The retrenchment of one of Australia’s finest LNP propagandists and public relations officers has thrown into chaos the Queensland state election campaigns of The Courier-Mail and The Sunday Mail.

As in past state elections, the two papers – known affectionately as the LNP’s Bowen Hills branch – had been relying on James Campbell to write endless pro-LNP/anti-Labor splashes for both papers during the weeks before and during the looming campaign for the state poll on 26 October.

But in major fourth-estate news overnight, as part of News Corpse Australia’s major budget and staffing cuts, Campbell has been sacked at his other job of pretending to be a journalist at The Herald-Sun in Melbourne.

It is understood Campbell – known affectionately by his former colleagues there as the Human Sloth – had already prepared a number of essays delving into how awful Queensland Premier Steven Miles and his Labor colleagues are – how tired and out of touch they’ve become – and how absolutely ready Opposition Leader David Crisafulli and his experienced and talented team are to rescue the state from 10 tired, wasted, years of Labor.

The Bug understands Courier-Mail editor Chris Jones (very right, below) is acutely aware what the loss of Campbell means to the News Queensland campaign to see a much-needed change of government come October.

“Writing the risible right-wing rubbish that James Campbell manages without raising a sweat is a skill learned over many years,” one of Jones’s senior editors told The Bug on the condition of anonymity. “You’ve got to have absolutely no shame at all to be able to do that.

“Campbell has honed these skills so sharply that he was not even the slightest bit embarrassed any more that the reality was he was always constantly sucking up Rupert Murdoch’s arse bigtime. I guess in time he just got hooked on the taste.

“Sure, the editor has a number of tyros on his staff willing to step into the role but the bottom line – sorry – they’re too young and inexperienced. These amazing skills don’t just develop over night; you have to have absolutely no shame at all, nor any pretence whatsoever of actually being a real journalist committed to a code of ethics.

“To supply those much needed 800-point splashes that will be run in the many weeks basically from here on it, Chris Jones – and his counterpart at the sister Sunday – might have to fall back on some old hands such as Des Houghton and Michael O’Connor.”

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