Will the Chasers go to war on Rudd?
I have a couple of micro-theories about the end of the Howard era and the rise of Kevin Rudd, which I've yet to come across in the recent raft of histories about the 2007 election. Nothing startling, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.
The first involves the diminished influence in the run-up to the last election of the radio host, Alan Jones; the second involves the increased influence of ABC's comedy troupe, the Chasers War on Everything, which is about to make its long-awaited comeback after 18 months off-air.
During the Howard years, the Sydney breakfast radio host Alan Jones was arguably Australia's second most powerful conservative. Famously opinionated and crotchety, he prided himself on his influence in the halls of government in Canberra and New South Wales: there was supposedly a "Minister for Alan Jones" within the Howard government to ensure ongoing good relations.
The former Wallabies rugby coach regularly gave a platform to John Howard, then often reinforced and amplified his views. Commonly, he helped frame the national debating point of the day, and gave it a determinedly conservative slant.
When I arrived in Australia, I was struck immediately by John Howard's domination of the airwaves, and how a sound-bite delivered on a radio breakfast programme could almost monopolise the news agenda for the rest of the day. Here, Alan Jones was a vital ally and megaphone.
But three things happened in the run-up to the 2007 poll which undermined Jones' on-air authority and his off-air clout. The first came in October, 2006, with the publication of an excoriating biography, Jonestown: The Power and the Myth of Alan Jones, written by the ABC veteran investigative reporter, Chris Masters.
The second was a ruling in April 2007 by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). It found that in the lead-up to the Cronulla riots, Jones had broadcast material that was "likely to encourage violence or brutality and to vilify people of Lebanese and Middle-Eastern backgrounds on the basis of ethnicity".
The third came in June 2007, when Channel Nine decided to drop his morning editorial on the Today breakfast show, a slot he had appeared in for 20 years.
By the 2007 election, Alan Jones still had the ratings - to this day, he is Sydney's most popular breakfast show host - but could no longer boast the same power and influence. The conservative ascendency was coming to an end. Australia was about to enter Ruddville and leave Jonestown.
Then there were the Chasers, a constant thorn in the then prime minister's side as the election approached. Some of their ambushes of his early morning power walks rose to the level of performance art - one involved a silver Delorean sports car, a mad professor and the promise to take Mr Howard "back to the future" so that he could retire gracefully rather than be forced out by the voters.
It fast became a leitmotif for the entire campaign - and reinforced the sense that John Howard had done his dash.
Then there was the Apec stunt in Sydney, where the Chasers breached the supposedly water-tight security with a fake motorcade carrying an Osama Bin Laden doppelganger.
The Apec summit had been intricately choreographed by John Howard's image-makers as part of a last-ditch attempt to save his prime ministership. Instead, it became a showcase for the Chasers' madcap talent.
Why does any of this matter? Because the Chasers went off-air just as Kevin Rudd became prime minister. For the past 18 months, the Australian prime minister has therefore enjoyed the luxury of a fairly feeble opposition and a Chasers-free ABC.
The end of the Chasers' sabbatical comes at the very moment when the prime minister's Hawkie-like popularity appears to have dipped. Are the Chasers about to become a factor again?
I'm 
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I used to listen to Alistair Cooke's "Letter from America" every week.
I could never tell if he supported either party - or both - or maybe neither. He had a real love of America and Americans.
Could you please try to reach the same high standard ? And don't get me started on Justin Webb's latest PR piece for Obama. It's embarrassing.
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It'll be interesting to see how the Chaser's act toward Rudd now. Whether he'll be "just another polly" ripe for bashing, or whether what they were doing to John Howard WAS a personal vendetta. I think they certainly helped in getting Rudd into power, only half parodying the "Kevin '07" campaign. I'm intrigued as to how it'll transpire.
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Nick, your theory regarding the political influence on the last election of Jones and the Chaser team is questionable. What influence they had probably cancelled each other out. Jones' audience was mainly older NSW/Sydney conservatives and the Chaser appealed to younger more nationally based ABC viewers. Nevertheless, the degree of influence Jones had with NSW State politicians and the then Federal Liberal Government all the way up to Prime Minister Howard was considerable. As well as the matters you mention, a major blow to his credibility was with the 'Cash for Comment' disclosure,which revealed he received a large financial incentive from Telstra for favourable on air opinion that was not identified as advertising.
Howard was an easy mark for the Chaser lads but to his credit he mostly put up with their antics with good humour or indifference. It will be interesting to see if Prime Minister Rudd of 'pie in the sky' fame can deal with them with similar equanimity.
