The Light and Shade of Radio Political Commentary

 

Australian radio airwaves were predictably full of reaction, analysis and comment this morning following last night’s leadership spill.

The content covered a broad spectrum of opinion, and included both serious commentary and various attempts at humour.

3AW’s Neil Mitchell was cynical in his observations, including the following:

Countries around the world, including Indonesia, were looking at Australia saying ‘what the hell is going on down there?’.

We are starting to look like the Italy of the Pacific, run by a series of dysfunctional governments and leaders that can change every second Tuesday.

So, here’s a different idea. What if the Australian people got to have a say in who is prime minister? What if the country was run on something other than political self-interest?

What if we had governments of vision, dignity, certainty and credibility?

What if we had some stability in our political system and stopped carrying on like Italy without the charm?

What if politicians started to tell the truth and found some principles in which they believed? And stood by them.

What if the country could respect its leaders? What if they stopped taking us as fools and stopped treating us as a necessary evil, there to be to be patronised, manipulated and ignored while they play their self-interested little games?

What if…. No. Forget it, it won’t happen.”

2GB’s Alan Jones was not backing either the ousted or the new Prime Minister and had this to say during a discussion with former Labor minister and number cruncher Graham Richardson:

A 57-45 vote means two things – if only six people out of 102 had voted the other way, he wouldn’t be there, and despite how hopeless Julia Gillard was, how bad the polls were, how monumental the failures, and with defeat staring Labor under Gillard in the face, they were on the edge of the cliff – 45 people in the Labor Party must have hated Rudd so much they still voted for Gillard.”

And in Hobart, the SeaFM Breakfast crew decided to handle the story with this parody. 

 

We leave it to you to judge which style of treatment of the story is the most entertaining.