News Media Failing Victorians!

For the last 3-5 years, the News Media has constantly failed Victorians. The way they cover politics in this state has not done any of us any favours at all and has had adverse consequences as a result. It has pushed people who were politically neutral into the pro-Daniel Andrews camp while simultaneously causing them to suffer bouts of anger at the media when they do actually post a truth that doesn't paint Andrews in a good light.

The consequences of this media coverage have been massive.

Daniel Andrews won in a landslide in 2018 despite the Red Shirts Scandal (Fraud) which by rights should've seen him and his government booted. The reason he wasn't booted is a combination of a terrible opposition and a media who, well, basically went into hysterics over Red Shirts. The funny thing is, they were justified in calling for resignations and accountability and a lot of what they posted was true; sadly most Victorians didn't care even though it was taxpayers' money rorted. All a lot of them heard was "The ALP paid the money back so that should be the end of the matter."The media definitely didn't help in the 2018 election.

Then we hit the all-time low of the pandemic.

Daniel Andrews' press conferences during Covid often became a waste of time

The media during the pandemic was disgusting and deplorable. Those press conferences with Daniel Andrews were mostly a waste of time. Thinking back on them, I only ever tuned in when there was an important announcement as the others were just crap. It rehashed the same crap over and over but thinking back on it now, there was a point being made by the media. Unfortunately, most Victorians chose not to listen.

The point trying to be made is that Daniel Andrews couldn't give a straight answer to questions.

Equally, those press conferences showed who the real Daniel Andrews was. A narcissist who gaslit so many people and often answered questions in a condescending manner like he knew better than them (this is a common theme). Several of those journalists came under attack on Twitter from Victorian Twitter users and then, those same users had the nerve to complain when journalists started attacking Victorians as a collective. They took offence as if to say "How dare you attack us!"

Here's the thing though!

When the media attacked Victorians, even though I'm a proud Victorian, I didn't feel like they were attacking me. Maybe that was because they were finally catching on to the things that I had been saying about Andrews.

The fact that it took them a while to see what I was already seeing, is indeed a failing by the media.

Then we turn to the 2022 election and the media coverage there hit an all-time low. Stories from the past were rehashed, such as the car crash involving Andrews (which we will never get a satisfactory answer to due to police interference) and then the infamous stair-fall that put Andrews out of action for 4 months (funnily enough, those were the most bearable months of the pandemic).

This sort of coverage above didn't help and add that to their inability to force Premier Daniel Andrews and Deputy Jacinta Allen to apologise for offending over 50% of Victorians when they implied that "if they didn't vote for the ALP, they were either Nazis or bigots."

To this day, Victorians still haven't received an apology.

Even more agonising is that due to the crap media coverage coupled with a crap opposition; despite the government's disgraceful conduct regarding integrity and not to mention the multitude of IBAC investigations, the Andrews government received another landslide win. Victorians preferred to give an up-yours to the media as opposed to holding a government to account. What an absolute indictment this is on the media.

Let's turn to this year and there are two notable examples of articles that have left me seething in absolute fury at the news media.

This first one comes from Sumeyya Ilanbey at The Age. To read the article, click here

Essentially what she believes is that under the Andrews government, democracy has withered.

She's absolutely dead right that democracy has withered under this government. They don't believe they are accountable to ANYONE at all. They brush off corruption reports, can cancel contracts without consequence, treat people like dirt, and try to gag people from talking about experiences relevant to them. The reasons are varied but range from crap opposition to incompetence on parts of the crossbench to a media who just don't bloody do their job.

The thing that irks me about this the most is that I've been saying this for THREE BLOODY YEARS! How can it take these people who interact with Andrews that long to acknowledge what I've seen from afar? The reality is, they're too busy looking for a gotcha to understand what's actually going on. It's not good enough and it's causing great harm here in this great state.

Then we have this second one from Richard Willingham at the ABC. To read that one click here Essentially it's reporting on calls for greater transparency regarding projects in Victoria. Again, I've been calling for an increase in transparency for THREE BLOODY YEARS! It's only now that people are at a snail's pace waking up and the media are reporting on these calls. Again, it's not bloody good enough and more harm comes about as a result.

I've seen this government squirm away from accountability in parliament, the Premier blatantly lie repeatedly, no accountability for bad conduct or missteps unless you're on the outer with Daniel Andrews. Amongst that, the reality that so many are ignoring right now EVERYTHING IN THIS STATE, DANIEL ANDREWS KNOWS ABOUT!

He knew about Red Shirts He knew about people in his office pressuring someone to choose a preferred group He knew about Somyurek's branch stacking and only acted after it went public

He or his office in the previous term of parliament interfered with the work of parliamentary committees

He knew and read about the letters that he claimed not to know about

That man cannot be trusted and anyone accepting his denials at face value needs a reality check.

It is a diabolical state of affairs right now in Victoria. The parliament won't or can't hold him to account. The public service has had its independence trashed. The Ombudsman and IBAC have been hobbled which leaves the media as our last hope and right now, they are utterly failing Victorians and that leaves us all at risk of worse to come.