The loss of the blue-ribbon press
The loss of the blue-ribbon press
The media may have been the biggest loser this election.
A unique thing happened on Saturday May 21; after the end of a decade of dysfunctional government, voters demonstrated a remarkable act of democratic participation and changed the electoral landscape of the country forever. A lurch to the right within the Coalition in the period between Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison had been profoundly rejected by voters at the polls, issuing a new era of political contribution from independent political representatives. Although the electorate has spoken in historic volumes, the mainstream analysts were left scratching their heads early into the first week of a new government led by Anthony Albanese.
As the last of the Liberals to be able to formulate rational policy in the tradition of modern liberal conservatism were purged from the political calculus, some of the ideologues in the tabloids got straight to work calling in the end of days, the “decimation” of the political landscape and the loss off all hope as we know it. “Go Right to save what’s left of the Libs” was Peta Credlin’s prescription, her lessons learned from a near complete structural collapse of the fundamental pillars of the Liberal party for that very reason.
The trajectory of Murdoch news post-election was to be expected, it is a Jerry-job retrofit of a generic American far-right libertarian news model that has just been overwhelmingly repudiated by the voting public this election. The Murdoch brand has suffered a significant defeat via its move towards outright hyper-extended misinformation, sitting poorly with a beleaguered and educated voting public — something from which it may never recover.
The outright sensory assault from News Corp may have had had some bearing on the loss of these moderate Liberal seats, but it cares not for the delicate mechanics of blue-ribbon liberalism in Australia. Traditionally that job used to lie elsewhere. Historically, the media which has helped to define the socially progressive/fiscally conservative values of the east coast upper-middle echelons of Australian society, has come from the flagship Fairfax broadsheet newspapers like the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, as well as its prestige vehicle in the Australian Financial Review.
The essence of modern liberalism was defined in these publications by their proximity to the unique progressive social ideas and prudent economic conservatism of the blue-ribbon class, intersecting with the working class who shared common values and overlaps in issues of social justice, fairness, and a broader interest in the welfare of this country. This shared relationship with the readership provided a great anchor for the publications, unlike other commercial outlets in the country that fed information to its audience, the Fairfax press had to earn the respect of the readers on a common ground, forging a powerful and enduring legacy.
Shortly after the takeover by Nine in 2018, the newly acquired Nine publications that had held the liberal side of the Liberal party to account for nearly two centuries, decided to chuck its lot for a quick-fix subjective political agenda. The editorial changes to the Fairfax stable began at the behest of a politically motivated executive led by Peter Costello, and permeated down through the foundations of the former Fairfax publications. The absence of its traditionally objective analysis was immediately noticed by its astute readership, throwing out the equilibrium within the nations overly concentrated media tetrarchy, affecting the delicate balance of information from Murdoch to Stokes, to Buttrose’s ABC.
After this election, there is talk about how it was the demographic within the seats that had changed and not the politics of the Liberal Party. Some lamented the loss of the nation’s treasurer, who proved not to be as moderate as he might have thought. From managing the most money since WWII, to taking on the role to repudiate Dan Andrews until his government figured out lagging vaccine supplies, Josh Frydenberg got more airtime than most politicians. Some of it was protecting individuals and denying corruption, none of it was crossing the floor on the issues that saw his defeat on election day
This push to the right was born out of the removal of Turnbull and allowed by party leaders was allowed to proliferate without the critique of the assimilated ex-Fairfax assets now residing at Nine, allowing for a further disconnect, as subjective political agendas in the corporate press broke away from the realities of people in the electorates. Thislack of journalistic nuance contributed to the exit of Wilson, Sharma, Zimmerman, Falinski and Hammond, the loss of whom, will not be realised for some time.
Without the support of the party leader, its treasurer, or aid of the blue-ribbon media, these moderates were drawn into a right-wing political rearrangement — something uncompatible with the progressive electorates the party represented. The blue-ribbon media were too busy accepting this new form of conservatism and finding favorable angles to communicate it to us. Under the directives of a subjectively motivated former Liberal Deputy PM at Nine, they were blinded by winning at all costs, losing their ability to capture this historical political groundswell.
