What a Time to be Alive That and Other Lies of the 2016 Campaign Mark Di Stefano 9781525234651 Books
Download As PDF : What a Time to be Alive That and Other Lies of the 2016 Campaign Mark Di Stefano 9781525234651 Books
What a Time to Be Alive That and Other Lies of the 2016 Campaign is Mark Di Stefano's ugly, unsanitised diary behind the double dissolution election campaign. A poll fought between two wildly ambitious men who want to win their first election, whatever it takes. Mark Di Stefano reveals what happens behind the scenes and how the two campaigns manufactured, massaged and manipulated their parties, policies and principles. What a Time to Be Alive documents the rollercoaster ride of an historic election campaign, week by long week, taking us into the bizarre world of staged photo ops, booze-drenched regrets and dirty direct messages. The exposé of unscripted moments with political leaders, their overworked staff and secretive minders show how the sausage that was the 2016 Australian election was made and reveals what is really inside.
What a Time to be Alive That and Other Lies of the 2016 Campaign Mark Di Stefano 9781525234651 Books
I have a lot of feelings about Buzzfeed.I love them for covering issues that don’t get enough attention in traditional outlets and having a dedicated indigenous affairs reporter. I hate them for reducing political reporting to clickbait and reaction gifs.
So I would probably have ignored a book about the 2016 election by Buzzfeed Australia’s political editor, Mark Di Stefano. It didn’t help that the subtitle of What a Time to Be Alive is, “That, and other lies of the 2016 campaign.” You can’t call an exclamation a lie. But then I saw that people I follow and respect on social media were reading it and enjoying it, so that was enough for me to give it a go. I’m glad I did.
Mr Di Stefano’s election diary is a brilliant and brave dissection of the 2016 election that throws out the convention that what happens on the campaign stays on the campaign. While not gratuitously dishing dirt or naming sources who could be embarrassed or damaged by the stories related, there is plenty in here that all the parties and staffers, as well as journalists and media outlets would rather not mentioned.
As such, it’s a courageous piece of work from a relatively up-and-coming journalist, prepared to potentially sacrifice future access to call it as he saw it. More should have such courage. The author’s personal asides about the pressure on modern media are quite revealing too.
What a Time to Be Alive deserves to become the definitive story of the 2016 election.
Product details
|
Tags : What a Time to be Alive: That and Other Lies of the 2016 Campaign [Mark Di Stefano] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. What a Time to Be Alive: That and Other Lies of the 2016 Campaign is Mark Di Stefano's ugly, unsanitised diary behind the double dissolution election campaign. A poll fought between two wildly ambitious men who want to win their first election,Mark Di Stefano,What a Time to be Alive: That and Other Lies of the 2016 Campaign,ReadHowYouWant,152523465X,POLITICAL SCIENCE General
People also read other books :
- Out of the Shadows Shadowlands Book 1 eBook Ashlee Nicole Bye
- THE TUNNEL edition by Gail Chehab Literature Fiction eBooks
- Traditional Wooden Dummy Ip Man´s Wing Chun System eBook Samuel Kwok Tony Massengill Jose Fraguas
- QuikGuide to Borax edition by Linda J Johnson Crafts Hobbies Home eBooks
- The Neighborhood Playhouse Leaves From a Theatre Scrapbook Classic Reprint Alice Lewisohn Crowley 9781332216451 Books
What a Time to be Alive That and Other Lies of the 2016 Campaign Mark Di Stefano 9781525234651 Books Reviews
Loved it.
I purchased this book as an ebook from the publisher, the Melbourne University Press, and I finished it in less than a day. It was very readable.
Showing considerable good judgement, last year I'd managed to book a trip overseas to attend a Ring Cycle in Washington and going on to England and Switzerland, leaving Australia the day after the election was called and returning the week before the election. I tried to get my travel agent to change the return date to the week after the election, but I was told it would cost an extra $3000, so ...
I was curious as to what exactly happened during the election campaign. Malcolm Turnbull has proven to be a disappointment, but still - no one was expecting a near death experience, with an eventual one seat majority, and losing 3 procedural votes in the first week of the sitting of parliament owing to a major stuff up with experienced ministers leaving early for a long weekend.
Malcolm Turnbull promised a lot and delivered little. He promised an end to 3 word slogans, but then came up with 'jobs and growth', which a lot of people parodied as a candidate called Jobson Growth. Actually I saw 'jobs and growth' on a sign on a building in Washington, so I wonder if that's where they got it.
Very funny and readable.
4.5★
WARNING includes making fun of groping anecdote (shame on me)
At the very tail end of the Acknowledgements, after Di Stefano has thanked everyone, he adds “to Louise Adler [CEO Melbourne University Publishing], I apologise for responding to your joke email about writing a book for you seriously. It was a joke, right?”
If it was a joke, it was a great one, the punchline being a well-written and compelling book for political aficionados, in spite of the lacklustre campaign. Di Stefano is obviously a bright, well-informed man with an appreciation of good writing. He notes The West Australian’s Andrew Probyn’s under-the-breath correction of the PM’s grammar during a speech (from “less jobs” to “fewer jobs”). I knew I liked Andrew.
