Dirty Politics makes some really insightful comments about the media and voting. Hager may sound idealistic, but wouldn’t it be great to aim for a fair and transparent style of politics in this country? Here’s one point he made that really struck me as interesting in light of young people being turned off voting:

“… the trick of political media management is not to get this or that press release covered; it is about ‘framing’ how journalists perceive issues … Which brings us back to the quote from Simon Lusk in the first chapter. ‘There are a few basic propositions with negative campaigning that are worth knowing about. It lowers turnout, favours right more than left as the right continue to turn out, and drives away the independents.’ In short, many people simply stop participating in politics. If politicians cannot be trusted, if politics looks like a petty or ugly game and if no one seems to be talking about the things that matter, then what’s the point of bothering to participate? Just leave them to it. There are innovations in US Republican Party thinking on this point: election tactics do not have to be just about winning votes; they can be equally effective if groups of people in society just stop voting altogether. We should not assume that everyone thinks low voter turnout is a bad idea.”

Here’s a pic from the book launch in Auckland … poet Janet Charman giving her witty opening speech.