If a prime minister calls bingo at an RSL club in a Sydney marginal seat, but the media on his campaign trail were purposely not invited to cover it, did it actually happen?
Reporters on Scott Morrison’s campaign bus were miffed the prime minister’s staffers gave them a night off on Thursday evening and then sent them pictures and videos of his night at Windsor RSL in the electorate of Macquarie. The bingo pictures are plastered over Morrison’s social media accounts.
On Friday morning, many media bosses were quietly questioning whether having reporting teams on the campaign trail is good bang for their buck.
Covering a campaign is an expensive exercise for media outlets, who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to put photographers, journalists and camera people on buses, planes and in hotels for weeks on end.
First night on the campaign trail and instead of covering an event with Scott Morrison, journalists are sent videos/photos from his staff. He had dinner and called bingo at Windsor RSL. Keen to show you more but we were only informed after it happened #ausvotes #auspol2019 pic.twitter.com/1Y6JUUD3cI
— Olivia Leeming (@olivialeeming) April 11, 2019
One former Liberal party insider who worked on Tony Abbott’s 2013 campaign said the tactic was possibly about cutting the media out to minimise embarrassing moments – eating an onion comes to mind.
“If this is the way it’s going, it’s an interesting trend. Yes, from a political perspective, you get more control, you get the message done your way, but if you’re shutting out the journalists, it will start to cause angst,” the former staffer told the Guardian.
“Do we want our campaigns to go this way where politicians and their staff start to control not just where you go for the campaign but every [image and message] is tightly controlled right down to them editing everything and blocking out other video cameras?”
He warned that creating a climate of distrust on the campaign trail so early on could backfire for Morrison.
“The journos are always under pressure to make sure they are covering everything,” he said.
“You can, by mistake, force the journos to be constantly on watch – they become like spies because they don’t trust you.”
The former staffer said if the trend continues, the media will be forced into detective mode and will be manning every door and following Morrison everywhere so they don’t miss anything.
PM called the bingo at Windsor RSL tonight. Looks like fun! But @ScottMorrisonMP didn’t invite the travelling media 🤷🏻♀️.. we did get a report from his team though 🤔. Pic: Supplied. @10Daily #auspol2019 pic.twitter.com/XyP7HDgC4l
— Phoebe Bowden (@PhoebeBowden) April 11, 2019
The snub is not unprecedented. Malcolm Turnbull also went rogue on election day 2016. After casting his vote, he shook off the pesky press pack and took off to western Sydney with wife Lucy.
While in some cases it’s logistically impossible to take a press pack of 25-35 people to every single campaign event each day, generally the political parties will organise a small media pool if they can’t get everyone there in time.
For political reporters covering the leaders on the hustings, it is akin to being held hostage. Reporters are told information about the carefully stage-managed events on a need-to-know basis because political parties are terrified of protesters getting the details.
Both Morrison’s and opposition leader Bill Shorten’s campaigns are using WhatsApp to communicate with media on their buses. In past campaigns, instructions about when and where to meet were emailed.
Labor’s WhatsApp group has been set up so only admins can send messages.Journalists on the Liberal campaign trail can send messages over the WhatsaApp channel and expressed their annoyance at being locked out of the PM’s schedule.
Day2 of political Contiki and we’re all aboard the #billbus & off to meet some workers who start very, very early. #auspol #ausvotes19 pic.twitter.com/hucZVYJ8yD
— Jonathan Lea (@JonathanLea10) April 11, 2019
Meanwhile, over in Shorten’s camp, the journos were reportedly in good spirits on Friday morning, despite an early start, after stopping off at Sydney Olympic Park for a breakfast of bacon-and-egg rolls.
