What would a Dutton Liberal leadership mean for the Liberals and the country?

[Not Important]

Because he was Chairman of the Board not Editor of the newspaper.

so you don't think he exerted much influence in that capacity, t.p?

 

[The Punter]

so you don't think he exerted much influence in that capacity, t.p?

I think if he had, half of Nick McKenzie's stuff wouldn't have been printed. Anyway, that's not how a good corporate board works. It sets strategic direction and leaves operational decisions to management. Costello left the Nine Entertainment Board because of poor behaviour outside of his work on the board.

So no, I don't think he exerted that kind of influence, and as far as the media wars are concerned, criticism of The Age, SMH and also the ABC (from both sides) is totally overblown.

 

[Saint]

I think if he had, half of Nick McKenzie's stuff wouldn't have been printed. Anyway, that's not how a good corporate board works. It sets strategic direction and leaves operational decisions to management. Costello left the Nine Entertainment Board because of poor behaviour outside of his work on the board.

So no, I don't think he exerted that kind of influence, and as far as the media wars are concerned, criticism of The Age, SMH and also the ABC (from both sides) is totally overblown.

If you don't think the editorial direction of the old Fairfax media changed with the changes at 9, you weren't paying attention. It went from centrist/journalism to a wanna-be Newscorp publication, clickbait and pro-business.

I can understand why commercial media has become all right-wing. They can't be posting stories about increasing corporate tax rates or overseas businesses when the only organisations left advertising in them are corporations and overseas-domiciled businesses.

 

[The Punter]

If you don't think the editorial direction of the old Fairfax media changed with the changes at 9, you weren't paying attention. It went from centrist/journalism to a wanna-be Newscorp publication, clickbait and pro-business.

I can understand why commercial media has become all right-wing. They can't be posting stories about increasing corporate tax rates or overseas businesses when the only organisations left advertising in them are corporations and overseas-domiciled businesses.

The merger of Nine and Fairfax happened in 2018. The Fairfax newspapers started going clickbaity well before that, mainly due to that being the way of the world if ad revenue is still relied upon (not you, Guardian or ABC).

 

[Flogwater]

The merger of Nine and Fairfax happened in 2018. The Fairfax newspapers started going clickbaity well before that, mainly due to that being the way of the world if ad revenue is still relied upon (not you, Guardian or ABC).

Thank you: this is valid to a point, but seems to oversimplify the situation re. The Age/SMH papers. Saint’s summary is closer to describing the true position.

I scan The Age every day for free as part of being informed of events. The decline in the overall quality of the paper, and the increase in its clickbait character, from the 2018 Fairfax/Nine merger has been astonishing. The paper is only a little better than The Australian. A dismal newspaper featured in an epic Harvey Norman catalogue.

Almost all of the regular journalists and other contributors are terrible. There are only a few regular journalists who produce consistently quality work (even if I disagree with their reasoning or conclusions at times). Nick McKenzie tends to only work on special features (some of which are long-running) and is published only occasionally. As a result, he should not be regarded as part of the normal, nine-to-five nature of the paper. But I think his work is generally of a high standard.

There are some real shocker ‘freelance writer’, ‘writer’ or ‘contributor’ columnists who churn out frequent pieces, mostly on social or political issues, that are generally tone-deaf, entitled or just plain foolish. Many names come to mind.

The corrupting influence of the Liberal Party on the paper has been a key factor in The Age’s decline since 2018. I suspect this influence has affected the choice of some appalling recent editors for Nine publications, including the incumbent at The Age and the dismal Bevan Shields at the SMH.

 

[Rotayjay]

When Rupert Murdoch finally stops polluting the Earth with his presence and dies, nothing much will change. The fact that newspapers aren't widely read anymore doesn't matter.

The print, TV, radio, online and social news media of Australia is entirely captured by the Coalition except for little pockets like the Guardian, ABC and SBS. That is partly why Labor has spent only 10 of the last 30 years in power federally (1994-1996, 2007-2013, 2022-present).

 

[Gralin]

The ABC have an article today listing all the properties MPs own.

Not much depth to the research though, Dutton comes in at 1. Clearly they haven't included companies and trusts.

