Costello vs Howard... yawn

The Australian media is buzzing with talk about the treasurer calling the PM a "liar". Well, not that Costello actually used the word liar, but they are trying to sensationalise the issue just a tad. According to the treasurer, back in 1994, Howard promised him that he would step aside after 1.5 years or something. And our PM of 10 years denies this was said or that any promise was made.

Whats really interesting is just how frantic the media have become. The media have a very short attention span and focus heavily on the personality behind the politics. Unlike the US media, the Australian media only focus on "who said what" on that day. There is very little focus on what policy they advocate and what principles they stand for. Everyone in politics seems to get a free pass when they change their stance on an issue, except for the PM himself who is scrutinised heavily. For example, the leader of the Greens does a backflip every month on a range of issues and says utterly moronic things, but the media pretend to have no memory and let him get away with it.

Ideally, when a bunch of power hungry politicians (is there any other variety) fight over power, it shouldn't be headline news. But theres an element of the paparazzi in there, our leaders are celebrities of a sort, so the media like to write about their lives at every turn.