Paul Barry on Monday night threw together one of the shittiest Media Watch episodes the bitter, washed-up old hacks who compile Media Glass House have watched for quite some time.

Don’t get us wrong: his first subject – why this nation’s mainstream mediocre seemed hellbent on portraying the NSW state election as a neck-and-neck, nail-biting tussle in almost glaring defiance of what the polls were saying – was a good one. It’s just that his explanation as to why they did that was absurd nonsense.

We call our MGH the more regular Media Watch. In fact, with its sibling Mediocre Bytes, we’re proud of The Bug‘s frequent and critical looks at this nation’s woeful, largely right-wing MSM. We boast, perhaps wrongly, that no-one does it better.

And we often bang on about an issue for weeks before Media Watch latches on to the same subject. And that’s not being too critical; we can get stuck into a media yarn every day of the week with no production lead time. We accept it’s hard and time-consuming work to throw together a Media Watch or even its strange little Thursday night companion.

Our washed up, bitter old hacks just hit the keyboards with nary a sign of makeup! We don’t have to get a studio ready. Unlike Mr Barry, we don’t have to front a mirror and practice our lines and perfect smug, quizzical looks.

But on the subject of why the MSM sang so lustily from the “it’s a close race!” songsheet for the NSW poll, the MGH was calling bullshit! on that long before Monday night’s program and Barry’s excuse at the end of the segment for why they did that still has us scratching our heads.

Barry: “No doubt a close call is good for business and of course no-one wants to call a winner and get it wrong but it also looks like the media have switched from trusting the polls too much to not trusting them enough.”

This is almost entirely nonsense and Paul Barry is much better than this. Let’s dissect that bit by bit.

Good for business. We are talking about journalism here. We don’t want scribes who think they are Channel 9’s NRL commentators, trying to keep the contest tight and exciting by declaring a team is still in with a chance despite trailing by 10 points with seconds left on the clock. What the great bulk of the MSM did during the NSW election campaign had absolutely fuck all to do with creating a close call that was good for business.

Then there’s this “The media doesn’t want to make a fool of themselves nonsense” ? Yet that’s exactly what they did with this pervasive, repetitive knife’s edge singalong. Did that TV News talking head at 6pm on election night not make a fool of herself in declaring it may be days for a winner to be known, when the LNP government was done and dusted less two hours into the count? Did the supposedly balanced and fair ABC avoid making a fool of itself with that graphic on election eve to the effect that the latest polls were predicting a tight-run thing? Days before Barry was having his nose powdered, The Bug was shouting: what fucking late polls! This is bullshit, Aunty!

Here’s the bottom line, Paul Barry. Australia’s wretched rightwing media – and sadly that includes the ABC under Ita Buttrose – knew exactly what the polls were saying yet had no shame whatsoever in totally ignoring them. They did not worry for one nano-second as to whether viewers would switch off or readers turn the page if they reported that Labor looked headed for an easy win.

Their sole aim was to create this mythology of “either side can win this!”. Like that infamous Coorey/Uhlmann nonsense that hung-parliament chaos looms if both main parties are even on primaries in those polls, calling the election close is designed solely to improve the chances of the LNP being elected by frightening wavering voters to return to the devil they know.

It’s been the MSM template for all those recent state elections Barry mentioned and last year’s federal poll as well. Labor is in the ascendancy at the moment and the MSM’s every waking moment long before and after an election’s starting gun is fired is to drag Labor down to their own version of a level playing field. That’s the one that gives the LNP a shot at victory.

And make no mistake, Paul Barry. If the LNP had been well ahead in the polls, the MSM’s approach would have been entirely different. Deserved win looms for LNP! Why can’t Laborever get things right! Etc, fucking, etc.

They were not in the least bit worried about making fools of themselves by getting the NSW polls wrong. They well knew what the polls were saying, especially the election-eve Newspoll. They were far more interested in getting things Right.

Paul Barry needs to know this. With the LNP unlikely to get past 35 per cent primary in any federal or state election for possibly years – thanks Scott Morrison! – our Media Watch host needs to be on the alert for that ongoing MSM songsheet of their favourite songs: “The polls show this is a real nailbiter!”, “Equal primary votes means hung parliament chaos!” and their always popular “This latest gaffe has clearly ruined Labor’s chances!” toe-tapper.

***

Okay, let’s move forward, over a very good segment on this country’s woeful Unfreedom of Information rules, to a mildly interesting piece on whether Vladimir Putin uses doubles in his travels, particularly his recent time behind the driving wheel in the centre of Russian-controlled Mariupol in Ukraine.

Barry takes some time to finally expose these doubles rumours as the work of some Ukrainian propagandist. Fair enough yarn, the MGH supposes.

But what did we do? We saw the Russian TV coverage of the Mariupol trip, had no doubt whatsoever it was Putin and we were far more concerned with the cloying, pro-Russian, coverage by Channel 9’s Brett McLeod who more than a week ago said this: “a city being rapidly rebuilt after being reduced to ruins in the Russian invasion at a cost of thousands of lives”.

McLeod also waxed lyrical about the locals heaping praise on Putin during the Russian president’s surprise visit to the city: “Locals surprised to see who had dropped in, inviting Putin into their homes, telling him they were grateful for the new apartments being built.”

If only more of our relatives and friends were still alive to enjoy your benevolence, they might have told Putin.

The MGH simply could not see a rapid rebuild of a city Russia reduced to ruins being Russia’s main priority at the moment in a still very volatile warzone. They’ve got hundreds of thousands of replacement troops to clothe, train and pay; countless millions to allied countries for the missiles and other munitions they are fast running out of. It’s not cheap reducing large parts of a large country like Ukraine to rubble.

Maybe McLeod is right about the Mariupol rebuild but at the very least we accused him of unprofessional conduct for not attributing such an amazing claim to someone. And perhaps for not spotting paid actors when he saw them. But as soon as he provides vision of cranes working hard all over the ruined city and residents standing 10 deep in countless streets applauding Mother Russia for quickly returning their shattered lives to as close to normal as lost limbs can allow, an apology will be forthcoming.

The MGH proudly believes its highly critical coverage of how one of our big media outlets reported Putin’s visit was and remains far more relevant to the analysis of our dismal MSM than some overseas tosh about a gutless Putin using doubles!

Don Gordon-Brown

PS: We – and others – took the mickey out of that 30-strong Torygraph poll a while ago too.