Yeah trusts are the loop hole

 

[Power Raid]

who is surprised dutton has lasted this long as opposition leader. I don't understand how he is electable let alone a shot at being PM.

 

[kickazz]

who is surprised dutton has lasted this long as opposition leader. I don't understand how he is electable let alone a shot at being PM.

It's similar to marketing warfare where market leaders do not attack challenging brands, they fortify their own position.

Same here, as a general rule, as an incumbent you don't attack the opposition. It can lead to a grubby shit fight that gets you dirty. Better off showing how good you are at your job

But there is a time and a place where is effective. Keating did it effectively against Hewson. I recon a sustained attack on Dutton could work.

 

[Gough]

It's similar to marketing warfare where market leaders do not attack challenging brands, they fortify their own position.

Same here, as a general rule, as an incumbent you don't attack the opposition. It can lead to a grubby shit fight that gets you dirty. Better off showing how good you are at your job

But there is a time and a place where is effective. Keating did it effectively against Hewson. I recon a sustained attack on Dutton could work.

Queensland is a dry run for the next Federal campaign, lot's of scaremongering and next to no actual policy because if the Libs came clean with what they really want to do they're completely unelectable.

 

[The Punter]

Thank you: this is valid to a point, but seems to oversimplify the situation re. The Age/SMH papers. Saint’s summary is closer to describing the true position.

I scan The Age every day for free as part of being informed of events. The decline in the overall quality of the paper, and the increase in its clickbait character, from the 2018 Fairfax/Nine merger has been astonishing. The paper is only a little better than The Australian. A dismal newspaper featured in an epic Harvey Norman catalogue.

Almost all of the regular journalists and other contributors are terrible. There are only a few regular journalists who produce consistently quality work (even if I disagree with their reasoning or conclusions at times). Nick McKenzie tends to only work on special features (some of which are long-running) and is published only occasionally. As a result, he should not be regarded as part of the normal, nine-to-five nature of the paper. But I think his work is generally of a high standard.

There are some real shocker ‘freelance writer’, ‘writer’ or ‘contributor’ columnists who churn out frequent pieces, mostly on social or political issues, that are generally tone-deaf, entitled or just plain foolish. Many names come to mind.

The corrupting influence of the Liberal Party on the paper has been a key factor in The Age’s decline since 2018. I suspect this influence has affected the choice of some appalling recent editors for Nine publications, including the incumbent at The Age and the dismal Bevan Shields at the SMH.

Nick McKenzie's work takes time and therefore can only be published occasionally. It'd be great if there were more like him, but I think we should be grateful one major newspaper has at least one journo of his ilk who is able to do what he does without fear or favour to either side, considering the worldwide undeniable trend to the clickbaity stuff which only those publications who are publicly funded or funded by donations are able to resist.

Also worth pointing out that the ones funded by donations tend to reflect the worldview of those doing the donating. It's just another way of paying for the journalism you want to see.

TL;DR: media criticism through a partisan lens is massively overblown. Especially around here.

 

[kickazz]

Nick McKenzie's work takes time and therefore can only be published occasionally. It'd be great if there were more like him, but I think we should be grateful one major newspaper has at least one journo of his ilk who is able to do what he does without fear or favour to either side, considering the worldwide undeniable trend to the clickbaity stuff which only those publications who are publicly funded or funded by donations are able to resist.

Also worth pointing out that the ones funded by donations tend to reflect the worldview of those doing the donating. It's just another way of paying for the journalism you want to see.

TL;DR: media criticism through a partisan lens is massively overblown. Especially around here.

For daily events and such online is the way to go, and it is hard for media to be profitable in that area without adding clickbait and other crap to their sites.

Proper journalism that takes time and effort is more interesting, and it is this that I believe still has a real place in print media. Magazines/weekly papers are still worth paying for in this regard, and I wish more people still did this. You feel mentally a lot better after reading some interesting, in depth articles about diverse topics than you do after scrolling through a whole lot of fluff.

An added bonus is there is no such thing as the dreaded comments section - well, only "letters to the editor" and they are actually worth reading and not just filled with dumb one liners.