the announcement with an in-depth analysis of the failures and biases of the Roadmap, including its emphasis on unaffordable carbon capture technology and ignoring of renewable energy.
Drop 2: Frydenberg’s Insolvency Reforms
The second drop of the week came from Frydenberg’s office when his plan to “insolvency reforms to support small business recovery” appeared in the mainstream media on Wednesday night before the official announcement on Thursday morning.
The media release was carried by the ABC (Melissa Clarke), SMH (David Crowe), The Conversation (Michelle Grattan), AFR (Phillip Coorey) and The Australian (Simon Benson).
The drop received a small amount of follow-up coverage on Thursday with The New Daily following in the morning and The Australian praising Frydenberg’s Trump-like economic management.
Drop 3: Morrison gutting Responsible Lending Laws
This morning’s announcement that the Morrison government would be axing responsible lending laws, which hasn’t officially been announced, was heralded last night across the mainstream. From the AFR (John Kehoe), The Guardian (Katherine Murphy, Paul Karp), The Conversation (Michelle Grattan) to the SMH (David Crowe).
The move has drawn criticism, however, for placing an unfair burden on poor Australians who are now more open to exploitation by predatory lenders.
Narrative: Privatise the NBN
While it was not a drop, a prevailing sub-narrative surrounding Minister for Communication Paul Fletcher’s announcement that the NBN would receive a $4.5 billion was that the move would increase the profitability of NBN Co. were the government to privatise the venture. Privatisation of the NBN is listed as a possibility in the National Broadband Network Companies Bill 2010 which established NBN Co.
The privatisation narrative appeared in the AFR, followed by the ABC, and The New Daily. Fletcher himself said the Government is looking at this right now.
“That is not something we are pursuing in this term of government, that is several years away,” he said.
The main narrative is, of course, that this investment represents a major backflip on behalf of the Morrison government and a vindication of Kevin Rudd’s original plan.
That’s all for this week. If you see any examples of media failure or manipulation, be it drops, uncritical coverage or non-coverage of important issues within our region please comment below or email them to tamedestate@staging-johnmenadue.kinsta.cloud so that we cover them in next week’s edition.
Callum has a honours degree in political science from the University of Sydney which examined the influence key players in Australia’s financial services industry exert over government. He is a sub-editor for P&I.
Comments
4 responses to “Tamed Estate: Low Emissions, Insolvency Reforms, Responsible Lending and NBN Privatisation”
This is a pretty obvious one. Anthony Galloway @smh.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/humanity-a-severe-judge-morrison-to-use-un-speech-to-urge-nations-to-share-vaccine-20200925-p55z7w.html
What makes it worse is that virtually every country apart from the US has already made this pledge through the WHO back in April so positioning this as some kind of global humanitarian masterstroke by Morrison is ridiculous.
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/24-04-2020-global-leaders-unite-to-ensure-everyone-everywhere-can-access-new-vaccines-tests-and-treatments-for-covid-19
Like his stablemates Rob Harris and Eryk Bagshaw this seems to be the only form of ‘journalism’ Anthony knows. Everything he produces seems to come from the PMO or the ASPI.
Between “The Conversation”, “Media Watch” and on occasion, “4 Corners” , it is refreshing to read “P&I” for the Real News and Current Affairs . Journalists of the professional standard I knew and respected as a younger citizen have largely now left, having gone because they couldn’t stand the “B…S.. they were asked to write or broadcast; or because they were made redundant as the Media failed to embrace the new technology in time. A real crying shame. Keep up the great work those of you still trying to uphold truth and accuracy in this space!
Thank you Callum Foote for installment number 2. You are a breath of fresh air and join just a handful of like minded journalists who can see what is going on with our lazy media and call them out.
I can’t help feeling that Pearls and Irritations is going from strength to strength, ably assisted by your thoughtful colleagues because your freely accessible publication represent the final bulwark to declining reporting standards all around us.
Pearls is definitely a good read unfortunately most people get their directions in various forms of manipulation.
The most effective propaganda is found not in the Sun or on Fox News – but beneath a liberal halo.
John Pilger
Barbara Kingsolver in her great novel “The Lacuna” (lacuna meaning hiatus, blank, missing part, gap, cavity, or empty space) has Russian Communist revolutionary and theorist Leon Trotsky (Lev) and his assistant Van having the following discussion about media (2009):
”But newspapers have a duty to truth”, Van said. Lev [Trotsky] clicked his tongue. “They tell the truth only as the exception. Zola [French novelist of “J’accuse” fame] wrote that the mendacity of the press could be could be divided into two groups: the yellow press lies every day without hesitating. But others, like the Times , speak the truth on all inconsequential occasions, so they can deceive the public with the requisite authority when it becomes necessary.” Van got up from his chair to gather the cast-off newspapers. Lev took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. ” I don’t mean to offend the journalists; they aren’t any different from other people. They’re merely the megaphones of other people” … [Trotsky observes to his assistant Shepherd] “Soli, let me tell you. The most important thing about a person is always the thing you don’t know”.