The blue-ribbon press also failed to take a stance on the ethical and moral considerations that had plagued this term of government: the failure of playing identity politics with Katherine Deves, Senator Amanda Stoker potentially removed after flag waving for anti-abortion, “net zero is dead”, the “Soylent Green” aspects of the Indue card, the dogged and overemphasised efforts on under cooked religious discrimination legislation by “moderates” that wouldn’t cross the floor on gay marriage, the failures in diplomacy from France to the Solomon’s and the damage of the floodwaters and fires, the aged care crisis and the hospitals, the cost of living and the refugees locked in permanent detention like stones on a cruel political checkerboard– that’s why six blue ribbon Liberal seats were lost in the election.
By denying the voice of outrage from its consumers in moderate Liberal electorates and swing seats, the blue-ribbon media ceased to act as a reliable conduit between the electorate and the political elite. Now, all that remains is a modern far-right ideological experiment that has hijacked one of the great political movements in the history of modern democracy. With the moderates all but finished, the new core of the LNP consider taking the party down a path of oblivion towards a small and diminishing base of denialism and far-right identity politics. It is a shame that the supposed gatekeepers of liberalism at the press were unable to articulate this profound shift, and as a result, they also risk sliding into obscurantism.
The pundits and talking heads in and around the blue-ribbon media talk about the death of the moderates, they almost act surprised, yet it is they who should also be held responsible for the shift to the right that is walking the party out into political wilderness. As we see the Liberal party losing the citadel seats once held by Menzies and Holt, without a seaside view in Sydney for the first time in history — the media may still be the biggest loser this election.
I still have some mates from uni/cricket days who are dyed-in-the-wool Liberals, and I still manage to have civil conversations with them, despite their political views. Whenever I mention the blatant bias of the Murdoch media, they tend to reply that this only counteracts the supposed Left-leaning work of the Fairfax newspapers, and the nefarious ABC. I try telling them they obviously haven't read the Fairfax papers in the last couple of years, as the shift to the Right has been pretty heavy-handed.
I remain gobsmacked that they printed anything as out-of-touch with reality and relevance, and as nauseatingly sycophantic, as James Massola's feature in the last week of the campaign on the 'lovely' Jenny Morrison. For those who missed it, he actually wrote that if only Jenny could meet 50.1% of voters, her husband would have a job for life. Perhaps James thought this was already the case, as he bade farewell to any journalistic credibility with that effort.
As for the ABC, I had noticed a couple of obvious Sky After Dark 'plants' in David Spears and the appallingly rude Fauzia Ibrahim, whose pro-Right bias was obvious. It wasn't til the campaign was underway that I realised how many commentators / interviewers on the ABC had either eagerly embraced the chance to become LNP cheerleaders, or at best felt obliged to join the media scrum in piling on Albo for any mis-step, while ignoring almost every gaffe or blatant lie from Scummo.
The years of Liberal moaning about the alleged Left-wing bias, the message from Liberal-chosen management and board members, not to mention the savage budget cuts, were all taking their toll.
It also struck me as absurd that allegations of large-scale, prima facie corruption were broken by 'Four Corners' and by YouTuber Friendly Jordies, only to be studiously ignored by the rest of the media. These were stories that would have at least been looked at (or more likely, thoroughly investigated) by the Fairfax newspapers in their prime.
When Albanese said at the start of week 3 of the campaign , post his Covid isolation , that he 'still had a mountain to climb' , I was certain he was referring to the bias he had to overcome in the mainstream media.
Their performance during the past six weeks has been appalling, day after day. From the proprietors down. That Murdoch, Stokes, Costello were repudiated along with the LNP at the ballot box on Saturday is telling. Their antics & hysterics have almost certainly gifted the ALP two terms of government.