Thread by @timdunlop

We began this year with a bushfire emergency, the PM missing in action, and the media telling us his absence was no big deal.
We were treated to a very soft interview between the PM and the ABC in which the PM, virtually unchallenged, was allowed to make his excuses.

Then we moved into a pandemic. If the PM eventually took a hit over the bushfires, the media was keen to tell us he had learned his lesson and was back on the front foot. Few in the media saw a problem with him holding out, until the last second, with his plans to go to the footy

As he belatedly began doing some of what was necessary—fortunately our institutions are still strong enough to overcome the political incompetence Morrison exhibited to this point—the media told us not to criticise him and compared him to Curtin.

Over the last few days we have gone through a phase of media-led gaslighting, suggesting to us that, in the name of opening the economy, certain people will probably have to die, that some of them really are happy to die, that they are going to die anyway so no biggie.

If we criticise or mock this inhumanity we are told to get a grip and appreciate the nuance.
We are told we need to respect all opinions and hear all sides, where “all” means “the ones we choose to publish”, probably someone from the IPA.

At a time when the people of Australia have done incredibly well in terms of isolating themselves, with minimum fuss, despite the hardship, and for, many of them, the loss of livehood, the media has focused, to the point of tedium, on those few who’ve broken the rules.

We are now finding out that banks are moving people back onto minimum mortgage payments without their consent, that bosses are withholding a percentage of JobKeeper payments or charging workers a ‘handling fee’.

Also, that the govt is using this moment of massive worker vulnerability to vary enterprise agreements in favor of bosses.
No doubt other fudges will gradually come to light.

To top it off (for this week), the government wants to introduce a contact tracing app with almost no privacy guarantees, let alone any real evidence that it might be effective, and the threat that it could be made compulsory.

And already, people in the media are suggesting we should just go along with this and download the app, and that if we don’t we will somehow be letting the country down.

God knows what next week will hold, but one thing is for sure...

...At a moment like this, we all have to be willing to look power in the eye and make sure it’s doing right by all of us. Too often the media sides with power, against their own audience, rather than fulfill their civic role as a watchdog. That needs to change.