Your say: Has the media turned Australian politics into a soap opera?

Every day when I get up I do a few things. I turn on the TV to channel nine or channel seven, I download the latest newspaper for my state and the Australian and I jump online and scan the news across all of my favourite news websites. I’m a bit of a current affairs junky, as I’m sure many of you are, but over the last two weeks the headlines have seemed more and more like rubbish.

That’s a bit harsh but there have been so many instances of the media sticking their nose into politics in a way that really isn’t reporting the news. I wouldn’t be calling it investigative journalism either.

Last week a well known radio personality tweeted that Julie Bishop and Malcolm Turnbull would be “conducting a secret meeting” at his home to discuss their takeover of the current PM. This quite understandably went viral. Now, fast forward an hour or so and Malcolm Turnbull is sharing tweets on his personal twitter proving that he was on a train on a ride home after a meeting in North Sydney. Then Turnbull and the media personality engaged in a conversation of speculation and basically, accusations of lies.

This wasn’t journalism, this was churning up drama and speculation for the sake of it.

Then we look at the stream of “inside information” everyone seems to be getting. The media have reported so many “unidentified” backbenchers and Liberal party politicians and everything they’ve had to say about Tony Abbott and the #LibSpill but until the email from Simpkins on Friday afternoon, there had been nothing really said to confirm anything from any credible source. What happened to choosing credible sources?

Then in the lead up to the QLD election, if you read the newspapers up here from a point of no political bias or affiliation you would be completely and utterly shocked. Every media outlet had it’s political position and that is all it took when reporting on the election.

The gossip magazines are the ones who report in a “he said, she said” kind of way with no regard for the truth or real facts. And it seems as though a lot of our media are following suit here.

The flashy headlines, the over sensationalisation, the lack of credible sources and the pure meddling that is going on it some of the poorest journalism I’ve ever experienced. Now I’m not a journalist – simply a blogger! But I try to share facts and interesting information when it becomes available.

Tell us today, do you think the media need to stop sticking their noses in and start simply reporting the news again? Does the media make Australian politics look like a soap opera? Share your thoughts on the situation today…