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Let's not forget Alan Jones and the Telstra/banks payola affair
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I hope the Chasers do come back with a vengeance, they were brilliant! Their APEC stunt was perfect...
Myself, I don't think they will be short of material or desire to satirise a Labor federal government. Goodness knows Labor have broken quite a lot of their piously-delivered election promises.
For example: "I'm a financial conservative" said Kev, and took a mere 18 months to firmly shove Australia into historic, frightening debt levels.
Must be dozens of hours of scathing satire and comments in that alone.
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Nick, the comedy group is called "The Chaser" not "the Chasers". I know I am being pedantic, but well....it is the BBC afterall.
Anyway carry on.
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LOL to Dufus- I think that one is a classic. Too true. Dudd is just being the typical Labor Prime Menace like all those before him. We might all be learning Chinese soon if we borrow much more. He is destructive and fake, fancy now even the greens who got him in, want him out and people like me are laughing even though we are in dire straits, its good to laugh. But overall he is not funny and either is Labors uselessness. Why oh why do some humans have short memories - no suprize to some but others forget Labor are dangerous in Govt. We all have to pay a price though.
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For god sake guys, So many people suffered silently under Howard, the homeless rate went up much higher under him as he didn't focus charities, family's, single parents or children. Trust me Rudd's hand outs have helped people immensely! just because your some rich idiot out there who doesn't get a bonus doesn't mean everybody else shouldn't.
There is no point in having a surplus it should be spent to make our lives better.
Really most western countries are in debt,America's debt is about 7 trillion Australia's is what? sstop whinging about it, Australians are disgraceful with stuff like this "oh your not spending enough money on defence we are going to be drilled if we are invaded" "oh your spending too much! we need that money for schools and what not." make up your bloody minds.
Stop whinging like the bloody English and just stick with it. We need to spend cash to make this countries infrastructure better, it is too far behind Japan and Europe.
Sorry if this didn't make much sense i have to go to work and i don't have much time to fix everything, but hopefully you got the gist of what i was saying.
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I'll make two points.first im a tradie (bricklayer).secondly everyone here in australia has to vote,not just people interested in politics.I think chaser more than just matters.They shape the thinking of a huge section of people here.
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I wouldn't describe Rudd's popularity as 'Hawkie like', although I guess his approval ratings have been pretty high. Something the Chaser team (never referred to as 'the Chasers') made a lot of fun of was Rudd's resemblance to Howard. As one of them said "whatever happens, Australia will be governed by a social conservative with a bad haircut". They also did a send up of the 'I'm an Windows, I'm a Mac' ad, in which the 'I'm Labor' character ditches his cool clothes and puts on the same suit as the Liberal.
It would be great if The Chaser could give Rudd some flak, but I wouldn't think it would make much difference to his electoral chances. ABC viewers are mostly labor voters anyway. While I know a lot of people who like The Chaser, I don't know anyone whose vote was swayed by watching it. The vote changers I know were Liberal voters who were disgusted by the Iraq war.
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The Chaser is political satire. Its audience, by definition, consists of persons interested in politics. The show is meaningless to someone with no interest in politics. This being the case, I rather doubt that the show had much affect on anything. They did embarrass Howard, but I don't see how a fancy summit could save him when the biggest new law of his last term in government, Workchoices, put so many swing voters offside. On the other hand, I know countless people who enjoyed seeing him made fun of simply because he was a politician, but still voted for him because they are conservatives and they would have voted for the Coalition even if it was led by a pineapple. By the same token, going overseas, Bush Jnr was famously susceptible to satire, but that is because he was an idiot. He went down in a cloud of ignominy because he was an idiot, not because he was easy to make fun of. Reagan and Clinton were also easy targets but are apparently beloved, because they were not disastrous leaders.
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The first post about Alistair Cooke by Jack_Hughes_NZ got me thinking. I suppose Alistair began "blogging" in the only way possible in the 1930s (or was it the 1940s). However, one central thread of all of his broadcasts that I heard was his adherence to context. He'd take a story, spread the history and develop the relevance to the present.
I'm not suggesting that Nick emulate Alistair Cooke - although I wouldn't complain. But I read this latest post and felt it was more than a little Sydney-centric. From the perspective of rural North Eastern Victoria, that's a sort of code for "not real".
On the other hand, who am I to judge? I watch the ABC and SBS, I listen to the ABC - local, classic and national. I certainly would turn the radio off if I came across Alan Jones or John Laws. So maybe I'm the one that's "not real".
Cheers
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Nick, as an Englishman living in Australia I like reading your blog - but the continual Sydney bias grates. For instance, I live in Melbourne and have never even heard of Alan Jones (I've been here over 2 years). I'd be surprised if he's ever influenced any part of the public outside NSW. I see your caption actually says you're the BBC's "Sydney" correspondent; why not "Australia"? It's as bad as confusing London with England, England with Britain etc..
