Will the Chasers go to war on Rudd?
I have a couple of micro-theories about the end of the Howard era and the rise of Kevin Rudd, which I've yet to come across in the recent raft of histories about the 2007 election. Nothing startling, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.
The first involves the diminished influence in the run-up to the last election of the radio host, Alan Jones; the second involves the increased influence of ABC's comedy troupe, the Chasers War on Everything, which is about to make its long-awaited comeback after 18 months off-air.
During the Howard years, the Sydney breakfast radio host Alan Jones was arguably Australia's second most powerful conservative. Famously opinionated and crotchety, he prided himself on his influence in the halls of government in Canberra and New South Wales: there was supposedly a "Minister for Alan Jones" within the Howard government to ensure ongoing good relations.
The former Wallabies rugby coach regularly gave a platform to John Howard, then often reinforced and amplified his views. Commonly, he helped frame the national debating point of the day, and gave it a determinedly conservative slant.
When I arrived in Australia, I was struck immediately by John Howard's domination of the airwaves, and how a sound-bite delivered on a radio breakfast programme could almost monopolise the news agenda for the rest of the day. Here, Alan Jones was a vital ally and megaphone.
But three things happened in the run-up to the 2007 poll which undermined Jones' on-air authority and his off-air clout. The first came in October, 2006, with the publication of an excoriating biography, Jonestown: The Power and the Myth of Alan Jones, written by the ABC veteran investigative reporter, Chris Masters.
The second was a ruling in April 2007 by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). It found that in the lead-up to the Cronulla riots, Jones had broadcast material that was "likely to encourage violence or brutality and to vilify people of Lebanese and Middle-Eastern backgrounds on the basis of ethnicity".
The third came in June 2007, when Channel Nine decided to drop his morning editorial on the Today breakfast show, a slot he had appeared in for 20 years.
By the 2007 election, Alan Jones still had the ratings - to this day, he is Sydney's most popular breakfast show host - but could no longer boast the same power and influence. The conservative ascendency was coming to an end. Australia was about to enter Ruddville and leave Jonestown.
Then there were the Chasers, a constant thorn in the then prime minister's side as the election approached. Some of their ambushes of his early morning power walks rose to the level of performance art - one involved a silver Delorean sports car, a mad professor and the promise to take Mr Howard "back to the future" so that he could retire gracefully rather than be forced out by the voters.
It fast became a leitmotif for the entire campaign - and reinforced the sense that John Howard had done his dash.
Then there was the Apec stunt in Sydney, where the Chasers breached the supposedly water-tight security with a fake motorcade carrying an Osama Bin Laden doppelganger.
The Apec summit had been intricately choreographed by John Howard's image-makers as part of a last-ditch attempt to save his prime ministership. Instead, it became a showcase for the Chasers' madcap talent.
Why does any of this matter? Because the Chasers went off-air just as Kevin Rudd became prime minister. For the past 18 months, the Australian prime minister has therefore enjoyed the luxury of a fairly feeble opposition and a Chasers-free ABC.
The end of the Chasers' sabbatical comes at the very moment when the prime minister's Hawkie-like popularity appears to have dipped. Are the Chasers about to become a factor again?
I'm 
Comments
or to comment.