Have you heard the big news? News Crap Australia’s daily Brisbane turdbloid The Courier-Mail has a YouGov poll that apparently contains some sensational news about the relative standing with voters of Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and LNP Opposition Leader, David Crisafulli.
The poll was first plugged to readers in last weekend’s Sunday Mail and more full-page ads pointing to the release of the poll this coming Friday morning have also been run in the Courier-Mail. (main picture)
They promise a “poll result you never saw coming”.
All so very exciting, isn’t it? But our Media Glass House researchers are taking a sceptical view.
First, they say, the poll was likely taken early last week or perhaps even earlier. So when its results are unveiled they will be about a fortnight old.
Second, given the way News Crap Australia outlets scramble these days to attract new subscribers and readers, a “poll result you never saw coming” could mean anything.
Perhaps the Premier has plunged in voters’ affections and the LNP leader is set to assume office, albeit not until after the next fixed election date in October 2024.
Or maybe the poll shows Mr Crisafulli is being used by the Premier as a convenient mop to wipe the floor. We won’t know until this Friday.
As we all acknowledge, a week is a long time in politics, let alone a fortnight. So, what will the poll figures mean given that events occurring even this week could affect voters’ views?
Not. A lot, suggest our MGH teams. But that won’t stop News Crap Australia desperately flogging the release of the stats in the meantime to build its subscriber base.
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Our MGH teams also feel a bit jaded by teases such as “a poll result you never saw coming” and the calculated and delayed release of such information.
They point to the longstanding and, in their view, very annoying practice of many TV news programs that plug, sometimes for days, a “must see” story.
If the story is so newsworthy, our MGH teams ask, why is it never rushed to air as soon as possible instead of being left unaired yet promoted to within an inch of its life?
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Speaking of full-page ads in the hard-copy News Crap Australia papers, our MGH teams cast their collective eyes over Monday’s edition of The Courier-Mail and can report a very healthy sprinkling of full-page, half-page, and quarter-page ads. In a 48-page paper they counted a total of 11-and-one-quarter pages of such display ads.
Unfortunately, the total included more than six pages of in-house ads for News Crap Australia-related entities such as Sky News, so only revenue on paper there not actual cash through the door. (below)
Our MGH researchers have not conducted the ad-counting exercise for some time, and now they know why. The result is always very predictable.
If it were not for the charitable support of Gerry Harvey and his Harvey Norman retail chain, and the occasional burst of political ads from Clive Palmer, our MGH teams suspect the hard-copy metro dailies like the Courier-Mail would have folded long ago.
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Nestled among the in-house ads run in Monday’s Courier was one promoting Code, a News Crap Australia online subscription service drawing together all forms of sports news from Australia and overseas. (below)
Our MGH teams admitted they had never previously heard of the new sports news aggregator service. Yes, perhaps they haven’t been paying attention.
Certainly the very modest advert in The Courier-Mail could have been easily missed.
Still, they wish Code well and hope it fares better than the Flash news aggregator service launched in October 2021 which by many reports has since been given a far from flash reception by would-be subscribers.
Indeed, in February changes to Flash were announced by the News Crap Australia subsidiary Foxtel which basically scaled back any original editorial content while making some staff redundant.
Of course, the changes were all dressed up as being very positive developments in the statement that broke the news.
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