One of the things which amazed me during the 2022 election campaign was ‘who is Albanese?’ or ‘people don’t know who Albanese is”, both of which were almost repeated as a mantra at the time. It was put about by the Liberal Party, the Murdoch media, as well as the Daily Cut and Paste1,2.
This is reminiscent of the drivel put about by the Liberal party and the Murdoch media (again) during the 2019 election when the then leader of the opposition was Bill Shorten. The mantra at that time was ‘Bill Shorten is unpopular’, and it made its way throughout the media, and therefore the voting public3. A self-fulfilling prophecy.
The ironic thing about the most recent incarnation, that people don’t know who Albanese is, demonstrates that so many journalists are not capable of doing their job. In an election, isn’t it a journalist’s job to inform people who Albanese is, rather than simply repeat Liberal talking points? Talk about a lack of self-awareness. The more I look at the profession of journalism in Australia, the more I am dismayed by its general lack of ability and lack of awareness of what they are saying.
In the run-up to the 2022 election, people may not have known who Albanese was, but they knew precisely who Morrison was, with or without the presence of capable journalists.
Sources
Unless I’ve mistaken your intent, two things I can’t agree with you on BA.
(1) The ALP deliberately followed the small target strategy with Albanese until the campaign started and they could no longer do so. I’m sure had they a Hawke or Keating that would not have happened. The reasonable media already knew him intimately and I presume they had broadly concluded that wysiwg with him and that no amount of digging would expose the sort of inane hyperbole, gross hypocrisy and outright lying which they regularly wotnessed with Morrison.
(2) I think (well, I hope) you’ve significantly over-estimated the general public’s knowledge and assessment of Morrison’s true character and behaviour. They caught glimpses when his flaws were openly exposed with covid, women, and maybe carparks, but most wouldn’t have a clue about the numerous hypocrisies, the REAL standards of his office, the lack of integrity and basic honesty, the multitude of rorts carried out under his watch etc. If they were both more interested and better informed the election result would (should) have been a landslide. Instead we still got a close tpp outcome.
That huge numbers of Australians understood Morrison and his greasy Ministry’s behaviour well yet still voted for them in droves doesn’t bear thinking about. It’s only a short leap from there to what we’ve been seeing in the USA (and to a lesser extent in Britain) for the last half-dozen or so years. I hope we’re better than that but I suspect not.
Jon,
Yeah, you do misunderstand me. While not all the media spouted the ‘who is Albanese’ bullshit, enough of them did to piss me off. I know that they adopted the small target approach, but that is mainly to do with policy, not with Albanese’s character or his principles. They do this as they are in constant fear of the Murdoch media railing against any perceived slight against the oligarchy and white supremacy. In general, I have overestimated the public’s ability to understand Morrison’s lack of ability and his lack of principles. This is in part because I am only concerned with those who are at least engaged to some extent. Those disengaged (I know some, as I am related to them) are beyond redemption as they are the sort of people who think Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson are intellectuals.
It is not surprising that there were (and almost certainly still are) people who didn’t know about Albanese. There are a large number of Australians who are clueless about almost everything.
Mark,
Yep. It is worrying. However, I tend to look on the bright side. There are two things which give me some modicum of hope for the future: The decline in religion is proceeding fairly quickly; and the younger generation are a lot more worldly wise and politically engaged than I was at their age.
The MSM achieve their aim of not telling the truth beautifully. Many I know thought that Morrison and co was doing an good job, not aware of all the scams. Many of the rich don’t care. The same people also thought Boris and Trump were fantastic.
For the sake of democracy, MSM needs a shakeup. Even the ABC has become a little gun shy. BLOT, MWM, etc should be compulsory reading in schools.
Warren,
I had a ‘discussion’ with someone of that ‘Morrison did a good job with the pandemic’ ilk. I pointed out a few truths to them which were counter to the lies of Morrison and the Murdoch media. I made sure they understood they were being conned.