Comments on: OK, let’s talk about opinion polls

By: No Crap App: w/b 18 Feb 2013 | No Crap App

No Crap App: w/b 18 Feb 2013 | No Crap App — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 22:53:28 +0000

...] Charles Richardson: OK, let’s talk about opinion polls [...

By: MJPC

MJPC — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 20:30:51 +0000

Shepherdm you have said it in one. The lastest opinion poll that has launched a million words by our incompetant media was from 1400 persons!
Can anyone on this esteemed blog tell me if they have ever been contacted for a poll? No one I have ever spoken to has told me that have been polled.
Polls are the best friend lazy jouno’s ever had. If the LNP’s get in in September, it won’t be due to policies, it will be as a result of Poll driven voting.

By: Hamis Hill

Hamis Hill — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 07:40:55 +0000

So the whole of the voters in a federal election are supposed to follow the lead of a couple of thousand individuals?
A new brand of “democracy”, surely.
But democracy will be whatever the parliamentary press corps say it is?
Help! Democracy has been abducted!!

By: JMNO

JMNO — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 04:11:29 +0000

I have been thinking about why the coverage of federal politics and the federal government is just so hysterical, obsessed with trivia and drama whilst the media that press gallery staff work for can cover other areas of public life much better.

The Age in Melbourne may run misleading and sensational headlines about state politics but it does manage to cover politics and policies in a more measured and comprehensive way than its woeful and partisan coverage of the federal sphere.

We have not seen journalists promoting burning-at-the- stake for Baillieu for breaking all his election promises except those to the Country Party. Baillieu is down in the polls. No-one at The Age has written a headline article telling him to resign. And this is as it should be. His actions and inaction has been reported, the populace know about it, we can make our own judgements and don’t need denunciations from the roof top. And our capacity to judge their performance doesn’t get drowned out by hysterical overreaction.

We also get reportage and analysis of state issues – roads, rail, education, hospitals etc.

We get none of this at the federal level from the Press Gallery, just polls and personality politics.

Is it because the press gallery are all huddled together in the fetid air of parliament house away from their colleagues at their paper/TV station, feeding off each other, focussed on the other inhabitants of the House and away from journos interested in other subjects?

Is it because the link between federal policymaking and its implementation is not so easy to follow, results are not so immediate and tangible? If a state govt doesn’t build a road, everyone knows about the congestion. There’s a direct link.
Is it because this is a reformist government which does things and therefore makes mistakes and the journos at parliament house don’t know enough about policy-making and implementation to understand this.

A good example is the BER. The Age ran prominent stories on probably every disaffected school in Victoria and never reported on the majority of schools pleased with their new buildings. The mistakes/stuff-ups which were a minority were highlighted giving the impression of a faulty program whereas overwhelmingly it was a success – which was also never reported.

Is it because over time governments have increasingly exercised tighter control over access to media so that journalists can’t talk to public servants and become better informed about the policy issues?

Something else?

By: shepherdmarilyn

shepherdmarilyn — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 03:56:09 +0000

Opinion polls are not the frigging gospels brought down from the mountain.

Altogther too many words and trees die to report the opinions of a 1,000 or so people on a given day about nothing much.

Enough, no more frigging polls, talk of polls, the use of the word poll.

By: tonyfunnywalker

tonyfunnywalker — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 03:46:05 +0000

I agree with Andybob – there have been some very important policy issues released by the Government which are lost due to the phobia with polls and leadership issues.

By: Peter Hull

Peter Hull — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:39:35 +0000

Just have to watch the press conference of health minister Tanya Plibersek. Not one question about health or her announcment. Journalists only had questions about the latest SMH poll. Shows the current quality of journalists. Work experience kids would put them to shame.

By: Andybob

Andybob — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:20:33 +0000

Its quite simply laziness. Doing research and writing about the policies and the future are hard. Writing an opinion piece about a poll and leadership is easy. I know which one I will pay money for.

By: Merve

Merve — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 01:04:38 +0000

The Age is demanding Rudd now and an election now!!!!! Perhaps they think that by being a pretending “The Australian” they can pick up some more readers.

By: Charles Richardson

Charles Richardson — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:42:00 +0000

I think the media’s behavior over the last few years on this topic has been absolutely dreadful. But I don’t think most of it is politically motivated; I think it’s more due to fairly deep-seated problems with the mainstream media in general and the Canberra press gallery in particular. Unfortunately one of those problems is a pack mentality, so when some journalists who really do have a political bias (whom Crikey’s lawyers would not like me to name) get out in front with their insane interpretations, the rest just follow blindly along.