After so many years of importing US culture war talking points and conspiracies, the Victorian Liberal Party could have set a template for the Republicans to follow. As The New York Times sketches here, following the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, baseless conspiracy theories made the hop, skip and jump from far-right fringe websites to mainstream media via senior figures in Republican politics.
But in a far more low-stakes way, Victorian state politics has its own version of this. In March 2021, while on holiday with his family, Premier Dan Andrews slipped on a staircase and sustained a horrific back injury.
Far-right politics researcher Cam Smith told Crikey that “within hours” of the news breaking of Andrews’ accident on March 9, right-wing anti-lockdown conspiracy groups on Telegram were posting content along the lines of “I hope he was really bashed”. Soon, this morphed into people in the same groups speculating on whether he had, and before long the same circles were posting that as though it were an actual rumour: “I heard he was bashed”.
Other conspiracy groups on Telegram posted the “strange trend” of politicians needing time off around this time (former federal minister Greg Hunt was hospitalised around the same time and Christian Porter and Linda Reynolds were also taking leave for completely different reasons), ultimately concluding it may have something to do with adverse vaccine reactions.
Contributing to this were conspiratorial Facebook groups and pages — some with tens of thousands of followers — where conspiracies about Andrews’ injury percolated beneath the surface of the mainstream for months.
There it might have stayed, but for Louise Staley. On June 10 2021, the then opposition treasurer and holder of the most marginal seat in the state put out a press release asking 12 questions of the recovering premier, including:
- What is the address of the house where the accident occurred, and who owns it?
- Who called the ambulance and what time did it arrive?
- Were the police contacted and did they attend?
- Has Daniel Andrews been interviewed either informally or formally by the police in relation to anything that occurred over that long weekend?
As Michael Bradley noted in Crikey at the time, these questions alleged nothing but implied a great deal. Staley, for her part, was last seen briefly sharing the baseless rumour that a peaceful protester had been shot dead in Victoria during COVID lockdowns.
And over the weekend, in one of those moves typical of the post-Trump era — somehow both shocking and drearily predictable — “stairgate” was resurrected on the front page of the Herald Sun, in dutiful campaign mode ahead of this month’s state election.
The piece, again, alleges nothing in particular but notes, “Neither the premier nor his office have ever fully detailed what he was doing in the days before the incident or exactly where it happened.” And that, “Several alternative theories about the fall have been put forward since the incident, mostly asserting that Mr Andrews was intoxicated and it happened at a function on the Monday afternoon or night.”
Beyond that, the piece reveals… that it was quite a small staircase the premier supposedly fell on, and rich lister Max Beck didn’t play golf with the premier that weekend.
This may end up being a turning point in Australian politics: the online conspiracy fringe finding its talking points on the front page of a major city’s biggest-selling paper.
This is beyond disgusting. It makes an enquiry into the concentration of media ownership vital.
One of the most insidious ways of denigrating somebody without actually accusing them of anything untoward is to ask loaded questions which imply that something wrong has been perpetrated. Very often there is no desirable defence against this. Intelligent people should recognise that this practice reflects badly on the questioner rather than the intended victim.
Good comment, but you are implying that intelligent people read the Herald Sun.
That was an accident.
A direct copy of the Paul Pelosi smear and how we are being brought into line with the MAGA mobsters/Tucker Carlson/Sky Noise After Dark debasement.
A familiar classic is “Have you stopped beating your wife?”, a direct question where either direct answer has to admit the damaging premise, and any other response gives an impression of evasion, which looks poor no matter how justified.
But there are infinite variations. And any reporting or discussion of such questions being asked tends to increase the effect of the smear, but simply ignoring them often fails to prevent the damage being done as they are repeated elsewhere and the perpetrators are free to continue unchallenged.
