It’s federal election time again.
I am sick and tired of professional talking heads pushing their tried and trite spiels with faux passion. That mainly includes politicians and commentators. My annoyance is further jaded by being long in the tooth-I’ve heard most of it all before.
I am sick of listening to talking heads blurring truths, or worse, promoting belief over fact. I am tired of combative discussions driven by bigotry and mendacity being allowed to run free by lazy moderation and without correction.
We, the people, do not have to accept this.
I am sick of people saying there is no difference between the major parties.
Yes there is!
Yes, each political party and its fellow travellers play one side of the corporate coin. It is the reality of our system.
It is us, the people without lobbyists, who wrought change when we can through our electoral system when government policy cuts through the manufactured popular consensus.
Occasionally there is individual leadership that breaks through, usually from the labor side* such as the Whitlam government implementing policies with imagination blowing away years of stagnation, capitalising on tory confusion and challenging our various masters .
The short period of Whitlam left us with a legacy, more than just hope for a better society, by establishing the structural bones for a fairer society.
Whitlam’s legacies have been whittled away over the past 3 decades by neoconservatism and a debased news media re-establishing the corporate narrative disrupted by his government. Think Rex Conner and his “economic nationalism and dreams of massive state investment in energy projects” i.e. owned by the people, not corporates just for starters.
Once again we are in desperate times requiring brave journalists, not only relying on social media warriors and independent media outlets.
The men and women working in the mainstream media can choose and call out official fake narratives for the sake of our nation’s governance, and I am going to say it- for the sake of all our grandchildren.
The prescient exclusives posted on Twitter and independent web sites, usually run contrary to the accepted mainstream narratives of the time. People with expert knowledge and or journalistic skills contribute to our news cycle outside the restrictions of our corporate masters. Their investigative work exposes the degrees of cowardice of other journalists working within our corporate media causing a defensive response
Many resort to the “balance” argument in their reporting to salve their consciences and to feed their mortgages even if the facts say otherwise.
Some resort to deriding and belittling individuals on Twitter, particularly those who buck the current narratives with well researched threads that have proven to be right in the end… think Independent Australia and Jacksonville.
It is a hard road for professionals.
That said, I repeat- please lift your game for all our sakes.
And yes, the allusive “truth” is always on the winning side-all you need to do is sort fact from opinion by challenging talking heads spruiking nonsense and lies to protect truth.
Thanks……Here’s hoping.
Note*. The short lived LNP government led by John Gorton actually stepped outside its corporate domain by fostering an independent film industry. But we all know what happened to him, and the times were changing.