Not a CABPOLL

This is not a CABPOLL due to a rare night off work. Though the election campaign is unavoidable at the moment, so here goes. Last night I caught Labor's policy launch on both radio and television. On ABC's Lateline I watched Labor sex-symbol, Julia Gillard using the term, ‘a Latham Labor government...’. There’s something catchy about the term, ‘Latham Labor’ - okay then, let’s just call him, ‘La La’.

La La looked good launching Labor's campaign, presidential even, as he stoked the fires for the True Believers. Given it’s been a long time between drinks, they might as well enjoy it while they can. I liked his direct method of delivery, without a tele-prompter it seemed...

By contrast I’ve noticed a decided hesitancy in the delivery of the Man of Steel’s (MoS) election message, currently on high rotation around the traps. Undoubtably he’s showing signs of age and weariness this election. One suspects he’s plagued by self doubt and Labor senses this, with its confidence growing every day.

As a humble cabbie, I’m worried for MoS. However as a publishing mogul, I’m salvitating at the prospect of a Labor win. This will create a target rich environment for easy blog kills of deluded Lefties, drunk on cheap legitimacy. The Left tend to make such willing victims, for anyone who can put two words together, by often exhibiting brainless passion. To be fair though, I understand their disappointment after so many years in the wilderness. They must have thought the halcyon years of Hawke/Keating would last forever.

A big fan of Cablog has bemoaned my regular reporting the views of Liberal voters. So I reviewed my CABPOLLs which reveal I've reported on 18 non-Government voters, as against 13 for the Government.

However, in one respect his inference is right - how come I report on so many Coalition supporters. Especially given a large percentage of my passengers are young to middle-aged adults, tertiary educated, in professional occupations, and living within 10-15 kilometres of the CBD. More often than not these passengers are left-wing Labor or hard-left Greens supporters.

But I’ve given up reporting those who sing from the same song-sheet, with its mantra of irrational arguments, selective history and plain Howard hatred. I could report on these ideologically-driven raves all night long. But for the purposes of CABPOLL I’m more interested in how policies impact on my passengers daily routine. Invariably, these impassioned raves come from middle-class passengers who are financially comfortable and doing quite nicely, thanks very much. You’ve heard it all before,

I can’t believe this fascist Howard regime. He’s fucked our country by sucking up to the US and disgracing Australia in the eyes of Asia. He takes credit for a booming economy which Keating set-up. He’s destroyed Medicare, screwed the poor, trashed the environment, wrecked the ABC....blah, blah, blah.

I tend to switch off and concentrate on the road when I hear terminology like, ‘fascist Howard’ or ‘joke in Asia’. Similarly, any Letter to the Editor which commences, ‘I was appalled...’, has the same effect. A good indicator of a worthwhile report is a view acknowledging the Government has done something right. Or a considered response demonstrating a tangible impact of Government policy. Take this example from today,

My car was in service for an overdue tune-up so I took the opportunity of quizzing the boss mechanic. For him there is a distinct difference between the parties, namely in the economy and health. Being a small business operator with a family and mortgage, he states a 2% movement in interest rates will cause havoc. Already he has noticed a drop in activity with the latest 0.25% interest rate rise. And in my cab, I might add.

He forecasts many people will lose their homes due to their being financially overextended. He estimates the average mortgage is $500,000 and a 0.25% rate rise equates to some $15-20 per week. For many Australian in this boat, who I might add don’t catch cabs, this is a big deal. Hence their perception Howard is better able to protect interest rates. For them, everything else pales into insignificance. Their home is all.

My mechanic related how his wife recently had a kidney stone infection. She went to the doctor who quoted $3000 for a 15 minute procedure. Despite having private insurance she was only able to claim 45%, and baulked at the offer. The doctor then suggested if she could wait till the following week, he would get her into a public hospital bed, some distance from them. Which she did and had the operation done on Medicare. As a result of this, my mechanic understandably expressed doubt over the health system.

As an aside, I quizzed his young apprentice mechanic over Howards offer of a $600 toolbox for apprentices. He was unsure of the benefit of this and as an example showed me a toolbox on his workbench. It was a very average PC brand set of 200 pieces costing around $800. He just shrugged and went back to de-dusting my brakes.

Both these examples of considered responses are of more value when conducting surveys of voters than ideological raves devoid of rationale or reality. If I voice or video taped passengers, as I can, readers here would soon be sick of the rubbish my queries often elicit. So yes, I do tend to report that which is informative and interesting, rather than those of broken records full of illogical rage.

