Yesterday Bernard Keane blamed this piss-weak election campaign on you.
Judging by the website comments under Keane’s story, not all of you bought it. Including Mr Denmore:
… We’re suffering from bad and lazy journalism. There are no grumpy chiefs of staff anymore sending back reporters’ copy with the line ‘well what did you expect them to say, sonny’?
We have a total absence of decent policy debate because the media and our political leaders insist on treating the population like idiots — and because the people who advise the politicians are wet-behind-the-ears half-trained former journalists with no experience of the world.
Keane’s having another bite of the cherry today. Presumably lines such as “we’ve outsourced running the country because we’re too busy” will prompt more responses telling him to rack off and take some responsibility.
Because many of you remain convinced it’s the media’s fault. Including this commenter, buried down the bottom of the story — the mysterious, and yet appropriately named, Rupert:
Maybe we get the governments we deserve; I’m not sure we got the media we deserve. At least we can vote out governments.
Newspapers, TV channels, radio are all under massive pressure to increase their audience. Look at where the biggest audiences are to be had – Big Brother, Celebrity Chef etc. Combine this with fewer resources to actually research and write the content. And mix in the rise of the celebrity commentator used for their strident opinion pieces to attract numbers.
Is it any wonder the media is dumbing down? Until this is acknowledged/fixed we are doomed to be provided with ever increasing steaming piles of horse patooties for news. Lowest common denominator rules!
I agree with Rupert, and wrote something similar a while ago:
http://dragonistasblog.com/2010/06/20/democracy-by-lines-and-the-cult-of-celebrity/
Re: Rupert’s comment “Maybe we get the governments we deserve; I’m not sure we got the media we deserve. At least we can vote out governments.”
We probably do get the media we deserve. If we, the collective we, didn’t consume it, it would either change to suit our needs, or have already perished as a business model.
On the other hand while we can vote out a government, when we only have two very lacklustre choices, we must by default vote in the other option. When both parties play to the lowest common denominator, those who are above the most base of principles, are not given a choice, nor do they have the opportunity to vote in a government that they may deserve