Good evening Stuart,
This email contains electoral content…you might want to hold it over seeing as you're not discussing the election (much) tonight.
Well over the last few nights you really have heard all the reasons for voting against people:
Vote against John Howard because Work Choices introduced an unpacking fee on fridges
Vote against Kevin Rudd because he will jeopardise marriages.
The thing that worries me is that these people are able to vote!
Have a great weekend, I'll be listening to you tomorrow night…far better than the television coverage I hope.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
November 23rd, 2007 at 10:30pm
A couple emails from listeners to start the show off, and then Samuel explains why the electoral advertising blackout should be a blanket ban, not just for broadcast media.
Tomorrow: Poll analysis and predictions
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As this episode is an interview and therefore not scripted, the transcript follows.
Samuel
Welcome to Editorial Echoes for November 23, 2007, I’m Samuel Gordon-Stewart.
A couple emails to start us off today.
Josie writes, “Another smear campaign in the Liberal party, surely enough is enough”. Well Josie, if it’s enough to turn you against the coalition, then so be it, but in my view the pamphlet farce has been appropirately dealt with. Three people have been expelled from the Liberal party over the juvenile smear campaign, and I don’t believe the Liberal MP who is the wife of one of the people behind the pamphlets deserves to be punished for her husband’s actions…but that’s for her electorate to decide tomorrow, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she is a bit nervous.
Tom writes “I thought you said the journalist you were going to have on the show was on Four Corners last week. I didn’t spot James Goodwin on Four Corners.” Tom, I knew someone would say that. There were hundreds of Journalists on Four Corners last week, most of them in the background. James had a short spoken role, he was filmed on the Kevin Rudd media bus talking on a mobile phone to somebody, presumably reporting on the day’s events for 2GB. It was only a small spot, but I can assure you that he was there.
On to the editorial for the day and this political advertising blackout that started yesterday. But I got it wrong, I thought it was a real political advertising blackout…but it’s not, it’s only a blackout on the so-called licenced spectrum, the broadcasters, radio and television. Newspapers, the Internet and letterboxes can continue to be deluged by political ads, whilst the broadcasters miss out on three days of lucrative advertising dollars.
I think the advertising blackout is a great idea, it gives people the two days before the election, and the day of the election itself, to allow the dust to settle and decide for themselves without the vapid promises and noisy ranting of the advertising getting in the way. It’s a good chance to separate fact from fiction, but to limit it to only the broadcasters is utterly ridiculous.
Admittedly the broadcast ads are more intrusive as they just sort of pop in to your life and make annoying noises about why all the other candidates are horrible and nasty and awful, and the advertised candidate is wonderful, and almost without fail they are followed by three competing ads with the same content but the names in a slight different place. It may be harder to get rid of broadcast ads when they appear than it is to throw a pamphelt away or scribble over an ad in the newspaper, but they are still as annoying…and in the case of some Internet ads, even moreso, because you might be trying to read an online article and all of a sudden a politician starts dancing around your screen. It’s just downright annoying.
I support the advertising blackout, but it needs to be regulated properly. Quite simply, no political advertising should be allowed on the two days prior, and the day of, the election. Not on TV, radio, printed media, in your letterbox, on the Internet, sky writing, billboards or any other way they can think of. The two exceptions to this would have to be the how to vote cards, unless we ban them too, and the websites of the politicians. Those websites, technically at least, are advertising for electoral purposes, but they’re an important resource for policy information, and should not be banned.
Everything else is a mere annoyance in the days leading up to the election, it makes the analysis of the election more diffcult for voters, and should be banned.
Regardless of who gets in to power, if they are serious about the democratic process, they will make the advertising blackout a true blackout, by banning it from more than just the broadcasters.
This has been Editorial Echoes for November 23, 2007, as usual the email address is echoes@samuelgordonstewart.com for any feedback, and join me tomorrow for an analysis of the polls, who I think will win, where I will be turning for election coverage on the night, and if I decide to reveal it, who I will be voting for.
I’m Samuel Gordon-Stewart, enjoy your day, if you’re still unsure of your vote then please consider it very carefully, and I’ll talk to you again tomorrow. Until then, tada.
November 23rd, 2007 at 03:02pm
For some reason I still have a Google alert set up for “Dickson College”, it doesn’t usually provide much of interest, but it did provide me with some amusement tonight.
Somebody named Molika, who has just submitted her enrolment application for Dickson College, wrote an article on her blog about some shopping she did in Civic. Whilst in Civic she was bombarded with people handing out political pamphlets…I’ll let her explain.
I went into the city today & you know how it is nearly the election day, there was so many people handing out pamphlet & yelling out of the top of their lungs how we should vote this party & so on. Well anyways, as i was walking this lady with a heap of pamphlet stopped me & i knew that she was about to give me one of those useless pamphlet so i said to her “I am not old enough to vote yet”. Which she replied with a smart arse comment “Oh what a shame, take one anyway & give it to someone you know”. I was gobsmacked! I was thinking, “does she have a hearing problem or something? I just told her that i was not old enough to vote! & now she’s giving me one of these crap pamphlet about how I should be voting for the greens?”. So i just walked off & gave her a dirty, whilst giving her the attitude i ripped up the pamphlet to bit & pieces and threw it out the bin! LOL!!! Should have seen her face, priceless
That story arrived at just the right time. I needed a good laugh, and Molika provided it. Thank you Molika.
Samuel
November 23rd, 2007 at 01:25am