Pixelated Semantics

A schizotypical inventory

A mandate to lie and deceive

Symptomatic of the reporting of the election and its results are the SMH and ABC's items on the contest for the 6th senate seat in Queensland. Example:

"The man who could deliver the federal Coalition a majority in the Senate says he is confident of victory but is not claiming the seat just yet. The Nationals' Barnaby Joyce says he is about 3,000 votes ahead of his closest rival from the fledgling Family First party."

One could be forgiven for thinking this is the whole story, that the FF party trails the NP in the contest, but inevitably the seat will go to one of those conservatives. However, [and it's a big however] the AEC's own tally update for the Senate clearly shows that on the face of primary votes, this is not the case at all - in fact the Greens candidate is considerably ahead of the FF and has been since Saturday. The FF candidate touted as "closest rival" in fact has about half the votes of the NP.

The current results are:

The Nationals 120,434
The Greens 98,709
Family First 63,646

Source: AEC First Preferences by Candidate for Queensland, Updated: 14/10/2004 10:17:33 AM.

Nationally, The Greens have 726,779 votes for the Senate while Family First has 172,331 leaving no doubt as to which of these minor parties actually enjoys greatest public support. From the media's reporting the impression is being given that the contest is solely between conservative candidates despite the Green's obviously higher vote. Manipulation is a polite word for it - certainly questions need to be asked over the ongoing media campaign to sideline the third most popular party in the country. The Nationals may "claim" the seat, but entitlement is another matter.

Vindicated: The SMH this morning reports "Queensland Nationals director Roger Harcourt said the party's lead candidate, accountant Barnaby Joyce, was about 3,000 votes ahead of his nearest rival, the Australian Greens' Drew Hutton" - a very different proposition than yesterday's reporting or claims by the NP. The Courier Mail today, however, is maintaining the fiction: "The Senate count last night showed the National Party about 2900 votes ahead of Family First and 3300 ahead of One Nation in the race for the sixth spot" - not mentioning the Greens at all. Balanced coverage anyone?

Item posted by AutoEditor at 1:09 pm ::