Intoduction to Journalism 101 or What not to do as a regional journalist

There are over 100 million Facebook accounts around the world and anyone who has an account can in theory read everyone of these pages.
These particular Facebook snapshots was passed on to me with the comment that it was not a good look for any jounalist working on a regional paper with a circulation of less than 9,000 covering a population of around 150,000.

In fact - not a good look when working in any relatively small community where you may already have a higher profile than the fella next door because you work in teh meeja.
On checking I tend to agree.

Going onto a pollie's Facebook page and publically mocking the Federal Treasurer, sniggering about the NSW Premier, bagging local Labor or egging on a candidate is definitely not a good look if you want to be seen as an even-handed journalist.

The journo in question is Josh McMahon and the Facebook sites belong to the NSW North Coast's Federal Labor MP for Page Janelle Saffin, NSW Nationals MP for Clarence Steve Cansdell and Nationals federal candidate for Page at the 21st August election, Kevin Hogan.

2010 Election Campaign Day 18 - @rsehole alert!

"PERTH Catholic Archbishop Barry Hickey has suggested Julia Gillard's atheism could cost her votes. But he says Tony Abbott's "strong Christian faith" could benefit him.
The provocative comments triggered heated debate on Perth talkback radio yesterday as a string of callers objected to the apparent leap into partisan politics.

The archbishop told The Australian he had not meant to imply people should not vote for the Prime Minister - a self-professed atheist - and was simply "sounding a caution" about the rise of secularism in politics." {Perth Now 30th July 2010}

"Gillard told the ABC’s Madonna King this week that she was not “a big time, you know, fashionista, in that sense. I, you know, view myself as someone who works and I wear the clothes that are appropriate to the work that I do, so I took that perspective”.
Which might have stunned readers of the Vive article for which she wore a Giorgio Armani black suit valued at $3000, an Emporio Armani white shirt ($440), Chloe black suede stilettos ($745) and a pair of Monteperla golden pearl earrings ($11,000).
That’s a total of about $15,185 worth of clobber - the equivalent of 43 1/2 weeks’ pension. Not bad for a small-time fashionista." {Piers Akerman in The Daily Telegraph on 29th July 2010, misrepresenting the obviously borrowed clobber used in an Australian Women's Weekly photo shoot}

Essential Report: yet another tight opinion poll for the main contenders in 2010 Australian federal election

From the Essential Report (2 August 2010) survey conducted online from 27th July to 1st August 2010:

Q. The Federal Election will be held on 21 August – to which party will you probably give your first preference in the House of Representatives? If not sure, which party are you currently leaning toward?

Q. If don’t know – Well which party are you currently leaning to for the House of Representatives?

Click image to enlarge

2,418 sample size

NB. The data in the above tables comprise 2-week averages derived the first preference/leaning to voting questions. Respondents who select ‘don’t know’ are not included in the results. The two-party preferred estimate is calculated by distributing the votes of the other parties according to their preferences at the 2007 election.
* Sample is the aggregation of two weeks’ polling data.

The questions in this week’s report include:

Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Julia Gillard is doing as Prime Minister?

Q. Do you approve or disapprove of the job Tony Abbott is doing as Opposition Leader?

Q. Who do you think would make the better Prime Minister out of Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott?

Q. What is the main reason you intend to vote for the Labor Party/Liberal or National Party/Greens?

Q. Tony Abbott has proposed to cut immigration from around 300,000 a year to 170,000? Do you approve or disapprove of this cut to immigration?

Q. Which leader and party do you trust most to handle immigration issues?

If my animals could vote in 2010?

If my animals could vote in 2010?

The dogs Blair and Tom would definitely be voting for Julia Gillard. She's a fine alpha bitch who got rid of the top dog and obviously knows were all the bones are buried.

The bathroom cat Venus would vote for Tony Abbott. He, like cats, knows that the world is divided into masters and slaves and how quickly he assured the big miners that his government would not tax them shows he respects the masters.

The goldfish think that the Greens have the best policies for them. The Greens are for a good environmental flow for all waterways and they have the kindest immigration policies - both these points are very important for foreign fish.

All the birds have agreed that they will put the Shooters Party at the bottom of their ticket.

Most of the geese will be voting for Family First since it pretends to be the moral majority. This falls in line with the unmated geese’s habit of attempting to disrupt the mating of any partnered birds.

The chooks are definitely swinging voters, they are keeping their cards and feathers close to their wishbones.

Arnold the poddy calf is still undecided; I think he's been talking to the chooks.

Original goose graphic

The Liberals descend to what looks suspiciously like defamtion...

Journalist Andrew Bolt and former Howard Government foreign minister, Alexander Downer plumb the depths with this comment by Downer repeated by The Bolter:

"I don't use the c-word, but I do use the f-word pretty freely, and I can tell you that Kevin Rudd is a f****** awful person."

Original 1 August 2010 article here.

Nats Kevin Hogan sets the record straight

 

Nationals candidate for Page Kevin Hogan appears to think that the Australian Rudd-Gillard Government has not delivered worthwhile funding to the NSW North Coast.

"Despite being one of the highest spending governments in our history, Labor hasn't managed to fund the projects that would have really improved our lives here on the North Coast."  he states.

 

Silly me! How could I be so wrong? Here I was thinking that the North Coast was doing rather well out of that Labor Government in Canberra.

 

Particularly in the Page electorate with this federal funding: $2.6M for a Grafton sports complex; "$597,000 for eight ready-to-go community infrastructure projects in the Clarence Valley"; $149,727 to help address local teenage binge drinking; "$19.7M upgrade to Grafton Base Hospital operating theatres and emergency department" currently underway; $1.3M in new housing completed and "more than $1 million for repairs and maintenance to 336 social housing units"; $105,000 for Clarence Valley Council tourism project and at least $9.4M for local infrastructure [The Daily Examiner 19.06.10, 27.02.10, 20.02.10, 29.01.10, 11.12.09, 17.10.09, 01.09.09].

 

After reading other local newspapers, I was also under the impression that the North Coast Area Health Service has received federal funding for public hospital and community health programs/projects right across the region and school halls and classrooms were going up in many a primary or highschool in the five shires courtesy of federal stimulus money.

 

I'm only sorry that the library has no local newspaper records from January 2008 to July 2009 so that I could further explore my complete lack of understanding.

 

Here in the Northern Rivers we are all so lucky to have someone like Kevin to set us straight by giving the 'real' facts of the matter and, reminding us that life is not "really improved" by the type and scale of funding I've listed here.

 

Will he next set us straight about Federal Labor's increase in fortnightly pension payments for single pensioners and state that this was really bad for their general wellbeing?