Maybe it was seeing that painting of the soaring eagle that spoke to me and told me I had been chosen for such a time as this, but — what the hell — someone’s got to say it out loud: journalists, just stop it.
You are fiddling while democracy burns.
Last week a television reporter bellowed at Anthony Albanese, demanding he recite the six points of Labor’s NDIS platform. And when Albanese stumbled, the reporter’s Channel Nine colleague crowed that this was “journalism at its best”. Yes, really.
So, while journalists are being imprisoned and intimidated in China, Hong Kong and Russia, and while Maria Ressa fights the raging spread of fake news in the Philippines and is arrested and charged for criticising President Rodrigo Duterte, some Nine bozo thinks that tripping up the opposition leader is Journalism At Its Best.
Thus we can see how far Australian journalism has disappeared up its own fundamental.
Oh, hang on. It actually went a bit further. That very same day, on Q+A, the ABC’s David Speers pursued Albanese over NDIS-gate like a terrier. Just wouldn’t let it go, even though it had less than zero to do with how you would govern a country. (Ha! Or would it? Was Albanese now “gaffe-prone”? That subject itself was to be dissected on ABC journo forums, which operate like some weird circle jerk.)
As Speers pursued Albanese down several rabbit holes, I could swear I heard Mike Moore’s old Frontline executive producer egg on the host with a “Go get him, Tiger”.
That didn’t happen. But what I did hear next day from an old ABC colleague — as NDIS-gate reverberated across the national broadcaster — was this: “They’re not sure if the Liberals might get in and they’re terrified of a night of the long knives.”
Well, if that’s what a whiff of fear does, then for goodness sake don’t have them telling truth to power in say… oh, just about any Middle Eastern dictatorship.
Whether belligerent, frightened or in a nauseating pursuit of fame, the band of journalists covering the federal election have made themselves the story in the worst possible way. The big political parties might be facing their own watershed. Journalists are staring oblivion in the face.
A study released last week by the journalists’ union, the MEAA, showed a dramatic shift in the profession’s standing, with 86% of journalists surveyed considering that public trust in journalism had worsened over the past 10 years.
Where to begin with the problems? Lack of resources. Fewer staff. The warping effect of social media. Sure, journalism is an industry but it doesn’t exist as a single entity that could be reformed — even though it is now in desperate shape.
A royal commission can’t fix journalism as it might fix aged care or veterans’ services. Journalists are going to have to save themselves. Here’s how they could start.
First, understand that the Australian government has gone a long way down the road of destroying pillars of democracy. The rate of destruction of accountability and judicial bodies and the government’s hostility to transparency and truth are actually undermining Australian democracy. That this destruction is being led by the prime minister should weigh heavily on what journalists do.
Second, use your platform to represent the public interest rather than to gather 10-second promo material for your network or tweetable content to build your miserable social media profile. Here’s an example of some genuine public interest areas you could pursue:
- growth of poverty and homelessness (not a great promo, I know)
- housing inequality
- use of public money for party political purposes
Third, come to terms with the fact that if there is a fall in trust in journalism — and with it an alienation from politics and a loss of interest in maintaining democracy — then that is happening on your watch and is directly your concern. If a journalist is asking stupid questions, stand up and call them out. The standard you walk past, blah blah.
Fourth, do the hard work of journalism — find facts and prosecute a case. Don’t imagine that gotcha questions are Journalism At Its Best. You are further alienating public trust and helping charlatans with the gift of the gab into positions of power.
And a special note to TV hunks and hunkettes: it’s not enough to impersonate someone who is authoritative.
Here’s a handy “how to” guide on being a journalist, in case you haven’t seen it: it’s the MEAA Jounalist Code of Ethics.
Maybe you should ask Albo if he can name all 12 points. Can you?
Indeed, the whole political journo cabal need a good cleaning out (with very few exceptions). At this point I’m just not having it anymore with excuses that ‘they have a mortgage to pay’ or ‘they are good journo’s but their editors’.
Thank you David H and agree Heartshunter. Richard Cooke in The Monthly called out the Murdoch press and the alleged journos working for this democracy destroying company in May 2019. His excoriation of News and its employees , the disease afflicting which has spread to other MSM (Nine notably) and even the ABC, is worth reading again:
https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2019/may/1556632800/richard-cooke/news-corp-democracy-s-greatest-threat
I left News Corp in 2019 after 20 years as a code-respecting and fourth-estate valuing journalist. The last few years were excruciating for me. I left before my conscience killed me and I have watched with a mixture of horror, despair and anger as the far right wing bias has worsened, now thoroughly infecting every aspect of everything News publishes – to the extent I now believe nothing they put out. Nothing.
Do the people working for these corrupted companies care about any of this? I don’t think they do, so calling on those apparently willing to write or broadcast (and put their names to) all this distorting garbage, all this mis and disinformation, to step up and defend proper journalism is a waste of time. Nope. We need the MEAA to embark on a high profile advertising campaign promoting the Coke of Ethics, we need Labor, Green and Independent politicians to push back with alacrity and call out the bias, we need Rudd’s Royal Commission and we need truth in political advertising laws. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, thank Dog for Crikey et al continuing to uphold ethical journalism.
**Code of Ethics
Very well said, Megsays! I agree with your analysis, and hope someone is listening to implement ALL David’s points. It is outrageous when we, the general public, cannot believe anything coming from the MSM…including the ABC.
What price democracy???
Murdoch > last hope > last choice for any genuine journalist.
You would have to be desperate.
Agree whole heartedly and good on you.
My husband and I don’t even watch the news any more, just clickbaits and downloaded gotcha moments.
We listen to music instead.
