Interesting. The Australian Financial Review reports that “the Prime Minister’s minders ordered the media not to report that he had taken leave…” in the middle of a national bush fire emergency in which, in two weeks, over half of Australia’s yearly carbon emissions have been released, while refusing to talk to fire chiefs, or even recognising that there was a problem…. ‘Its not climate change. Its not climate change. How dare you suggest its climate change. How disrespectful is that….’
Weirdly, you might have thought the AFR would be a bit annoyed about this instruction, but they are calmly and kindly understanding. It was to protect the PM from “churlish criticism” and “undergraduate outrage on social media.”
Yes , it’s an “unremarkable holiday” and “everyone needs to take time out to recharge and reconnect with family,” especially a “hard-working Prime Minister” who is just like us, “Just a suburban dad.”
The problem with this, is that we all know that if a Labor PM bailed out on a major emergency, or if people were told not to report that, then the AFR would be howling for that PM’s head.
This is especially the case when we know his office at least twice denied the PM was in Hawai’i. They lied, but that is apparently not a problem.
Its Trump 101 reaching Australia.
Another minor thing, is that the instruction/request, assuming it existed (and why would the AFR, of all people, report it if it had not happened to them?), appears to assume that the media would largely treat the whole issue gently, and that the news would be suppressed. They assumed that, with the mainstream media onside, as usual, there would be no problem. There would also be no problem from the Labor Party, who have been consistently gentle about the Coalition. This was largely correct as the Right receives protection as standard.
However, a few outlets reported the issue (The New Daily, being the most vocal and breaking the story as far as I know) and it was taken up by ordinary people who then made it news through the derided social media, and they made it news in precisely the way that the Government and the PM, did not want it to be news. Some media clearly tried to play the issue down, others initially ignored it, and then under pressure from letters and fuss, decided to see it as worthy of discussion.
Whether this will be the change point in media representation of the government, in the way that Tony Abbott’s attempt to knight Prince Phillip and block gay marriage became a change point, it is too early to say. After all Abbott had to raise an huge amount of resistance before that change happened. But the politics of this is interesting to consider.
[I’m not linking to the AFR, because why give them clicks?]
Tags: climate change, Disinformation
Climate, technology and chaos Blog 
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