The state premier of Victoria for almost a decade, Daniel Andrews, has rolled up his sleeves and started throwing punches at his greatest and pettiest enemy, Sky News. Andrews called the controversial media outlet “bullshit” and expressed his utter disgrace in the publication. Hell yeah Dan, rip in!
If you aren’t caught up on the beef between the ex-politician and right-wing news outlet, let’s recap it now:
A long time ago (2020) in a land far away (Victoria), the Andrews government elected to lockdown the state in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
This decision was widely criticised by one group in particular: Sky News — one of Rupert Murdoch’s conservative mouthpieces.
In a fit of anger and alliteration they anointed Andrews by a new title, more fitting for his “undemocratic” wielding of power.
And thus, Dictator Dan was born! (Worst superhero origin story ever.)
The unfortunately catchy nickname stuck, and ended up being ironically adored by Andrews’ supporters just as much as it was used by his critics.
One of my favourite moments in lockdown was when comedian Tony Martin took the piss out of Dan’s haters in his mock of late-night-call-in-radio podcast Sizzletown, by highlighting how repetitive they sound.
However the nickname was seldom commented on by the Dictator himself… until now!
In his first interview since leaving the position of premier, Andrews said people can “call me what you want.”
“In Victoria the haters hate, and the rest vote Labor, and that’s fine by me,” Andrews said — low-key flex much?
But then he took a moment to truly tear into the absolute cretins that are Sky News.
“What really matters is not that nonsense, that noise, that vitriol, that After Dark bullshit. That’s all that it is – the worst of American politics imported into ours,” decimated Dan.
Sky News After Dark is the shorthand for the programs that come on late at night, where all pretences of being a ‘news’ show are thrown out the window.
Shock jocks and controversial figures such as Andrew Bolt and Peta Credlin all take turns on separate shows to whine about whatever culture war issue they’re mad at that night and rant.
This programming model isn’t known for its thorough fact checking, which is why during the pandemic they actually got suspended for spreading misinformation about COVID.
Dan “The Dictator” Andrews spoke especially negatively of this abhorrent method of “journalism.”
“What concerns me is when you’ve got people who are just absolute pretenders. You’re not a reporter. You’re not a journalist. You’re a partisan,” eviscerated the ex-premier.
One can only imagine how thrilling it must have been for Andrews to finally take a stand against Sky News, after years of playing it relatively cool against them.
When in a position of political power, it is not advantageous to speak against any leg of the media, even the ones that are seemingly your greatest foes. And so politicians usually do not publicly call out the pseudo-news channel.
In this journalist’s opinion, Dan was speaking straight facts here. The conservative Murdoch press are an incredibly powerful force in Australia’s political landscape and if they want to claim to be making the world better, then they also need to be held accountable for the damage they cause.
So by all means Dan, rip in. They’d do the same.
