Pollies to the left of me, Journos to the right of me

Here I am stuck in the middle with you. 

(Warning, rambling rant follows)

Here's the thing. The political debate in this country sucks. It really does. Either we have Captain No leading the opposition, or we have a government that continuously seems to fail comms 101. 

The media is just as bad. News as entertainment has become the fashion. No one wants to hear about details on policies, what they want to hear about is Leadership spills, leaks in cabinet and whether Tony Abbott is going to be able to find a shop in Goulburn that he hasn't already done a Press Event at.

And you know what the journos and pollies are doing about this current state of play?

Blaming each other.

Now before I go on, I should mention that I think there are good hard working politicians and good hard working journalists out there who are trying to buck the trends, never let it be said that I have tarred everyone with the same brush.

However, let it also be said that neither side is solely to blame for the current swamp. Nope. They both are.

Politicans and journalists live in a symbiotic relationship (though I'm sure some would called it parasitic, who the parasite is depends on your point of view). They feed each other and nourish each other so they can both gain the benefit. Politicians get the coverage and journalists get the stories, any imbalance in the system is a result of both politicians and journalists looking for the easy route.

Take Tony Abbott for example. Abbott is a man who long ago realised that his best bet was treating the electorate like a bunch of six year olds. Time and time again he's released a sound bite as his policy statement, "Great big new tax" and "Stop the boats" are probably the two that get the most exercise these days. Time and again we've seen these Sound Bite Policy's re-printed in the papers and broadcast on the news with barely a whisper of actual analasys.

The politician is feeding the media what they want, short, sharp statements that can fit into the attention span of a six year old. The media then responds with favourable coverage of that politician, thus confirming the behaviour. It's like Pavlovs bloody dog.

Look, I have a lot of respect for people like Laurie Oakes and Lyndsay Tanner. Both of them are well respected in their fields and both speak a lot of sense. What needs to happen is for both of them to come together and join forces in some sort of super Poli-Journalist amalgam that can smack some sense into both sides.