As a newcomer to the media in 2007/8 the first thing that struck me was that news isn't just news. It's manufactured in a process controlled by people. People who think alike, who get replaced by people who think alike and who socialise with people who think alike. News decisions are made against unspoken criteria set by the herd-thinkers.
Those who work in the news industry know what will fly and what won't. Thus in 2016 the story of a troubled soldier who decides in his 50s to be a woman is a story of triumph and celebration. The story of a committed Christian soldier who feels his right to criticise gay lifestyles as contrary to his beliefs is a story of a misfit, a hater who should be ostracised and cast out. Everyone knows the rules, the rules are a fact of life, you're wasting your time if you keep bashing your head against that wall mate etc.
The Left set the ground rules so naturally the systems and processes of news creation and distribution suit the left. That's natural. What's not natural, not smart and not a winning strategy is for the Conservatives to try to win the media battles by engaging on the battle field set out by the Left and using the rules of the Left.
I have had countless conversations with senior LNP figures over the years as I watched them do stupid things for media attentiion - trying to outdo the Left at a game invented by the Left. I've given away quite a few copies of Sun Tzu's The Art of War too. Why would youfight the Left in media battles on the battleground set out by the left, owned by the left, adjudicated on by the Left and with a pre-decided winning side selected by you know who.
The answer from senior Liberals has always been "mate that's the way it is. We have to keep batting away for coverage and unless we do things that suit the media we'll never get heard". That attitude explains a lot about the LNP going soft on Gillard and Shorten. "We get made to sound nasty and mean-spirited if we go after them" I was recently told.
Donald Trump proves them wrong.
We know there's been a protection racket for Gillard et al here. That the ABC didn't report on the police search warrant against Gillard is an example. Likewise the story about Therapeutic Albo was spiked because Albo is a good bloke, a good source and thus the story was a non-story (imagine if it was Abbott).
But the protection racket here is minor compared to the US media protection racket around the Clintons. No story could penetrate those defences. Donald Trump has shattered that.
He is all over Hilary Clinton. He has changed the battlefield and changed the rules. Hilary Clinton makes much of being a woman, campaigning for women and against misogyny - blah, blah, blah. Until now the conventional wisdom has been that her position on that issue was unassailable - a man couldn't criticise her and win. He'd get the "I will not be lectured by that man on misogynyt" etc treatment and the media would make him out to be a monster - look at what they did to Tony Abbott (Tony is one of the people who listened to the stupid advice to try to play the lefty game, not to go hard, not to look tough etc - did him no good at all).. Well Donald Trump is saying the things that couldn't be said. If the media wouldn't cover him he'd hire a hall and say it there. Then if they didn't cover that he'd go to another hall to talk about the media's absence at the last hall. A lot of politicians would listen to the advice that said, "mate you'll never get picked up for the news if you keep saying those right wing nut job things about Hilary and Bill. Ho one will touch it". Thankfully Trump either didn't get or wouldn't listen to that sort of advice.
Trump is doing more than just take Clinton on - he's winning and he's done it in less time that it's taken the media controllers to pick their jaws up from the floor.
Trump is saying all the things the tories believe but would be terrified about uttering. Trump does not hesitate, "Hilary your husband molested women and you covered up for him" is now becoming a part of the zeitgeist. While the Clintons were protected species on the battlefield that had been comfortably controlled by the Left for years, Trump has arrived and the rules of old are gone.
All it took was courage, a commitment to the truth and the confidence Trump has in speaking his mind. He got the negative feedback early on, he was called a nut job misogynist/racist/sexist etc but the thing with Trump is that didn't stop him. He didn't play by the established players' rules - he played to his own values about the truth and the need to talk openly about things that are important but uncomfortable.
And that has to be a better response than innovation and Emojies, doesn't it?