To anyone watching the actual results coming in, The Sydney Morning Herald’s early contention that Premier Dan Andrews’ Labor government had clinched a “narrow” victory in Saturday’s Victorian election might have been baffling.
Even at this premature stage, it was abundantly clear Labor was to hold its majority, with the Coalition picking up well under 30 of the 45 seats required. It was in keeping with the strange disconnect between the media narrative around the election and what the reality turned out to be.
Stairgate and Bikegate
In early November, the Herald Sun set the tone for the relevance and accuracy of much of the state’s election coverage by zapping back to life two dead stories like a conspiracy-poisoned Dr Frankenstein. First was the relentless re-coverage of a 2013 car accident that involved the Andrews family and a young cyclist — the whole thing has already been dredged up once before in 2017, and there was nothing new to report.
Then, even weirder, came “stairgate”, a front-page piece heavily alluding to theories that the public hadn’t been told the whole truth about how Andrews sustained a serious back injury in March 2021. Originally been spouted in far-right anti-lockdown circles, these first flowed into the mainstream via opposition treasurer Louise Staley.
Beyond all that was, of course, the general Hun of it all:
The polls
The other major theme across the board was the desperate attempts to drum up a narrative that the election was going to be close, despite pretty consistent evidence it wouldn’t be. The possibility of a minority government was brought up constantly, as well as the theory that among the slew of seats the government was in danger of losing was Andrews’ own of Mulgrave. As psephologist Kevin Bonham points out, this is hardly the first time that pearl-clutching at the thought of a hung parliament has proven way off the mark.
A few days out from the poll, the Nine papers argued that the major parties were “neck and neck” in a story about polling that showed Labor was leading 53-47 on 2PP. Eagle-eyed viewers may recognise this as far from neck and neck, and which may explain the whole “narrow victory” thing.
The aftermath
Of course, in Australian journalism, it doesn’t matter if you get it wrong — that’s just more content. The Age savvily quoted former ALP state secretary Nicholas Reece from Andrews’ election night celebration, who said a loud minority of vitriolic anti-Dan sentiment “created a distorted picture in the media … that this election was going to be close”. So that’s what it was.
But this is nothing compared to the “Sky after dark” fringe, whence much of that distortion came. Andrew Bolt responded to Labor’s comfortable win by arguing Andrews had been “fatally wounded” and should quit.
Former Tony Abbott chief of staff Peta Credlin, who had recently produced a documentary called The Cult of Daniel Andrews, spent Sky’s election coverage looking as though her soul was leaving her body — while over on Outsiders, which increasingly resembles a self-help group more than a political panel show, Rowan Dean, so furious he could barely get a sentence out, chalked the result up to “woke Liberals” abandoning conservatives.
And who could deny the massive and catastrophic jump to the left represented by the preselection of Moira Deeming, Renee Heath, Timothy Dragan and Michael Piastrino? Who but a bunch of bed-wetting quasi-socialists would direct their preferences to figures like Catherine Cumming and Tylere Baker-Pearce?
Which put us in mind of the words of former Liberal strategist Tony Barry, who spent the ABC’s election night coverage visibly seething at the state of the Liberal Party: “[It’s] beginning to look like Jonestown. They keep drinking the Kool-Aid”.
Credlin’s sold her soul a long time ago. Bolt obviously didn’t realise that Andrews won his own seat on first preferences. Sky ‘news’ is a scam.
Peta Credlin … spent Sky’s election coverage looking as though she was reliving that time many years ago, when her soul left her body, never to return – there, fixed it
It’s a niche meme (from pre meme times) but sanpaku describes the grim visage the unKredlinable shoves at world.
It means ‘3 whites’ around the iris which bodes ill, very common in mugshots of the serial killer community.
I didn’t know PC had a soul…..
Didn’t we see something like that in one of the Harry Potter movies?
Whatever.
Utter brilliant metaphor.
That photo makes it look like her outdated OS is still trying in vain to update to a more modern version and the wheel just keeps spinning
The last journalist has left the building by the time she’s slithered on.
What!!! she had a soul, surely you jest
Quelle surprise!
What soul?
Why anyone takes her seriously when she has boasted about being an opportunistic liar for political gain over the survival of civilisation is beyond me.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/carbon-tax-just-brutal-politics-credlin/3dsmh3o6a
‘Media got it wrong’, is only meaningful if you actually have a media dutifully reporting. With rare exceptions, the ‘media’ is actively campaigning. We are badly served.
The Victorian people got it ever so right notwithstanding what the rotten media gotten up to 😉 Sorry for your loss John Robinson but hey – it’s the people’s republic of Victoria!
You could say the same about the numerically illiterate commentators talking about a surge to independent candidates as their vote went backwards and they likely went from 3 seats to zero.
Dan Andrews recieves solid vote of confidence just isn’t as an exciting an angle as the teals or the whackjobs on the right I suppose
“Andrew Bolt responded to Labor’s comfortable win by arguing Andrews had been “fatally wounded” and should quit.”
Should not Bolt recognise that he, and his ilk, are the ones “fatally wounded” by the rejection of their politics and should quit?
I can’t imagine Bolt ever having that moment of reflection.
The real question is how long will News Corp keep throwing good money after bad in fuelling failed ideologically-driven campaigns that seek to pull the LNP even further to the Right and in doing so make it even more unelectable? Is there even a coherent corporate strategy here? Shareholders might one day wonder…
perhaps it is an internal tax scam!
I often wonder about Bolt’s articles. It seems to me that he writes incredulous articles full of spite and vitriol deliberately to get a response. Surely he doesn’t believe some of the dribble he writes.
The media spin in the lead up to the Vic election reminded me of the “Red Wave” stories before the mid terms in the US.
It’s the latest strategy of the right wing media barons, now the results aren’t falling their way anymore – maybe they can just reverse-engineer reality by reporting the outcomes they want and maybe that will magic up a victory for them.
It’s a desperate ploy that smacks of panic – the equivalent of the kid who closes his eyes, blocks his ears and goes “i’m not listening i’m not listening!” – but as their precious power and influence disintegrates in the current zeitgeist, it’s the best they can do. The best that is, if you don’t include actually reporting the news honestly and without bias – but I’m trying to be realistic here.
But who knows how long the zeitgeist will last? Now is the time, while the majority of voters are done with this dishonest, cynical, imported Tr umplican/M urdoch style news reporting, to do something about the media concentration regulations in Oz and declaw these public nuisances for good.
yes – now that Albanese can see how toothless Newscorp have become, maybe he’ll finally find the backbone to tackle Murdoch head on
Thank you Crikey, Friendly Geordies, Pearls and Irritations. Michael West Media and many others! For keeping informed with reason and logic during this turbulent Media phase.