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In the recent health debate at the National Press Club between Prime
Minister Rudd and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, the audience of
"undecided" voters manipulating Channel Nine's notorious
left-wriggling worm scored the debate a wildly favourable 71% to Rudd. Even Laurie
Oakes commented, "It was much closer than that, it was very even".
The audience pushing the buttons activating the scoring "worm"
trailing across our television screens displayed their obvious bias right from the start. The
worm began rising as soon as Rudd began to speak, regardless of whether he was
uttering his "working families" platitudes or was just plain
waffling. The worm started falling immediately Abbott began speaking,
regardless of what he was saying.
One has to question Channel Nine's motives. They have been employing this
tactic to manipulate public opinion for years. Even though they use independent
research group Ekas to select so-called undecided voters, it is clearly
not the case.
I would suggest that the sort of people with time on their hands in the middle of the
day would
include a fair proportion of students, unemployed people and public servants, all natural Labor voters. Very few business people could spare the time
to take part in such an exercise.
Commentators and voters were obviously mesmerised by the worm's antics. Those
who watched broadcasts featuring the worm agreed that Rudd thrashed Abbott in
the debate.
And yet, commentators and
voters who watched worm-free broadcasts, such as Skynews, scored the debate
fairly even or slightly in favour of Abbott.
This is a remarkable achievement for Abbott who knowingly walked into a
clever trap set by Rudd. Just days after announcing a new health policy with
great fanfare, Rudd challenged Abbott to a national debate on health knowing he
had not yet formulated the Opposition's policy on health.
Abbott was foolish to walk into such a trap. He should have insisted on
debating the government's shabby record to date including the pink batts fiasco
and the extravagant schools spending program.
Every time the worm has scored a political debate it has favoured Labor. Red Kerry
(O'Brien) was so buoyed by the worm's performance in the Howard/Latham debate he
issued the famous words, "The worm has had its say - scoring an
overwhelming victory in lat night's election debate to Labor leader Mark
Latham."
Unfortunately for the Liberal Party, the worm's influence extends well beyond
the screen antics. Lazy journalists repeat the worm's biased results in
their columns and gullible voters believe the columnists.
No clearer evidence of the worm's insidious influence can be found than the
Newspoll taken last week revealing that Abbott's approval rating had taken a hit,
and the Coalition's vote had slipped four percentage points.
The Liberals should insist that no debate takes place that is scored by this
insidious left-wriggling worm.
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