And I do try and achieve balance with CABPOLL, despite my own personal views. Or as quality media outlets proudly state, Fair and balanced - we report, you decide !

Comments

[sandcrab]

Fair and balanced - we report, you decide ......

"There’s something poetic about the term, ‘Latham Labor’ - okay then, let’s just call him, ‘La La’."

"The Left tend to make such willing victims, ..............., by often exhibiting brainless passion."

"This will create a target rich environment for easy blog kills of deluded Lefties, drunk on cheap legitimacy"

"But I’ve given up reporting those who sing from the same song-sheet with its mantra of irrational arguments, selective history and plain Howard hatred."

"A good indicator of a worthwhile report is a view acknowledging the Government has done something right"

Fair and balanced - we report, you decide is the mantra of the Fox news service, widely regarded as the most right-wing, biased, news service on the planet.

[adrian]

Good one Sandcrab, knowing you'd bite I wrote this just for you ! And Ymmot, come-in spinner !

[sandcrab]

Look out ymmoT, it's a right-wing trap for us gullible "deluded Lefties"; he doesn't mean a word of what he is saying - he must be an agent provocateur for the liberal party in a cunning disguise as a cab driver !

[ymmoT]

Hi Adrian and Sandcrab,
OK, I couldn't resist the lure, but thanks for the warning Sandcrab!
Ade, thanks for conceding that you do filter the CabPoll as I suspected. Nothing wrong with that as long as we know. You certainly could teach a few of your ideological colleagues about openness and honesty!
In that spirit, I concede that Howard has run the economy pretty well, and that is a major strength for him. He has thrown all that away since May with his panic, though. I don't think his 'spend-a-thon' is believed by people to be real - some remember his 'fistfull of dollars' campaign in 1977, when as treasurer he took it all back straight after the election, then delivered the HIGHEST OFFICIAL INTEREST RATES IN OUR RECENT HISTORY - not the highest mortgage interest rates (that record goes to Keating), but the highest 'official' bank rates of over 22%. What a guy!
You should warn your 'selected' passengers that Howard is now the guy that is putting low interest rates at risk. I mean, Howard can't have it both ways - he says Labor always spends more than the coalition, thereby putting upward pressure on interest rates. Then he proceeds to spend way more than Labor, but that won't affect interest rates! WTF?
Mate, I think you are right that Howard is getting and looking very worried. As a 65 year old, we expect him to look tired - but he looks worried, almost panicky! That right shoulder is gonna start twitching uncontrollably very soon.
But I'm glad you are salivating at the prospect of a Latham Labor government. It will be fun!
Would I be right in saying that it has been you and your cheersquad on the right that have been the easy targets for Sandcrab and myself (and others) over the last few weeks with your mindless passion? But don't worry, we will understand that you thought the halcyon days of the Howard government would last forever, and you did everything you could to help it continue, even filtering responses you disagree with from your CabPoll.
We have mindful compassion!
Cheers

[ymmoT]

PS - Ade, could you get Yobbo to answer my questions I put to him in CABPOLL 4? He seems to have gone quiet. Maybe you could answer them, too?

[adrian]

Ymmot, you'll find Yobbo via my Blogroll... Remember, I'm just a humble blogger - you're just a humble commentor ! Go in peace, my son !

[Yobbo]

I answered your questions Tommy.

[David Crawford]

Hey, Crab-crotch, erh, Sandcrab, you wrote:

"Fair and balanced - we report, you decide is the mantra of the Fox news service, widely regarded as the most right-wing, biased, news service on the planet."

You have two choices:

1. Provide an absolute, concrete, proof of one example of Fox News bias.

2. Admit you are, to put it in the words of Phoebe from the TV show "Friends", that you are my bitch.

Your choce.

[sandcrab]

To David Crawford

How could I resist such an intellectual challenge !

Try typing these two sentences (in quotes) into a search engine - google gives this result:-

"fox news bias" - 592 hits
"fox news accurate" - 2 hits (and they were both being sarcastic.)

Among all the other criticism you will find this about the Fox News ".....executive memo distributed electronically each morning, addressing what stories will be covered....."

CHARLIE REINA was a FOX News producer for six years.

"From CHARLIE REINA: So Chris Wallace says Fox News Channel really is fair and balanced. Well, I guess that settles it. We can all go home now. I mean, so what if Wallace's salary as Fox's newest big-name anchor ends with a whole lot of zeroes? So what if he hasn't spent a day in the FNC newsroom yet?

