It was the week Jeff Kennett came of age as a shock jock - and a truly hideous week for the Doyle Liberals
July 18, 2008
Stephen Mayne was The Age's media critic during the 2002 Victorian election and this column appeared on Saturday, November 16, 2002
When a political heavy is called a dill on the TV news, things have reached an ominous low.
It was Robert Doyle's miserable luck that the first big story of this election campaign came on a relatively quiet news day.
The big set piece event, the first leaders' debate in 10 years last Friday, had been scored a civilised draw, and the campaign failed to cut through an unusually busy news week for the following five days - until Robert Dean came along.
There was pent-up media frustration for a big political story, and when it came, what a feeding frenzy it was. The Herald Sun replaced Gary Ablett with Dr Dean as the day's front-page villain, the news led all the TV and radio bulletins, and journalists such as Seven's Brendan Donohue and Stateline's Josephine Cafagna suggested the Liberal campaign was ruined.
While Donohue used some of the most colourful language you'd ever hear in a political television news story (Dean was a "silly sausage" and "a dill", among other barbs), the issue was not big enough to drag Seven's alleged Victorian current affairs program Today Tonight out of a torpor that has yielded not a single election story so far.
The 7.30 Report has also been missing in action, failing to carry a story since the day the election was called, although Stateline made up a little for this last night.
3AW state political reporter Craig Wilson broke the news of Dean's demise yesterday morning. Neil Mitchell jumped on the story with some punchy analysis from Jeff Kennett's former media director, Steve Murphy.
It was the week Jeff Kennett came of age as a shock jock. His daily chats with Channel Nine's David Broadbent after 3.30pm provide insight and entertainment. He devotes most of the hour from 4-5pm to the election. Political staffers and journalists are tuning in.
The ALP is grudgingly dealing with Kennett, who has so far has interviewed John Brumby, Lynne Kosky, Andre Haermeyer, Marsha Thomson and Sherryl Garbutt. However, ALP president Jim Claven, campaign director David Feeney, John Thwaites, Mary Delahunty and Rob Hulls have rejected his invitations to appear.
Kennett morphed from commentator to player on Thursday with a feisty exchange with Robert Doyle, calling Dean "selfish" - an exchange that found its way on to the front page of The Age and the Herald Sun.
The release of the budget figures yesterday was an interesting exercise in media management. The 84 pages were released on the Internet at 10am and Treasurer John Brumby was immediately all over Jon Faine and Neil Mitchell.
The subsequent press conference with Brumby and Bracks was still dominated by the Dean issue. Whether the matter continues to be Robert Doyle's millstone will swing on remaining questions about travel allowance claims and whether Dean ever lived in Gembrook.
The worst moment for Labor this week was Daniel Grollo's dramatic speech on Tuesday, tipping a bucket on building industry work practices.
This is, strangely, the only election-related story that has made the front page of The Australian since day one.
In media terms, it was a clear winning week for Labor. Steve Bracks came through the leaders' debate relatively unscathed, then watched the Liberals implode around Robert Dean.
* Stephen Mayne, publisher of Crikey.com.au, is a former press secretary to Jeff Kennett.
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