Figures suggest an alarming number of Australians are suckers for right wing sensationalist "journalism". Every evening our television screens are bombarded with stories designed to elicit fear in the masses, not-so-cleverly-veiled advertising, and biased reports doctored to meet hidden agendas.
In 2008, A Current Affair allegedly reached an audience in excess of 1.12 million viewers, marginally behind Today Tonight's tally of 1.37 million. How? Today Tonight airs from 6:30pm - 7:00pm, ACA from 7:00pm - 7:30pm. Does that mean we have 2.5 million blind idiotic sheep in this country, or half that number that are so hopelessly pathetic in their own lives that they are prepared to watch a full hour of conservative scare mongering in an attempt to validate their own existing by judging fatties and the unemployed and shivering in to their empty ice cream containers hearing about how walking out your front door is a recipe for annihilation?
Few things grind my gears as badly.
As I type, Tracy Grimshaw is telling me that street gangs of 12 and 13 year olds are going to stab me if I go in to a train station. No doubt the next "story" will be telling me that if I drive my car instead of taking the train I'm an anarchist.
OK, so it's no secret that I despise these shows and their pathetic excuse for entertainment, but they do have me thinking - are there some connections between ACA and TT viewers, and Coalition voters?
It has become public knowledge that when Julia Gillard announced the Carbon Tax plan, Tony Abbott specifically forbade his caucus from discussing the science of climate change and to focus on the election campaign lie. This is obviously a political strategy - and who can deny him that, he's the leader of the opposition - but, ignoring the fact that he is utterly clueless about the science anyway, it is really a very clever plan of attack.
You see, Tony Abbott is ugly. I know I'm no oil painting, but he has a head like a squashed bullfrog. More than that though, he looks like he can't be trusted. He looks slimy. The only way Tony Abbott will ever become Prime Minister is if he discredits the competition and terrifies the masses. It is the basis of all of his campaigns; fear. The thing that scares me, though, is, if you look at the figures of the drones watching Nine from 7pm on weeknights, it seems to be working.
