The Index | Not so dry July

We’ve scraped the local internet and wrung it dry for this month’s content. Who from the world of sport, media, and politics has put in a sterling or lamentable media performance and how many turnips have they earned? Featuring this month: Joe Biden, Nincompoop A, and El Presidente.

 

Joe Slidin’?

 

He might not be much chop at Presidenting, but Donald Trump knows how to land a pithy insult. The moniker ‘sleepy Joe’ to describe the soporific and problematic media performances of Joe Biden is becoming a real liability for the Democrats, with everyone scrutinising who his running mate – and potential Vice President, aka fill-in President – might be.

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In a two-horse race between a pathological salesman and an ailing septuagenarian, the polling suggests nodding off on the job is preferable to the tantrum energy of the current Pres.

But the dangers are real and growing for Biden. We suggest his media team limit and stage manage his appearances strictly, even if that means his media performances have a hostage quality to them, and start talking about team and surrounding him by competent aides when he’s seen in public.

Rating: 4 turnips

 

Battle of the Nincompoops

 

Over the last two decades, social media has opened our eyes to the world: from the Arab Spring, to Black Lives Matter, to an extraordinary array of dum-dums videoing themselves in public and uploading them for us to shake our heads to.

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Bunnings Karen is the latest case study of stupidity in a busy week for Australian social media nincompoops. The week before, online social media activist, Eve Black, passed through a police checkpoint refusing to give details of where she was headed, in spite of efforts by the adults to contain a deadly pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

But the traditional media doesn’t get away scot-free after encouraging all sorts of COVID denialism and shrill comparisons between Communist dictators and our democratically elected leaders.

Our advice is for the government to start to tighten up on the type of content that’s allowed to pass muster on both social and traditional media.

Rating: 5 shrivelled turnips

El Presidente can’t escape the rainy season

 

If there’s an Eddie Maguire sized sinkhole opening up in Melbourne, there’s no doubt the Collingwood President would be pondering jumping into it for the duration of his current media horrors.

The only problem with that plan is that there’s no end in sight and his media troubles tend to coincide with the presence of Eddie himself.

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Whether it’s the ongoing spectre of poor club cultural raised by Heritier Lumumba, players who seem to have a predilection for finding officers of the law and for ignoring Eduardo’s strict COVID advice, or his own coach who was caught out recently showing Alicia Molik how to deliver a forehand smash, El Presidente can not win.

There is such a thing as bad publicity. We’d commend the Pres to speak with a social and public affairs consultant ahead of his early morning media forays, and maybe to check in at lunch, and after dinner. Ed is a walking, talking brand, but he just needs to know where some of the landmines are before galloping across an increasingly vexed media field.

Rating: 4.5 medium sized turnips