THE MIKIVERSE

REPORT by Tetractys Merkaba, Editor-in-Chief

IT IS WELL KNOWN THAT THE MEDIA likes to control the public conversation. It is one way to ensure that it is considered to be correct in the public realm, and therefore, relevant, which, helps it to capitalise financially.

One of the media's tactics is to criticise you, for being you.

This is one of those occasions; Kevin Rudd is being accused of working too hard.

The common accusation, that conservative tabloids, such as, the foreign-owned Herald-Sun, will employ with so-called left wing politician's is too accuse them of not working hard enough.

You can't win.

Basically, the game is to claim that an element of someone the media doesn't like is either too burdensome, or not burdensome enough, -too much, or not enough- and, the beauty of this approach, from a media perspective, is that whatever ensues, you win, because, whilst Rudd's supporters rail against the criticism, and his opponents gleefully agree with the stated assertion's, both parties, are operating within the defined boundaries of the conversation that you have created, and defined, and the media is capitalising on your attention and participation.

Interestingly enough, this is the basis for the phrase "you can't say that on t.v", which translates to; 'You cannot step outside of our boundaries, that we have employed to control this conversation.'

'Most of PM's staff quit since election'

AAP October 17, 2009, 7:05 am

It's been revealed that more than half of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's staff have left his office since the election, taking with them at least 120 years of political experience.

News Ltd says the PM - dubbed Kevin 24/7 for his round-the-clock work ethic - has emerged as one of the country's most demanding employers, with insiders describing him as "manic".

And with an election less than a year away, the PM has also lost most of his senior policy advisers, leaving an office insiders say is almost unrecognisable.

A News Ltd investigation reveals that 23 of 39 staff have left Mr Rudd's office and there are whispers of more to follow.

But it's not just Mr Rudd's office recording an exodus of staff - at least 13 have left Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard's office, at least 10 have left Climate Change Minister Penny Wong's office and seven have left the offices of both Treasurer Wayne Swan and Sports Minister Kate Ellis.

And it's not just the government that's having trouble holding on to valuable staff. Since February, 11 media advisers working for the 32 federal opposition frontbenchers have quit their high-pressure jobs.

And during the same period, a total of 13 media advisers who were working for the government's 30 frontbenchers have also moved on.