Australia's Media Is Doing Everything It Can To Elect One Nation

According to a piece published in the Australian Financial Review on Thursday, there are three qualities unique to Pauline Hanson that explain her gravitas: commitment, consistency and congruence.

Let’s, for a second, leave aside the fact that Hanson doesn’t actually embody any of these traits (she is deeply inconsistent and the only thing she is committed to is her political career, even the targets of racism have shifted over time) and instead focus on why the AFR is commissioning “body language and confidence experts” to shower Hanson with praise, and tell us how her “tight throat” tells the public she’s “defending territory”.

Something significant has shifted in the media landscape over the last few months. It’s not just that legacy outlets aren’t applying the same kind of journalistic rigour to One Nation as they used to (as sharply documented by Scott). It’s that many of them now seem to be doing everything possible to ensure Hanson is seen as a viable, and even preferable, political candidate. And according to the polls, it’s working.

Some of it is being done by accident, as a consequence of broader malaise seeping through the industry, but there is also a clear design and intent to much of glowing coverage Hanson and One Nation are receiving.

One Nation’s media support is unprecedented

For a minor party like One Nation, their main goal is to make sure they are present in the day to day political conversation. They don’t get to set the agenda in the way the government or opposition do, so they are reliant on incendiary comments and stunts to force their way into the debate.