My advice to the pundits: If you really want to know about bias at Fox, talk to the grunts who work there - the desk assistants, tape editors, writers, researchers and assorted producers who have to deal with it every day. Ask enough of them what goes on, promise them anonymity, and you'll get the real story.

The fact is, daily life at FNC is all about management politics. I say this having served six years there - as producer of the media criticism show, News Watch, as a writer/producer of specials and (for the last year of my stay) as a newsroom copy editor. Not once in the 20+ years I had worked in broadcast journalism prior to Fox - including lengthy stays at The Associated Press, CBS Radio and ABC/Good Morning America - did I feel any pressure to toe a management line. But at Fox, if my boss wasn't warning me to "be careful" how I handled the writing of a special about Ronald Reagan ("You know how Roger [Fox News Chairman Ailes] feels about him."), he was telling me how the environmental special I was to produce should lean ("You can give both sides, but make sure the pro-environmentalists don't get the last word.")

Editorially, the FNC newsroom is under the constant control and vigilance of management. The pressure ranges from subtle to direct. First of all, it's a news network run by one of the most high-profile political operatives of recent times. Everyone there understands that FNC is, to a large extent, "Roger's Revenge" - against what he considers a liberal, pro-Democrat media establishment that has shunned him for decades. For the staffers, many of whom are too young to have come up through the ranks of objective journalism, and all of whom are non-union, with no protections regarding what they can be made to do, there is undue motivation to please the big boss.

Sometimes, this eagerness to serve Fox's ideological interests goes even beyond what management expects. For example, in June of last year, when a California judge ruled the Pledge of Allegiance's "Under God" wording unconstitutional, FNC's newsroom chief ordered the judge's mailing address and phone number put on the screen. The anchor, reading from the Teleprompter, found himself explaining that Fox was taking this unusual step so viewers could go directly to the judge and get "as much information as possible" about his decision. To their credit, the big bosses recognized that their underling's transparent attempt to serve their political interests might well threaten the judge's physical safety and ordered the offending information removed from the screen as soon as they saw it. A few months later, this same eager-to-please newsroom chief ordered the removal of a graphic quoting UN weapons inspector Hans Blix as saying his team had not yet found WMDs in Iraq. Fortunately, the electronic equipment was quicker on the uptake (and less susceptible to office politics) than the toady and displayed the graphic before his order could be obeyed.

But the roots of FNC's day-to-day on-air bias are actual and direct. They come in the form of an executive memo distributed electronically each morning, addressing what stories will be covered and, often, suggesting how they should be covered. To the newsroom personnel responsible for the channel's daytime programming, The Memo is the bible. If, on any given day, you notice that the Fox anchors seem to be trying to drive a particular point home, you can bet The Memo is behind it.

The Memo was born with the Bush administration, early in 2001, and, intentionally or not, has ensured that the administration's point of view consistently comes across on FNC. This year, of course, the war in Iraq became a constant subject of The Memo. But along with the obvious - information on who is where and what they'll be covering - there have been subtle hints as to the tone of the anchors' copy. For instance, from the March 20th memo: "There is something utterly incomprehensible about Kofi Annan's remarks in which he allows that his thoughts are 'with the Iraqi people.' One could ask where those thoughts were during the 23 years Saddam Hussein was brutalizing those same Iraqis. Food for thought." Can there be any doubt that the memo was offering not only "food for thought," but a direction for the FNC writers and anchors to go? Especially after describing the U.N. Secretary General's remarks as "utterly incomprehensible"?

The sad truth is, such subtlety is often all it takes to send Fox's newsroom personnel into action - or inaction, as the case may be. One day this past spring, just after the U.S. invaded Iraq, The Memo warned us that anti-war protesters would be "whining" about U.S. bombs killing Iraqi civilians, and suggested they could tell that to the families of American soldiers dying there. Editing copy that morning, I was not surprised when an eager young producer killed a correspondent's report on the day's fighting - simply because it included a brief shot of children in an Iraqi hospital.

These are not isolated incidents at Fox News Channel, where virtually no one of authority in the newsroom makes a move unmeasured against management's politics, actual or perceived. At the Fair and Balanced network, everyone knows management's point of view, and, in case they're not sure how to get it on air, The Memo is there to remind them."

cheers from sandcrab

[aguycalledwhatsisname]

Whew,

I thought i was the only one that thought Julia Gillard was a babe. Can i come out of the closet now?

whatsisname

[adrian]

Whatsisname, you can now consider yourself,

OUT AND PROUD !