CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
The amazing minds that make up the Australian media are still struggling to see the wool that has been once again pulled over their eyes this week.
That is assuming they weren’t aware of what was happening all along.
After another week of furious speculation surrounding the possibility of former NSW Messiah Gladys Berejiklian running as a Federal Liberal candidate against Northern Sydney independent MP Zali Steggall, it seems that almost every media leak can be traced back to Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s office.
The embattled Berejiklian has today shut down all rumours that she will run in next year’s federal election, announcing instead that she will be working in the private sector while riding out the state corruption watchdog investigation into her alleged misconduct while Premier of NSW.
This isn’t the first time this rumour has swirled around, and only seems to pop up whenever Scotty From Marketing needs to bury something else that is happening in the news.
This is known as ‘The Dead Cat Strategy’ – where politicians ‘drop a dead cat on the table’ by generating dramatic, shocking, or sensationalist headlines to divert the media away from more damaging topics.
This week, the more damaging topics were the push for a Royal Commission into Rupert Murdoch’s control over Australian politics, repeated calls for an Independent Corruption Watchdog to audit the criminal behaviour of Federal MPs, and the Opposition Leader’s live press conference at the Wests Ashfield Leagues Club.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese managed to get three headlines this week, as he announced his party’s major policies ahead of the 2022 election. Scotty From Marketing’s since disproven rumours about Gladys joining his team in Canberra made front pages on all the major mastheads.
That’s because Labor’s push to take government from Morrison isn’t as important to the media as the idea of Gladys getting a second chance at politics that she never wanted.
In fact, Labor’s campaign launch didn’t even get as much press as Scott Morrison’s appearance at the Bathurst 1000 over the weekend, a photo opp that made news right around the country – including one story that was quickly deleted from the FoxSports website after it revealed that the V8 fans had actually booed the PM to his face.
Speaking to The Betoota Advocate today, one Sydney journalist from a major Liberal-sympathetic news organisation says “What can ya do”
“He told us that she was running. That was a big story”
“It’s not our fault thats a bigger story than the announcement of the major policies that may very well shape the next decade of Australian life”
“He’s never given us reason to not believe him before”
