It would be nice to think that today, this bright new 28th of February, that we could finally put this whole ALP leadership challenge thing behind us. It would be nice to think that now, perhaps, just perhaps our government could get on with the business of actually governing. (Well, after the inevitable Cabinet re-shuffle, at least.)
Or that the media would actually report it if they did.
Yes, I’m going to talk about media bias here, but not in favour of either side of politics. Oh no. The media bias that most disturbs me is the media’s bias in favour of itself. More particularly, in favour of its own laziness.
Sure, our political journalists are a mixed lot, with a wide variation in aptitude for the job, personal integrity and willingness to put in the hard yards. But it’s hard not to get the impression that those possessing the latter two qualities in sufficient quantities to actually do their jobs are in the minority.
Why bother doing actual investigative journalism when it’s so much easier to write another meaningless piece of piffle about the latest opinion polls? Why bother to check the veracity of press releases or soundbites when it’s so much simpler to simply report them as received truth? Why bother to look at what the governement’s actually doing when it’s so much lazier to just continue speculating about potential leadership challenges?
Oh well.
At least they won’t be able to use that last one for awhile…