Post by pim on Feb 4, 2014 15:22:24 GMT 11
Today's Capital Hill program isn't up on the News 24 website yet but I watched it at about 1pm and was appalled. It concerned the SPC issue and the Abbott Government's latest own goal. You all know the background so I won't traverse that ground. The talking heads were a Lib from Qld with an Italian name who has some sort of junior role to Joe Hockey. He was the standard bearer and apologist for the Abbott Government, and the Labor talking head was a Sydney backbencher with an Anglo name. but for the life of me I can't recall what her name was. No matter! ABC News 24 grabs these people at short notice. Doubtless each side rosters them on, gives them some talking points and tells them to get in there and bat for the team. So far, so news cycle. That's not what this is about, however.
There's no doubt that with the viability of this very important part of the Australian food industry at stake, not to mention what it means for people in places like Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley, plus the Abbott Government's appalling mishandling of the issue, this should be a very difficult issue for the Abbott Government and that Capital Hill interview should have been a chance for the Labor woman to do some very heavy hitting and for the Liberal guy to be put very much on the defensive.
It goes to media "savvy", or how to behave when there's a battery of TV cameras staring at you and you're on the spot fielding questions and trying to put one over the other guy. What did this woman do? She laughed.
Nothing wrong with laughter per se. We're told it's the best medicine. And it can be cruelly, devastatingly effective when it's properly targeted. Ask any comedian. Way back in 1983 election campaign, Malcolm Fraser was panicked into likening Labor to "reds under the beds" which was exactly the opening that Bob Hawke wanted. He lampooned Fraser mercilessly over it and he had all of Australia pissing themselves laughing with him at Fraser. Note that well: laughter works when you get people to laugh with you against your opponent. In Bob Hawke's case I felt it was the final nail in Fraser's coffin. No doubt about it, laughter was used by Hawke very strategically and with devastating effect against Fraser.
Now look at someone like Julia Gillard and laughter. She had a nervous little giggle that she'd come out with whenever she was asked a question. It was a truly awful giggle and fortunately someone must have got to her and told her "Julia FFS do something about that giggle. It's turning people off and distracting them from your message." She never quite managed to get rid of the giggle but she managed to get it under some sort of control. It was one of her many liabilities. Julia was never a good media performer and that's part of her tragedy.
Now today on Capital Hill: the Liberal talking head played a fairly straight bat, behaved himself and only spoke when he was asked a question except towards the end when he interrupted the Labor talking head. It isn't my intention to canvass the arguments that each of them marshalled. The Labor woman had a good message and I liked her line that Labor didn't need a scare campaign (in response to the Liberal guy's accusation that Labor was running a scare campaign about SPC) because "who needs to run a scare campaign when you've got Tony Abbott?". But here's the problem and it's where she scored an own goal: if her response to the Liberal guy's accusation had been delivered deadpan, in the way that someone like Greg Combet would have delivered it, it would have kneecapped the Liberal and made him look desperate. Instead she bloody well laughed so much that the laughter became the answer.
Think about it for a moment: they're supposed to be talking about thousands of jobs, the destruction of families, livelihoods and the devastating effect on Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley and the Labor talking head is laughing so much she risks becoming incoherent?
Labor needs to stop reacting to Tony Abbott as if he were some sort of freakshow - I mean, he is a freakshow, but he's a freakshow that Labor's appalling and disgraceful political incompetence helped catapult into the Prime Ministership of a country with a $1½ trillion economy ranked 12th in the G20 league table. Forget about reacting by "look at the freakshow" laughter. They used to do that to George W Bush in the US and yet the guy involved his country in debilitating warfare, trashed America's reputation as a country based on freedom, democracy and the rule of law, fostered religious obscurantism and a voodoo suspicion of science as some sort of subversive conspiracy, was prepared to allow US citizens to suffer in the face of devastating natural disasters because the National Guard with their equipment had been diverted to service his wars, and was helpless in the face of the greatest economic crisis to hit the US and the world since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Not only that, he's given fringe dwellers and people who really should have been certified and very closely supervised experience in national politics to the point that they've taken over the Republican Party and, even though a progressive Democrat has taken the White House since Bush, the fruitcake fringe have been emboldened and empowered by the Bush years to fight Obama tooth and nail on everything so that on every issue and on every front Obama faces apocalyptic political warfare.
And yet for a long time people refused to take Bush seriously and their reaction was laughter and "look at the freakshow". This is always a mistake. Bush ended up with two terms and did a lot of damage. Here in Australia we had the example of Joh Bjelke-Petersen. He was considered a clown and a figure of fun outside Qld. But within Qld it wasn't that funny and over 20 years he totally corrupted public administration, the political process and especially the Qld police force which he turned into his personal goon squad. This guy wasn't at all funny. Ask people who were around in 1975.
