Sideshow: Dumbing down democracy

Sideshow: Dumbing down democracy
By Lindsay Tanner
Reviewed by John Barich

THIS is an interesting book dealing with an issue vital for democracy. A mal-functioning media does not help the citizen vote wisely and the politicians act in the national interest.
Tanner does pick up on some key aspects of the problem.
However, the three major shortcomings are:
1: He does not seem to have heard of ‘Get Up’ which had a vital role in the 2010 election by building up the Green vote which prevented Tony Abbott from winning seats in Victoria. It may have contributed to the Greens winning Melbourne – previously held by Tanner for the ALP.
2: He lets off the hook the key political media grouping in Australia by omitting to analyse it in depth.
The Canberra Parliamentary Press Gallery has enormous influences on political reporting and it operates as a pack led by one or two personalities. I witnessed it in action in the 1986 Budget lock-up when Treasurer Keating practically dictated the next day’s pro-Government headlines.
3: Repeated quotes from Al Gore – a convicted falsifier of facts – and lack of incisive analyses of TV bias. Sydney Morning Herald journalist Paul Sheehan in his “Electronic whorehouse” gives ample documentation of how TV, especially the ABC, distort, censor and propagandise. The media has been known as the Fourth Estate but the juvenile stunts of politicians it chooses to highlight does not help it fulfil this role.
Giving prominence to Prime Minister Julia Gillard and US President Barack Obama playing hand-ball in the Oval Office is hardly conducive to responsible behaviour.
Tanner’s emphasis on the print media lets TV off the look.
It is this medium which encourages playacting while leaving little data for subsequent analysis. He seems to accept this but does not offer solutions.
He correctly draws attention to the fact that journalists no longer report the facts but seek to interpret every bit of news.
The media can brutalise, “cheapen, distort and sometime falsify” the message.
He is very sceptical of polls. “Media outlets employ a number of standard devices to create plausible stories from minimal substances. One favourite device is the dubious opinion poll.” Tanner accepts that “Party Conferences have also turned into highly staged media events” but does not go on to demand that they return to the days of being the conveyor belt of policy making.
He could have done something about when he, Rudd, Gillard and Swan ran the country.
His treatment of the work of pressure groups is minimal.
Without producing any evidence he focuses on the National Civic Council and ignores the effect of business groups, unions, Emily’s List, drugs being legalised, pro-life activists and homosexual lobbies.
Tanner correctly draws attention to story selection by the media. An interesting case is: The West Australian, between February 2010 and February 2011 published seven articles in favour of same-sex marriage.
One article in favour of marriage as provided for in the Marriage Act was not published as an article but reduced to a letter to the editor, and placed on page 76 with two key paragraphs deleted.
Tanner lists a series of politicians who seek out appearances on high rating programmes but does not mention the long running Rudd/Hockey duet on Sunrise.
The most revealing statement in the book is his belief that people, including politicians “seek to do things they expect will be rewarded and to avoid doing things they know will be published.”
This is crude and leaves no room for idealism based on principle or even enlightened self interest.
All in all the book is worth reading as a primer for further research into the effect of a mal- functioning media on civil society.
The impact of Hollywood on young people needs to be analysed as does freely available pornography.
The over-sexualisation of young people impacts adversely on family formation and stability.
Most Australians believe in God while most journalists do not.
This distorts their capacity to report as documented in Blind Spot – when journalists don’t get Religion (Oxford University Press), edited by Paul Marshall, Lela Gilbert and Roberta Green Ahmarson.
John Barich is president of the WA branch of the National Civic Council