I think we just have to stop calling most of them journalists or journos – they’re reporters who like inserting themselves into the ‘politics’ they duly report – but I agree about cleaning out the cabal. If only that were possible. We do have some good ones (Crikey, Saturday Paper, the Monthly), but not in the ‘big’ media. There are various mercenary and self-serving explanations as to why they seem to follow the political line of their editors and employers, but no one mentions simple osmosis or like-mindedness. A lot of them selected themselves. The absorption of the views and values of the organisation they work for is a bit like novice estate agents – de rigeur – driving around in expensive German cars and underquoting prices. They’re at about the same rung on the ladder of respect.
Cap’n I would not even call them reporters. My wife’s uncle who as a young reporter traveled the Pacific with General Macarthur and went on to become an editor. He was famous for his now sexist persistent exclamation “Facts Sony, Facts” as opposed to opinion.
Unfortunately his ghost still prevails amongst family and leads us to be biased against current media hacks.
We need stringent media ownership and diversity and truth in news reporting and political ads with heavy penalties for breaches. Fat fines and revoking the offenders licences to print, broadcast or otherwise publish for no less than six weeks. Hit them in the hip pocket.
Rupert, Stkes, Rhinohide and Costello will run for cover.
Stokes.
Feel your frustration and agree with the article re shortcomings of journalists, who are anyway variable in talent, skills and knowledge. But do not discount the editors, apart from proprietors, they are paramount. Journalists are told what to look for, what the line is, and it is pretty quickly conveyed to them if they are not producing what is wanted. This produces self-censorship and second guessing as well as encouraging some types of journalism over others. And the employing of some over others.
Most journalism in Australia is commercial. Editors are interested in what appeals to their perceived audiences so they can hold and grow them, to be on-sold to advertisers. That doesn’t mean you don’t have good editors who want good journalism but that the commercial imperative hangs over them. Editors who have an audience interested in critical journalism (like Crikey) have an easier time.
Proprietors are the other imperative hanging over editors. In the case of News to the point where journalism is just an occasional product with propaganda being the main output.
The ABC is not commercial but it is lacking in a solid foundation, financial and otherwise. So it is often reduced to following similar commercial imperatives to grow audience, aping and following commercial media agendas and overly cautious of offending its “proprietor”. Journalists are much more likely to be courageous when they have the solid backing of their editors.
Thanks AP 7 for your excellent and measured comments.
Journalists are like any employee, working to buy a home, raise a family , They are now doing the bidding of their masters. Stopped buying newspapers until after the election. thank goodness for independent press such as Crikey.
Thank you. This needed to be said. I’ve been appalled at the air time and column inches devoted to such stupid so-called gotcha questions. Why oh why aren’t these journalists asking serious questions about the issues that absolutely are important for voters – after doing their own homework on each party’s policies about such issues first. Where are the pointed and relevant questions to candidates – and Morrison/Albanese et al on these issues and how they intend addressing them, funding them, and rolling them out. It’s called background research and is surely something would be journalists learn in their uni courses. Or do they really only bother to rely on the self-congratulatory and self-serving puff and nonsense that are each side’s media releases?
Brilliant. Everything we’ve been screaming at them for the last 3 weeks in one handy summation.
Past 3 weeks – I’ve been screaming it for at least the last 3 years
Dumb young TV journos (and not just females get the job cos they are cute) are a problem.
Despicable and stupid Chris Uhlmann “Liar”non-question about whether AA “lied” re his memory of NDIS 6 points.
Not the same as lying to Macron about a multi-billion dollars submarine contract.
Should have been sacked for that question.
If a repeat – he should go.
But isn’t that what he’s paid to do – by ‘Costello Inc.’?
Exactly, Uhlmann will be promoted for that trash, wherein lies the problem here.
Thankfully Donna, Uhlmann has already announced he is retiring at the end of the year. I once respected his work as being right down the middle. That all disappeared when he went to 9. As for his ranting about The Guardian being “post Christian”…what on earth does that mean?
Is journalism now to only be done in the context of Vatican 2? Spare me!
Yes that was a ridiculous question as was the definition of a woman question. They were trying to get gotchas, not information for the voters. Shameful!!
Uhlman is himself a liar; check out his savaging of green energy when the SA power system went offline due to super-violent storms. I have never found his ‘reporting’ to be other than a mostly thinly-veiled apologia for anything cons.
I wonder whether the treatment of Emma Alberici might explain the reticence of ABC journos to stick their heads above the parapet. It’s a real shame.
A shocking loss to us all. Now, there’s a journalist! Lots of arguments about what she wrote, which to my mind was essentially, inter alia, that company tax does not determine decisions made by company directors.
To write such heresies is worthy of being thrown to the lions*. Particularly when lowering taxes IS in and of itself, tax reform (anything else could actually be structural and quite possibly effective and hence quite unacceptable).
Lowering taxes is no such thing. Lowering taxes is lowering taxes. That’s all. And we’re about to feel the very high price for this profound stupidity. The problem in Gods’Own penal quarry, is that we’ve never really had journalism (except maybe Brian Toohey and Mungo MacCallum. (Did he really drink Reschs? How?).
The precursor to today’s Murdoch press was a self-declared propaganda sheet to counter the very excellent work of a then trade union based paper. Sound. Popular. Widely read. Terrifying for the people who are simply out for the plunder.
Which neatly brings us back to today. Most of the people at today’s pressers don’t even want to be journalists. Their task, in which they clearly take some pride, is to make any alternative to plunderers look illegitimate. That’s their job. They’re agents. They’re not journalists.
*It is also said that Alberici wouldn’t “take direction”. Now, this is a big problem particularly from someone without a penis. The temerity of it! The sheer how dare she! Ms Alberici failed the most important test: “whatever you do, do not think for yourself.” I so miss her.