Welcome to the White Noise

Recently, I was privileged enough to find myself addressing a gathering of CEOs discussing the challenges facing their industry.  Unlike your typical caricature of corporate captains planning how to run the world, they were a well-meaning lot, who had been manipulated into a tight spot and were desperately trying to find some way out that would not only protect their shareholders, but also the wider Australian economy.  It was almost enough to renew your faith in corporate Australia.

Their industry had been quietly going about its business until someone, somewhere decided to make a political football of it in the midst of a complex public policy debate.  These CEOs were now having to adapt to life in the public spotlight - kind of like evolution with the fast-forward button on, where any mis-step sees you removed from the gene pool.  But the travails of these CEOs and their industry are not remarkable.  This story is repeated every day and, in any event, public scrutiny is rarely a bad thing, especially in a field where it's been missing, and dealing with issues like this is what CEOs get paid for.  What is remarkable is the way out of this position in which they find themselves.

Like most newbies to the crucible of public opinion, their instincts were to attack the issue with, and I quote, "reason and truth". If only we could just explain, they said, people would understand why things are the way they are.  We just need to clarify, educate and make things transparent.  We have nothing to hide after all.  Reason and truth - that's what this debate needs.

They were, of course, 100% correct.  What a hysterical, politicised public policy debate does need is reason and truth.  How else do we arrive at sensible public policy, rather than glib one-line "solutions" with all the depth of a Lady Gaga track?  However, it was my bitter duty to stand at this point and say, "Ladies and Gents, reason and truth will not carry the day."  No-one really needed me to explain why.

On another occasion, I found myself in a Board meeting of a well-known sporting organisation discussing an important strategic decision.  The Board, to their credit, recognised that too little information was available to make a good decision.  They resolved to conduct further research and instructed the CEO to report back at the next meeting.  Meeting adjourned.  That evening, a senior "respected" journalist breathlessly reported that a decision had been reached and that the organisation had embarked on a particular direction.  Hard hitting journalism at its fanciful best.  Clearly, when a journalist says, "It is understood that...", what they really mean is, "Once upon a time...".

Interestingly, the organisation ended up taking the complete opposite direction to that reported and, two years later, no-one has raised a question over the credibility of said journalist.

Caroline says...

Again, to anyone who has dealt with the news media, a story like this is unremarkable.  In the every day war between audience numbers, journalists' egos and the efforts of spin doctors, the truth becomes the first casualty.  The effects of this collateral damage are wide reaching and destructive.

It is said in politics that a government is only as good as its opposition.  While it still may be true that a government will only perform to the degree to which it is held to account, this saying doesn't reflect the new balance of power in the world of public policy.  A government, these days, is only as good as its media.

The media, for its part, has made its position clear: we want it simple, we want it popular, we want it emotive and we want it quick ... and if we don't get these things, we'll just make it up anyway.  The media has reduced public discourse to a Kafka-esque reality TV show where the clever and forthright are maligned and voted off.

This is why one can stand in a room of CEOs and tell them "reason and truth" will not win their complex public policy debate and be met with only deflated acceptance.

This is why our politicians fear adopting positions of leadership and providing a vision for our nation beyond just a patchwork of muddled policies, each targeted to a particular demographic.

This is why talk-back serpents fill the void of moral authority, engorged on base emotions.

Tougher penalties for acts of public indecency?  Call now, our lines are open!

This is why we're fuelled by fear and loathing, and distracted by noise and half-truths.

This is why I have chosen to start this blog - to provide a different voice (whether it be mine or a guest author) on what's happening in the now derelict palace of public discourse. 

Hope you enjoy the ride ... [fades to static]