I was sitting at my pc, absorbing the news that St Kevin had re-ascended to his rightful place and that the country would no longer be led by a decent human being no matter who won the next election, when I saw the following words: “The …. Government will be treated by historians as one of the great governments in Australia’s history. Yet, from day to day the media increasingly presented it as a government of crooks and clowns. It helped redefine Australia in the world, giving it that more independent look …. “.

And: “The … government redefined Australia’s attitudes towards export of its resources, with more emphasis on Australia’s interests and less emphasis on the interests of its rich foreign customers.” Then there was a discussion of the considerable achievements of the government, followed by this: “Why didn’t these achievements come through more strongly in the media? For some of the media controllers a lot of the changes were not reforms at all, but reprehensible radicalism. …. other media, particularly the Sydney afternoon newspapers and the Murdoch papers, seemed simply in for the kill.”

Julia Gillard’s government? The words would certainly apply, but the government referred to was the Whitlam government. Apart from the emergence of social media, which speeds up these processes, nothing has basically changed.

If you would like to follow-up the quoted text, see Death of the Lucky Country, by Donald Horne, Penguin, 1976, pages 66 and 67.