As far as Victorian Premier Dan Andrews goes, News Corp – and the Herald Sun specifically – is a shark smelling blood at the moment. Or at least it thinks it smells blood. It would very much like to be smelling blood, in this particular instance.
Andrews is, rightfully, facing scrutiny over the handling of the Hotel Quarantine saga, and is copping some degree of deserved heat for skirting questioning on the issue. The Premier has repeatedly deflected that line of questioning, preferring to defer until after the on-going inquiry has been completed, despite there being no legal obligation for him to do so. That’s scrutiny that’s well-earned, and as the State Leader it’s a buck that stops with him, regardless of the past political machinations that may have contributed to it.
Regardless, the embattled Premier remains steadfast in his public duties; fronting gruelling, daily press conferences – being run seven days a week – that often take well over an hour to complete.
However if your only source of news was Murdoch, you’d be forgiven for thinking Andrews was a dead man walking; a petrified leader on his last legs doggedly resisting the kiss of his own sword despite howling public opinion.
It’s a relentless line of media braying and hooting that shows no sign of yielding. Yesterday, in a classic example of Murdochism, the Herald Sun ran a front page dedicated to directly going after Andrews, using Federal Government and Liberal Party attack points to harangue the Victorian Labor leader.
Throughout the course of the deadly second wave in Melbourne, the Herald Sun has dedicated fistfuls of anti-Andrews print space to its fleet of bloodthirsty opinion hounds, including the inevitable Andrew Bolt.
To highlight but a mere few, here’s one particularly single-handed effort from Bolt published on July 8th.
Another particularly egregious pairing, from Bolt and the Bolt-lite James Campbell, came in quick succession on August 5th.
The point here being that News Corp, and the Herald Sun in particular, has been pushing a narrative that disproportionately rails against the Andrews Victorian Government, while allowing the Morrison Federal Government to escape scrutiny for its overall failure of national leadership throughout the pandemic.
Which brings us to yesterday, and one of the most glorious backfires in recent memory.
Almost assuredly assuming the result it’d get, the Herald Sun’s Facebook page ran a public poll with a simple question: “Do you think Premier Daniel Andrews has done a good job during the pandemic?”
From the Herald’s point of view, that’s the kind of question you only ask when you know what answer you’re going to get.
Or, at least you think you know what answer you’re going to get.
Whatever the case, it’s clearly not gone the way they’d hoped.
At least 178,500 votes, 68% for option “yes.”
That’s nearly 7 out of 10.
News Corp’s own misguided blustering blowing up in their faces. Boy do you ever love to see that.