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Yes - what danmyers1 said. Alan Jones was a Sydney beast. He had little influence nationally. He tried Melbourne but his populist battler schtick didn't travel well, and they preferred Derryn Hinch. As for the Chaser team - well it's a bit like saying Thatcher was toppled by Ben Elton.
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Dont just love the way some defend Labor- I can guess that Oznozz maybe hmmm under 25 and doesnt remember the bad times of Labor. You say some suffered silently under Howard, who sufferes silently nowaday, the media would have had a field day. You say people suffered others say there were too much given out with the baby bonus and all - as per usual Labor ites are all mixed up and running in circles, Just like the Prime Menace. As for school and hospitals yes, they do need funds for them, but I think should be mentioned they are State run and well NSW is broke thats why there is no money for school or hospitals etc and who has run NSW for years arhhh der Labor. The one reason people are upset is that we had no viable reason to go into such a high deficit, we were left well and running well, other countries may not have been so dont compare apple to oranges. What other countries are doing is what they have to do to survive, we as Australia were surviving well but as Dufua mentions 18 mths to go through so much money is a disgrace. I read you go to work well, how do you think the Govt is going to pay off these debts - by raising taxes. Which equates to less in our pockets. Also dont compare Labor to the Coalition as the headlines state we are in a worse situation then for years, check out todays headline, worse homeless rate in over 100years and whos in Govt Labor & Labor. Come on Oznozz, the unemployment rate is horrific, the spending is horrific and sorry but so is Labor. The sooner we vote them out and the greenies get their head out of Peter Garrets butt we'll be better off.
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AustGirl are you in the young liberals by chance? Your tone suggested youth but your message suggested conservatism. A dangerous combination!
I dont think its fair to compare the economic climate now compared with 18 months ago. Commodity prices, the reason that Australia enjoyed so much growth, have plummeted due to the level of economic decline globally. Much of this is due to banks going belly-up as a result of the unnecessary risks that were allowed under the Bush administration, good friends of ol Johnny.
Regardless, Howard is yesterdays news and (as many posters here have noted) Alan Jones is completely silent outside NSW (you may need to get outside Sydney, Nick!). In fact, NSW has probably benefitted more from the liberal govt than any state, particularly when considering that WA held the majority of the resources that were sold. Methinks Alan Jones, who just seems to have closetted anger issues, has failed to mention that!
For the xenophobic poster that seems afraid of learning Mandarin, Australia can no longer think of itself as a manufacturing country with European ties based in Asia, it needs to start thinking of being a small asian country of 20 million people and finite resources. The 3rd largest industry in Australia in education, with little thanks to the Howard government, and it makes sense for us to position ourselves as an R&D centre for the region.
Back to the subject though, I very much doubt that The Chaser boys will lay-off Rudd, he has shown his hand as a despot in regards to his staff and fluffed the carbon-tax scheme. While they wont influence too many votes, they are needed to keep the government in the public eye and in their place.
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Isn't the Chaser's latest publication called "The Little Rudd Book" or something?
Likewise, living in Queensland for the last six years, I've never heard of this Alan Jones person.
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I like your "micro-theories" Nick!
My micro-theory involves all those cartoonists who depicted Howard as the bushy-eyebrowed, stubborn friend to Dubya and Rudd as the young, innocent baby faced candidate with a halo over his head...
The real reasons were probably work choices, Iraq, the lack of co operation within the liberal government itself and the environment issue though.
Weren't the Chaser team the first to show Rudd eating ear-wax?
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Logged on to read Bennett-Somebody-or-Another from Pakistan. Brilliant.
The comments on this site are so much better than the orig.
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Danich - No, I am mid 40s and wrote what I wrote, because 1 its true and 2 I have lived through the different times of Govt and the two cannot be compared. I didnt go to levels you dropped to in realtion to your comments on Little Jonny as you didnt say much at all as to why you feel this way. I can say that NSW is broke and in trouble - are we not? That we do have a deficit - do we not? and Labor is in Govt are they not? And to pay off a debt the Govt needs to raise taxes - do they not? So please little johnny or not - whether you think I am conservative or not please lets have a intelectual converstation. Not just name calling. Things are bad and Labor have a history of being terrible in Govt - do they not!!? I agree with Doofus #5 wraps it up perfectly. You cannot argue against the way things are - highest levels of most things. Dont forget that Danich - that we have been through it before- the bad times, no matter who was in Govt but this time the numbers are so high and stacked up against Labor - highest unemployment, highest homeless rate. Come on. Did you read in the papers leaked that some of the hospitals no longer have goods delivered to them as bills have not been paid, that staff are bringing in and buying patients food. Schools have classrooms taken from them because another school is in more need of the classroom - come on -
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#18 - Yuk, that reminds me and now I'll have that pitcure in my head all day - thanks. LOL. Classy Prime Menace we have - aye.
