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ABC News 24: when too much non-news is never enough

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While we contemplate the tragedy that has befallen the once great party of Billy McMahon, let us also consider what’s on Bill Shorten’s to do list today. Pop into the office late, check emails, go to question time, make merry, flip through soft furnishing brochures, have a long lie down.

That’s pretty much all Bill Shorten has to do right now. I would add Labor’s tactics yesterday to suspend Question Time and bring forth a vote of no confidence in the Turnbull government were terrible. It would have been a better exercise to drag up Liberal frontbenchers who had voted for the challenger, Peter Dutton, and asked them questions of the “Does the current Prime Minister enjoy your full support?” type. Almost certainly the questions would have been ruled out of order, but it would have made for great theatre.

Look, it’s not all bad news. At least Malcolm Turnbull won a poll for the first time yesterday in what, 18 months or more.

For now, it is enough to know that voters hate what they are seeing. The next Newspoll promises to be such painful reading for the Liberal Party that the numbers may just as well have been toted up by the Marquis de Sade. Thank you, Sir. May I have another?

In times of great tumult, if you are like me you will turn not just to print and online reports but to television for that additional sense of immediacy. I have followed the travails of the Liberal Party, leading to this reckless act of self-destruction on Sky News because it offers the best political coverage on television bar none. It does so without ostentation. It is political news done on the smell of an oily rag. The team led by David Speers is well connected, often reporting on SMS communiques received from members of the beleaguered party in real time.

Full column here.

128 Comments

  • BASSMAN says:

    It has just been announced that as of today, the Liberal Party will commence each day in Canberra with a press release to announce who has been elected its leader for that particular day. DING!
    I would run an ALP election poster: featuring a gigantic face of Dutts hovering over some innocent kids … with the words ‘ You wouldn’t let this person run a child-care centre now would you so why would you let him run the nation?

  • Carl on the Coast says:

    Yes, given that we now have a virtual 24 hour “news” cycle, much of the previously unknown information being broadcast at any given time is not “news”. Apart from the occasional on-the-spot report about a neighbor’s cat being stuck up a tree, being broadcast by a breathless, immaculately clothed and coiffed, junior newsperson, the “news” nowadays is largely adulterated political propaganda. And much of the so called “breaking news” is difficult to distinguish from breaking wind.

  • Milton says:

    I reckon Love Island 24/7 would be a winner.

  • Penny says:

    I don’t agree JTI, I’m thoroughly enjoying ABCNews24 at the moment 🙂 I am a bit of a news junkie, but when I’m in Australia I don’t have access to BBC, CNN or Al-Jazeera and there is no way I would watch SkyNews despite the fact that David Speers is an excellent journalist…..I follow him on Twitter. Let’s face it no-one is going to watch or listen to ABCNews 24 or Newsradio all day and all night, but it’s what I’m watching right now. If people don’t like the ABC they don’t have to watch, but I for one rarely watch or listen to anything else…..except SBS.

    • JackSprat says:

      Bit of an echo chamber Penny 🙂

      And I rarely watch any TV and never the news except occasionally SBS.

    • Jean Baptiste says:

      Onya Penny. But TV News! Never. Radio OK ish. Theres heaps of great world wide up to the minute news on dozens of web sites. I insist , READ the news. It engages the critical brain and you can press your own pause button to review at any time.

      ABC is OK to a point but it is great to read other nations news services take on world events. Never let them trap you in front of that effing box. It’s the work of the devil it is.

  • Henry Donald J Blofeld says:

    11th November 1975, Mr. Insider a different set of circumstances but the same result – a new PM. 43 years ago now and remember it so well, RIP Gough Whitlam.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8Tr7PFKb6U

  • Carl on the Coast says:

    Don’t know why Labor has got their knickers in a knot over parliament being adjourned today. The lefties have long advocated for a shorter working week.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/…/working-four-day-week-hours-labour

    • Bella says:

      C’mon Carl you must know your LibNats have lost all credibility.
      Turncoat can’t see past his own inflated ego & ineptitude, traitorous Dutton torments human beings & couldn’t care less about kids rotting in off-shore detention camps, Morrison can’t stop fast-talking to cover his own lies, Bishop won’t get the numbers because the far right loathe having a women in a more powerful position than themselves & Abbott, well, that guy really is a bullying, repugnant, untrustworthy parasite who has brought his own party down to rock bottom by his childish vendetta. A pox on all their ambitions. Call an election now.

  • Trivalve says:

    That’s even more succinct than Smoke’s effort yesterday. Did it get moderated? 🙂

  • Trivalve says:

    Ok. They shut it down. We don’t have a government apparently!

  • Carl on the Coast says:

    Vic rail travelers will be livid in not being able to watch the most exciting unfolding news of the century on Sky News. Andrews and Allan have a lot to answer for. Its enough to lose them the election.

  • Henry Donald J Blofeld says:

    Scott Morison to run for the leadership, Mr. Insider the field looking like a Gulargumbone Maiden Handicap imho.

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