But it’s more than grammar or political nitpicking. There are interviews and comments from many working behind the scenes. Darren Moss of Labor's ad agency, said while researching opinions about Turnbull’s economic plan
“I will never forget this one guy who after we showed him a Liberal Party TV ad about innovation, said, ‘What does he want me to do, f---ing weld two iPads together?' ”
You’ve gotta laugh!
Lots of politics, but I especially enjoyed the goss about the shenanigans that politicians get up to, even in—or maybe particularly in—the presence of journalists.
They know they’re being watched, they know they’re being filmed, they know their statements are going to be reported, but they don’t always remember. And there is a difference of opinion even among seasoned journos exactly what “off the record” means.
My opinion about politicians’ behaviour is the same as that about your social media. Don’t post anything that couldn’t be read on a sign on your front door or the front page of the newspaper. Having said that, I don’t think Di Stefano misused anything said off the record.
I enjoyed his combination of diary notes on each campaign bus, but I also appreciated the back stories. He explains how social media algorithms are getting really sophisticated, so political parties and groups can (for a price) target quite specific audiences, placing posts into your Facebook feed about your interests, e.g., health (meaning Medicare) or education (meaning Gonski).
But the really fun stuff, of course, is the anecdotes! I will have to quote one story since it's the kind of thing you’ll want to read out to anyone sitting within earshot if you get the book. And he writes it all down in his iPhone Notes app!
Budget Night 2016, and BuzzFeed is being treated condescendingly by the Government’s advisers, who ask why their internship proposal earned the headline “The Government Wants You to Work for $4 an Hour”.
Di Stefano comments, “If they had their way the headline would have read ‘The Government Just Launched an Internship Program that Aims to Give Young People a Future.’ BuzzFeed North Korea would have run it.”
Now it’s 11pm in Canberra, and politicians, bureaucrats, and media have gathered at Public Bar. Di Stefano was about to leave to go home to call his girlfriend, overseas
“when I felt a hand slide into the back of my pants from someone beside me.
‘Whoa!’ I turned. A woman had wrapped her arm around my lower back, pulled up my blazer and placed her hand under my shirt. She pulled me in close.
‘How IS my favourite journalist?’
I was frozen for five seconds trying to scan the woman’s face, trying to figure out who she was and if I knew her. She was wearing black and was pushing her br---sts against my side.
. . .
Yeah OK, I will play this game and pretend like yes, this woman getting right up in my personal space is not weird at all.
‘Heeeey? Who are you with?’
‘Yeknow,’ she said, slurring, ‘those f---ers. Just the guys running the place.’ "
Liberal MPs, right-wing think tank men and such.
The whole time two things were happening 1) She continued to have her arm around my waist, hand tucked under my belt, brushing the skin on my lower back; and 2) A journalist friend of mine was behind her, watching the whole thing unfold.
. . . One of the suited blokes interrupted from behind us. ‘Hey!’ he yelled, saying her name above the noise. ‘Want a drink?’
Oh no. I now knew who it was. She was a senior Liberal Party member. In a party full of men at the top, she was (and remains) one of the most prominent voices in the party. She was also going to run in the election and had a very good chance of winning.”
One of the suited blokes approaches and she says
“You don’t know Joe? Joe from The Financial Review?”
Di Stefano shakes hands, explains he is NOT Joe Aston, and she’s spirited away by the suit. But too late.
OK, a long story, but so funny, and such a good example of bad behaviour. If genders were the other way around, it would sound like a Donald Trump story.
As it is, Joe Aston himself wrote in August in The Financial Review that he wonders which was worse for Di Stefano, being molested or being mistaken for him and adds “Anyway, the book is now on sale at all good bookstores, and we now know exactly where best to cop a feel come the second Tuesday of May next year. Everyone's a winner.”
Completely politically incorrect to laugh with Aston (and Di Stefano), since the groping is appalling, but in this case it IS funny. (Sorry, PC police).
Thanks to NetGalley and Melbourne University Publishing (and the inspired Louise Adler) for letting me read a preview copy. Loved it!
I have a lot of feelings about Buzzfeed.
I love them for covering issues that don’t get enough attention in traditional outlets and having a dedicated indigenous affairs reporter. I hate them for reducing political reporting to clickbait and reaction gifs.
So I would probably have ignored a book about the 2016 election by Buzzfeed Australia’s political editor, Mark Di Stefano. It didn’t help that the subtitle of What a Time to Be Alive is, “That, and other lies of the 2016 campaign.” You can’t call an exclamation a lie. But then I saw that people I follow and respect on social media were reading it and enjoying it, so that was enough for me to give it a go. I’m glad I did.
Mr Di Stefano’s election diary is a brilliant and brave dissection of the 2016 election that throws out the convention that what happens on the campaign stays on the campaign. While not gratuitously dishing dirt or naming sources who could be embarrassed or damaged by the stories related, there is plenty in here that all the parties and staffers, as well as journalists and media outlets would rather not mentioned.
As such, it’s a courageous piece of work from a relatively up-and-coming journalist, prepared to potentially sacrifice future access to call it as he saw it. More should have such courage. The author’s personal asides about the pressure on modern media are quite revealing too.
What a Time to Be Alive deserves to become the definitive story of the 2016 election.
0 Response to "[TWJ]∎ PDF Free What a Time to be Alive That and Other Lies of the 2016 Campaign Mark Di Stefano 9781525234651 Books"
Post a Comment