Perhaps in a better world with improved media standards the actions of someone like Louise Staley would be reported differently. Instead of simply publishing her questions and waiting to see any response from her targets, reporters might have asked Staley to clarify what point she was trying to make and what evidence she had for it. If she could not or would do that, the subsequent media reports would be all about Staley trying to mount a baseless or unsubstantiated smear campaign. That would be respectable journalism serving its readers. But in this world the media usually facilitates such campaigns, either for ideological reasons or for simple profit.
I never started. How about you?
That respondent is probably the best that can be done. It still leaves the respondent open to being the subject of reports headlined something like “Cato in Wife Beating Scandal, Issues Denial”. Much depends on the attitude of the publication. With News Corp those it dislikes are attacked even if the stories have to be invented, but those it favours are carefully protected. There was a splendid example of the latter back in June when The Times had a scoop reporting PM Boris Johnson tried to hire his now wife Carrie (AKA Carrie Antoinette) as his chief of staff when he was foreign secretary. Just after the first edition of the print paper came out, editor John Witherow was contacted by the Johnsons who moaned about the story upsetting Carrie. Witherow immediately pulled it from all later editions and it never made the online paper.
This type of “reporting” is not just restricted to Newscorp publications either. It’s just a sign of how low journalism has fallen across the board.
There’s no equivalence. Yes, other publications do it, but not as often and as extremely as News Corp.
Bollocks. Sensationalist headlines are the name of the game these days in what passes for “journalism”.
Yes, and News Corp headlines are more extreme, divisive and utter bollocks than those of any other publication
Or both.
Didn’t Rebel Wilson have a similar issue?
Funny that Charlie invokes the soul of Cam smith to add weight to the story. It
didn’t need it.
“the online conspiracy fringe finding its talking points on the front page of a major city’s biggest-selling paper.”
Yes – beginning as a trickle and finishing as an avalanche exposing all those who were complicit
on both sides of politics.
complicit in what and when?
We can only hope that this Republicanisation of the Australian right continues. A defeat at the forthcoming Victorian election may help accelerate the process as they become a party comprised entirely of RWNJs and Conservative Christian zealots (they appear well on the way). Eventually the moderates who are left (pardon the pun) will probably give up in disgust, join with the Teals, and create a new party of the centre-right. If Q&A is still on the air we will be treated to the wonderful sight of Teena McQueen dancing a jig of delight live on air as she celebrates the removal of all the remaining lefties from the party. At the election after that the moderate teal party will wipe the remnants of the Liberal Party from the scene and if Q&A is still on air then we will be able to see Teena McQueen wailing that this happened because they didn’t go far enough right for the “base”.
Students of Australian political history will no doubt be aware that this continuous cycle of birth, rightward drift, implosion, self immolation, and eventual re-birth closer to the centre has a been a feature of the Australian right since even before Federation. The great mystery is not that this is happening to the Liberal Party, but that it has taken so long to happen.
Too true. All of which makes one wonder why on earth John Pesutto would want to lead them!!!
All sorts of reasons. The main one would be the one that applies to all Parliaments, to whit in the Victorian Parliament there are 88 members of the lower house, one of whom is Premier. The other 87 all reckon they would do a better job, and want the chance to prove it. Pesutto has previously felt that feeling and clearly wants a second chance to prove it. He also obviously can’t wait for the Moderate-Teal party to arise so he’ll take the only chance he can get, which is at the head of the Republican Party of Victoria.
That’s funny, reading “Teena McQueen” and “Australian politiical history” in the same paragraph.
Even if he was drunk, what’s the scandal? It was on private property, and nobody got hurt apart from himself.
Which one? StairGate or the car crash?
Dan’s wife was driving, so Dan’s condition is neither here nor there.
Apparently.
Sounds very QAnon to me…………
……..I take it you are a true believer.
Hmmmm………..
I really didn’t expect to find QAnon believers on this site.
I suppose they’re a bit like cockroaches………..
……..they get in everywhere.
Oh boy, looks like we have a cooker in our midst.
Guilt by association is the crime.