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Sunday 22 May 2022

Post-truth



Victory belongs to Anthony Albanese, only the fourth Labor leader since World War Two to oust a Liberal prime minister, but the 2022 Australian election was primarily a rejection of Scott Morrison and the brand of politics he has come to personify.

A politics that denied, and sometimes even mocked, the seriousness of the climate crisis - as Treasurer, Morrison laughingly brandished a lump of coal in parliament.

A politics that many female voters especially found bloke-ish and boorish.

A politics that many Australians came to associate with truth-twisting and lying - such as when Morrison claimed that Emmanuel Macron had "sledged" the Australian people over the cancellation of a multi-billion dollar submarine contract, when it was obvious that the French president had mounted a highly personalised attack on a man he labelled a liar.

At a time when conservative politics down under has displayed some small-t Trumpian traits, historians may conclude that Australian voters evicted from office the country's first post-truth prime minister.

A chap is bound to wonder if senior BBC folk would describe this piece as balanced and impartial. It is not necessary to take a view on the election in order to see that it isn't even close to that long-lost ideal. How about 'embarrassing' as a more fitting description? Or maybe we are merely seeing the post-truth BBC in action again.

3 comments:

Ed P said...

The BBC - Big Brother Crap describes it better these days - follows its woke script and facts come second.

Sam Vega said...

I noted this morning that the BBC had gone way over the top with their coverage of the Australian election. Does it really have that much impact in the UK?

But when I read your excerpt, I thought, "Ah, AKH has got hold of an opinion piece from the Guardian - the style is unmistakable"!

A K Haart said...

Ed - at times I'm still surprised to see how poor it is.

Sam - yes the style is unmistakable. Strikingly biased to such an extent that it even seems out of place on the BBC website.