Reporters from Fairfax and News Corp have been instructed by their editorial teams to attend briefings by a magic eight ball to seek clarification about the governments proposed Medicare Co-payment. The decision comes as the government reaches its twenty second consecutive week of issuing contradictory information about its controversial healthcare reform agenda.
A spokesperson for Fairfax told The (un) Australian that they were reluctant to take this step, but were forced to do so in order to maintain their journalistic integrity.
“Obviously we prefer to use ministerial media releases and the like but ultimately we need to use the most accurate and reliable source of information available to us. And at the moment that means using this magic eight ball.”
This latest development raises questions of a conflict of interest for the eight ball who is taking on this role as the government’s health spokeperson in addition to his ongoing position as national security advisor to opposition leader Bill Shorten.
Under the government’s new mandatory metadata retention scheme, journalists will be forced to disclose if and how often they consulted the eight ball, but not what answer the eight ball provided.
Nathan Lentern
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Categories: Media
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