Guardian Australia Counted The Number Of Times Campbell Newman Says “Strong” In Press Conferences And It’s Glorious

Some of the absolute worst parts of an election campaign are the endless set-piece press conferences, where politicians spew out painstakingly rehearsed talking points in front of highway overpasses, factories and hospitals to provide TV-friendly soundbites for the evening news. These press conferences are pure bullshit; they give the politician what they want (airtime and a platform), and the viewer learns nothing of value.

The Queensland election is proving to be an excellent example; Premier Campbell Newman held a press conference at a train station yesterday to spruik increased rail funding, and major TV networks duly reported on it without really interrogating whether Newman intends to follow through on the announcement if he’s re-elected, or if he can pay for it.

If you watched the small amount of footage from that press conference that made it onto Nine News, not only does Newman come across as a reasonably intelligent and articulate individual, but his claim seems to hold water because it’s gone almost before you can digest it.

Thankfully, Guardian Australia have cobbled together a far more accurate and revealing portrayal of both Newman himself and the relentless cycle of confected nonsense that is broadcast politics, simply by playing more footage from that very same press conference than would usually make it into a nightly newscast.

Turns out the Premier of Queensland sounds less like a calm statesman and more like a gibbering idiot when you let the camera run for more than five seconds; rather then swallow and regurgitate whatever Newman said, the Guardian chose to critique his claims by counting the number of times Newman used the LNP’s current soundbite of choice, “strong”, in that short press conference, and stitching them together in a handy video. Watch and enjoy.

Newman spat “strong” out no less than 23 times in that press conference, which is rivalling the number of times it gets said in Kanye West’s 2007 banger ‘Stronger’. By showing Newman doing that, as opposed to obediently editing the footage to make him seem less hopeless than he actually came across in real life, the Guardian give people watching a much more accurate picture of what this guy’s actually like than that Channel Nine report did. You learn something by watching this, which is kind of the point of reporting.

Now, because you sat through that lecture about Journalism, here is the promised Kanye banger.