Mediaboss Marketing

Welcome to the totalitarian state of WA.

Don't panic, the McGowan government isn't hoarding missiles in the bowels of Parliament House aimed at our eastcoast counterparts for greedily hogging too much GST.

It's just the new Labor government seems hell bent onconstricting the flow of information to journalists.

Labor has only been in power a couple of months, yet it is already squeezing the control of information tighter than a farmer tying an elastratorbandaroundthe neck of the lamb's scrotum.

Last month, when WAtoday asked questions about the trouble-plagued Perth Stadium, the response from the government read like a manual from a 1971 Datsun 1200 coupe.

Shortly after, a Labor minister told this reporter to "never" ring their ministerial number again.

And only last week, the ABC reported government departments were directed by the Premier's office not to respond to their questions.

But, the state government does have a method of disseminating information to Sandgropers.

Get the latest news and updates emailed straight to your inbox.

Itcomes via the art of the "drop" - stories handed to journalists by the government of the day on an exclusive basis. And they tend to go toSevenWest Media.

Drops happen. They'veexistedsince the first newspaper rolled off the printing press andno one canlayblame at the hands ofSevenWest for accepting information served upto them on a platter.

And I'm by no meanssuggesting that all the journalists at SevenWest are dining out on"drops" from the government, that would undermine the number of hardworking talented scribes who are tirelessly digging away in an attempt to "keep the bastards honest".

But with drops seemingly increasingand information from the government appearing to tighten up, most hacks in Perth have had enough.

Especially when the drops becomes farcical. Labor put out embargoed media alert on May 1 about WA joining the Our Watch program - a national organisation to prevent violence against women and children - 24 hours AFTER the story appeared in the Sunday Times.

A former senior Liberal minister joked a few weeks out from the March election, that the government of the day wouldn't "survive" if it didn't drop to The West or The Sunday Times.

And on Wednesday it all came to a head.

Labor went to such extraordinary levels to keep an "exclusive" interview with 7 News and acting Premier Roger Cook under wraps itread like a poorly scripted episode from the political TV satire The Thick of It.

Labor wanted to put the boots into the state's opposition's new whistleblower website, which it ironicallyfound out about after a tweet by an ABC journalist.

While that foul-mouthed and vociferous spin doctorMalcolm Tucker in The Thick of It manages to maintain some "control" despite the chaos that exists around him, Labor's attempt to keep the lid on its SevenWest lovefest was nothing short of what he'd call an"omnishambles".

The thing journalists embrace more than an open baris a leak.

So when word got out that Mr Cook and SevenNews were about to get cosy at Parliament House, journalists around Perth skedaddled there faster than Bob Hawkedowning a schooner.

When this reporter got on theblower to a government flak catcher about the "presser," the person made it abundantly clear this was a SevenWest event only and wanted to know who "leaked" the information about it.

Oh, the irony.

I ignored the non-invite and said I would be coming.

I would've had more respect forthe government's media minder if the person delivered a blistering tirade of abuse that wouldmake"potty mouthed maniac" Tucker wince.

But it's like what Terri, the bungling media advisor in the Thick of It said about journalists.

"The problem is that if you say to a journalist, "Can you avoid that topic?", that's when they really go for it. It's like saying to the school bully, "I'll wet myself if you tickle me."

So why should we give a stuff if the Labor government is seemingly getting cosy with one media organisation?

Well, when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commissionwas investigating the sale ofThe Sunday Timestorival Seven West Media, it warned it could "substantially lessen competition" inthe supply of news and information to readers in Western Australia.

In a submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance, which represents WA journalists, urged the watchdog to impose conditions on the sale that would allow the Sunday paper to maintain editorial independence from SWM.

MEAA regional WA director Tiffany Venning said merging journalists fromThe Sunday TimesandPerthNowwebsite into the rival newsroom ofThe West Australianwould createa litany of problems if they could not work independently of each other.

"There would be a threat to the diversity of news and opinion in WA if Seven West Media gained control ofThe Sunday Times," she told the ACCC.

"The two papers under different owners have ploughed their own furrow. The different approaches allow the news agenda of WA to have a variety of major influences and influencers."

If you think this is the ramblings of a hapless hack lamenting his own lack of investigative skills to penetrate the halls of power, you are probably half right.

But if you don't think diversity in media is important or "keeping the bastards honest" is critical, then we are all doomed.

Read more:
Labor in 'The Thick of It' trying to ban media from 'omnishambles' press conference - WAtoday