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The real reason for the demise of John Howard was that his time was up. People were tired of him and wanted a change. And however good or bad his government was, it just had to go. This is what happens to most successful governments after a decade or so, and maybe that is not such a bad thing.
Alan Jones and the Chasers may have had a marginal influence in the affair, but I prefer to think that they are riding the same waves of popular sentiment that politicians do.
Kevin Rudd is very comfortable with less than two years under his belt, and a clear lead in the polls. The Chasers will not change this.
What would have more impact is a half-decent opposition, but it will be a while before the coalition gets its act together. This will happen eventually, and will ultimately bring Labor down, but for the moment there is little to worry about for Mr. Rudd.
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Freakontheguitar - bravo. I especially agree with the last paragraph, unfortunatley its true. But once The Coalition get their act together there will be a change. It happened before when The Coalition were struggling then JH got his momentum and we had a good run for over a decade and it will happen again. Maybe that will be Costello or not, Maybe Hockey or not. But Labor should enjoy the ride as it will end but unfortunately also, much damage done. NSW Labor have the opposition to thank for their reign and so do Federal Labor. As I wrote, once things settle for The Coalition -Labor will not be in power for decades to come.
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I logged on after seeing Eliza's response to #22 - and I agree. The last paragraph was exact, and so was what Eliza wrote. Austgirl made me smile - early 40's and a girl, but what you wrote was also pretty good and a proper response to #16. Doofusinsyd your last paragraph was brilliant. I've often wondered over years where the polls (tallies)come from, we are told that the Govt has a huge lead but where is it on the street level. As for Alan Jones each state has their own media personalities so no surpize that some outside NSW know of him - big woop. Moving on.....
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Good point Austgirl, very well put sentence i enjoyed reading it! Yes you were right about my age i am only 21.
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OzGirl - you seem to forget that this economic crisis is hardly of Labors making. Yes, we have high levels of government debt, but this is hardly anywhere near what the UK or the US has. And I saw a useful example the other day that the level of debt is something like a person who earns 100K having a 10K loan, so that hardly seems excessive.
Also, I think you've forgotten that NSW gets completely rorted in the GST. NSW taxpayers pay $13 billion in GST each year, yet get back just $10 billion from the Commonwealth. So it is no wonder they are having difficulty paying hospitals etc. NSW is subsidising the other states! You also forget that NSW Labor had years of budget surpluses, and it is only now the economy is going bad that that has changed, as for all governments in the western world.
OzGirl - you accuse Danich of dropping to low levels regarding his comments on John Howard, yet you continually use "Prime Menace" and Dudd in relation to Rudd... a bit of calling the kettle black??
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I think all the research showed Workchoices was the biggest factor, along with Iraq and a generic need for change.
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a bit surprising that you have not thought it necessary to report the repeated nearly fatal racist attacks against indians in australia. i guess you have reached some agreement with your hosts to preserve the 'aussie image'.
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TotallyFair - I don't think the attacks on Indian students are in any way related to the impact of the media (specifically The Chaser team), which is what this debate is about.
I dare say Nick will be posting on this subject soon, as the 'chk chk boom', Telstra boss and Indian protests have all happened.
AustGirl - I am perfectly open to a 'intelectual converstation' once you can tell me what that is.
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Well I think it's fair to say Chaser aren't going to be affecting anyone anytime soon - they badly misjudged a skit featuring terminally ill children
Maybe they needed the ultra-conservatives with their war in Iraq to bounce off, as much as the conservatives needed Alan Jones
Would like to see if Nick heads for the racism route, because I haven't noticed any of this racism that has suddenly been mentioned, Sydney is very multicultural and most of the violence seems to relate to the conflict in Sri Lanka
The telstra bloke was just a moron
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Lets not get too worried about media bias on the ABC or by any TV or Radio Network or Newspaper. I'm a Liberal voter, but I watch ABC and SBS News and Current Affairs programs. Commercial stations I look at for local, not national, news. Yes, there is bias and large doses of PC in all sectors but the discerning viewer, listener or reader should be able to spot these areas. There are plenty of alternative viewpoints on the internet if you want to delve further and reach your own conclusions. Its OK just as long as the 21st century version of political correctness is contestable and doesn't become like the German view of political correctness in the mid 1930s to mid 1940s.
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