NEWS: Opposition politician encourages government Minister to challenge PM and destabilise government

Seriously, ABC? This is some kind of news?

Wow I cannot believe he said that except that of course he did.

This is why reporting “politician said” stories requires more than just repeating what they’ve said. It requires the journalist to perform some kind of basic analysis on whether that statement is actually meaningful for his or her readers, in what way, and in what context.

So – “Both MPs criticised the opposing leader while encouraging each other to challenge for the leadership themselves, clearly hoping for the other side to experience leadership instability before the next election. The Opposition shadow minister complimented the Prime Minister’s one-time rival at her expense, whilst the government Minister suggested that the Opposition leader was the government’s “greatest asset”.”

Admittedly, as soon as you do that it becomes immediately apparent how pointless the story is. POLITICIANS PAY INSINCERE COMPLIMENTS TO PEOPLE ON THE OTHER SIDE THEY HOPE ARE DUMB ENOUGH TO ATTACK THEIR LEADER.

Simply repeating Turnbull’s bullshit for seven paragraphs – particularly the vacuous “faceless men and factions” thing as if there’s a non-faction faction in the ALP and there aren’t factions and schemers in the Liberal Party – wastes the time of politically-savvy readers and utterly misleads everyone else.

You know, ABC, just because politicians appear on a TV show on your network doesn’t make it news. If providing even basic analysis makes it obvious how much it isn’t news, then please use that space to report something that is.