Australia’s press gallery are full of it. They virtually never discuss policies, and spend their lives being obsessed with trivia and made up nonsense (gay marriage, the republic) that nobody else in Australia or the real world has ever given a stuff about either way.
The press gallery actively HATE any discussion of policies, as this takes attention away from themselves, their ‘contacts’; and their little world of pointless personality based gossip; which (when all is stripped away) is the only thing they have to offer.
However, there is one issue the press gallery,as a group, do write about about, and unite upon. Immigration. By unquestioningly cheering on limitless numbers, the press gallery can delude themselves they are progressives while in fact overseeing a vast transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich (the latter group including, coincidentally of course, all of their proprietors and advertisers). And if anyone complains about it, well, there’s always the ‘R’ card….
Here are two predictable pieces by press gallery members. Remember, before the internet, stuff like this would just be published without any pushback (unless another hack disagreed with them, which never happens with immigration):
- George Megalogenis piece for fairfax link is here.
- Troy Bramston in the Australian (may be paywalled) is here.
Both are in the standard press gallery tradition of pretending to be all wise and progressive by slavishly praising immigration, when in fact the consequence of it mean a screwed middle and lower class, on lower wages, worse infrastructure and locked out of the housing market, while all the benefits accrue to (purely coincidentally of course) their rich proprietors and advertisers.
Both pieces have the usual condescension toward ordinary people- they are all stupid, and possibly racist, they can’t possibly understand the complexities of immigration, we’re all benefiting from it really (well press gallery journalists and their proprietors are, not so much everyone else) etc etc blah blah.
If you get a chance, read Bramston’s bio, its hilarious how he values himself based on all the interviews with star politicians he’s conducted- note its not about the policies- but, as always with the press gallery, its about the personalities.
In fact, maybe, ironically migrants COULD be brought in to replace press gallery journalists? This might finally change a few press gallery minds. The migrants require the following skills:
- Be completely innumerate (in particular they must not understand the concept ‘per capita’)
- think as a group
- be immune to facts and issues
- focus solely on gossip (and their proprietor’s interests)
Actually, just kidding. Nobody’s that dumb!