Egg on their faces

Friday, 20th August 2010

Win or lose, Tony Abbott has confounded Canberra and his Labor and media critics, argues James Paterson

Crikey’s Bernard Keane, a self-diagnosed Malcolm Turnbull fan, predicted in November 2009 that ‘Abbott will reduce the party to a reactionary rump’ if elected leader, and stated ‘any option other than Turnbull [as leader] at this point will be an electoral calamity for the Liberals.’

And Crikey’s resident angry former Marxist, Guy Rundle, after comparing Abbott to Taliban leader Mullah Omar, boasted that ‘vanquishing Abbott shouldn’t be too hard’ because Abbott is ‘a weird little creep’ who would destroy himself without much help.

The same Peter Hartcher, who now recognises Abbott could win the election, said at the time of his election as leader ‘the Liberal Party has chosen the least electable of the three candidates on the ballot today.’

Mark Kenny, from the Adelaide Advertiser, labelled the Liberal Party’s decision to oppose the ETS as a ‘recipe for failure’ and declared Kevin Rudd ‘the big winner.’ He even suggested ETS opponents in the Coalition had ‘probably condemned their own party to a lengthy period in the wilderness of opposition.’

The conventional wisdom – that opposing the ETS and electing Abbott as leader was disastrous – was so pervasive that even some Liberal MPs took it as gospel. One Liberal MP told journalists that the Coalition reversing its previous support for an ETS would ‘cost us six lower [house] seats’ in Western Australia.

What lesson should we draw from this litany of failed prognostications from the people who are paid to judge the political mood? Obviously, it raises serious questions about the real insights that the Canberra Press Gallery claims to have about Australian politics. Many assume their views on the environment, asylum seekers, foreign policy and social issues are reflected in the wider electorate. Perhaps some journalists allowed their personal distaste for Abbott to influence their predictions.

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Eric

August 20th, 2010 2:57am Report this comment

Great article - spot on!

All too often, the media get away with making predictions to which they are not held accountable.

The press gallery are the ones who are supposed to be clued in and switched on, yet their attitude towards Tony Abbott demonstrates just how out of touch they are.

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