And now we have Tony Abbott.
Labor should get over "look at the freakshow" and start to strategise. "Look at the freakshow" will only play into the hands of the Abbott Government and ensure them at least 10 years in office to work their damage.
There's no doubt that with the viability of this very important part of the Australian food industry at stake, not to mention what it means for people in places like Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley, plus the Abbott Government's appalling mishandling of the issue, this should be a very difficult issue for the Abbott Government and that Capital Hill interview should have been a chance for the Labor woman to do some very heavy hitting and for the Liberal guy to be put very much on the defensive.
It goes to media "savvy", or how to behave when there's a battery of TV cameras staring at you and you're on the spot fielding questions and trying to put one over the other guy. What did this woman do? She laughed.
Nothing wrong with laughter per se. We're told it's the best medicine. And it can be cruelly, devastatingly effective when it's properly targeted. Ask any comedian. Way back in 1983 election campaign, Malcolm Fraser was panicked into likening Labor to "reds under the beds" which was exactly the opening that Bob Hawke wanted. He lampooned Fraser mercilessly over it and he had all of Australia pissing themselves laughing with him at Fraser. Note that well: laughter works when you get people to laugh with you against your opponent. In Bob Hawke's case I felt it was the final nail in Fraser's coffin. No doubt about it, laughter was used by Hawke very strategically and with devastating effect against Fraser.
Now look at someone like Julia Gillard and laughter. She had a nervous little giggle that she'd come out with whenever she was asked a question. It was a truly awful giggle and fortunately someone must have got to her and told her "Julia FFS do something about that giggle. It's turning people off and distracting them from your message." She never quite managed to get rid of the giggle but she managed to get it under some sort of control. It was one of her many liabilities. Julia was never a good media performer and that's part of her tragedy.
Now today on Capital Hill: the Liberal talking head played a fairly straight bat, behaved himself and only spoke when he was asked a question except towards the end when he interrupted the Labor talking head. It isn't my intention to canvass the arguments that each of them marshalled. The Labor woman had a good message and I liked her line that Labor didn't need a scare campaign (in response to the Liberal guy's accusation that Labor was running a scare campaign about SPC) because "who needs to run a scare campaign when you've got Tony Abbott?". But here's the problem and it's where she scored an own goal: if her response to the Liberal guy's accusation had been delivered deadpan, in the way that someone like Greg Combet would have delivered it, it would have kneecapped the Liberal and made him look desperate. Instead she bloody well laughed so much that the laughter became the answer.
Think about it for a moment: they're supposed to be talking about thousands of jobs, the destruction of families, livelihoods and the devastating effect on Shepparton and the Goulburn Valley and the Labor talking head is laughing so much she risks becoming incoherent?
Labor needs to stop reacting to Tony Abbott as if he were some sort of freakshow - I mean, he is a freakshow, but he's a freakshow that Labor's appalling and disgraceful political incompetence helped catapult into the Prime Ministership of a country with a $1½ trillion economy ranked 12th in the G20 league table. Forget about reacting by "look at the freakshow" laughter. They used to do that to George W Bush in the US and yet the guy involved his country in debilitating warfare, trashed America's reputation as a country based on freedom, democracy and the rule of law, fostered religious obscurantism and a voodoo suspicion of science as some sort of subversive conspiracy, was prepared to allow US citizens to suffer in the face of devastating natural disasters because the National Guard with their equipment had been diverted to service his wars, and was helpless in the face of the greatest economic crisis to hit the US and the world since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Not only that, he's given fringe dwellers and people who really should have been certified and very closely supervised experience in national politics to the point that they've taken over the Republican Party and, even though a progressive Democrat has taken the White House since Bush, the fruitcake fringe have been emboldened and empowered by the Bush years to fight Obama tooth and nail on everything so that on every issue and on every front Obama faces apocalyptic political warfare.
And yet for a long time people refused to take Bush seriously and their reaction was laughter and "look at the freakshow". This is always a mistake. Bush ended up with two terms and did a lot of damage. Here in Australia we had the example of Joh Bjelke-Petersen. He was considered a clown and a figure of fun outside Qld. But within Qld it wasn't that funny and over 20 years he totally corrupted public administration, the political process and especially the Qld police force which he turned into his personal goon squad. This guy wasn't at all funny. Ask people who were around in 1975.
And now we have Tony Abbott.
Labor should get over "look at the freakshow" and start to strategise. "Look at the freakshow" will only play into the hands of the Abbott Government and ensure them at least 10 years in office to work their damage.
