Politics and Media

When is a story a story or just a beat up for some other gain, most notably political?

This morning I awoke to find Channel 7’s Sunrise running a viewer poll as to whether Bill Shorten should be the next Labor leader to take on the Liberals in the next Federal election.  My initial thoughts were “Who the fuck is Bill Shorten?”  I follow politics.  I refuse to be an idiotic moron who votes like a donkey.  I am pro-Labor, but I must say that the reduction of taxes is appealing.  But even I was a bit flummoxed when considering who Bill Shorten is and why would he be a political candidate.

Then I remembered he was the guy from the AWU who ran the campaign against the owners of the Beaconsfield Mine and turned into a prime contact for what was going on at the time.  He did come across pretty well, but so did the Mine Manager.  Hell, a lot of people come across well on TV but we don’t instantly want them for Prime Minister.  Bob Hawke, one of the better Labor leaders in the history of the Labor party did launch his political career from the very same position where Bill Shorten now sits, but again, that doesn’t mean every Secretary of the AWU is destined for political greatness.

So I get to the office this morning and find that www.news.com.au has this story on the matter.  OK, there is a run on the News Limited site on this issue.  But over on the Sydney Morning Herald site there is not a mention of this.

Interesting.

Then my conspiracy mind kicked in.  Channel 7 and 9 are jostling for rights to the story of the Beaconsfield Mine disaster and they are both in negotiation with the various parties involved for “exclusive” interviews.  Could Bill Shorten have signed with News Limited for his story in exchange for some publicity on his political aspirations?  Is that why Channel 7 (News Limited’s channel) and the News Limited press (the Telegraph, The Australian and www.news.com.au) are pushing his barrow and the Fairfax side of Australia’s media interests are not even touching it?

Surely if the Secretary of the AWU wanted a run at the Labor Leadership, there would be coverage… it would be a story right?

Apparently not… the question is why?