Scandals : media, politics & corruption in contemporary Australia / Rodney Tiffen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tiffen, Rodney.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political corruption--Australia.

Political corruption.

Scandals.

Australia.

Scandals--Australia.

Physical Description:

ix, 291 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Sydney, Australia : UNSW Press, [1999]

Summary:

Governments have fallen, ministers have resigned, and some cabinet members have even served time in prison. The impact of grand corporate fraud and police corruption has been just as dramatic, making the coverage of scandals a familiar part of the media landscape.

Yet we know little about how scandals evolve and how they come to dominate our media and political agendas. Why do some incidents generate protracted political and legal battles while others pass with little impact? Is media coverage of scandals increasing political accountability or encouraging political cynicism?

In this Australian book Rodney Tiffen traces the origins and impact of scandals, and the complex interplay between institutional processes, political interests and media proclivities that determine which scandals generate intense attention and produce political crises. He covers over sixty scandals, from bribery in Bjelke Petersen's Queensland, through the corporate careers of Laurie Connell and Alan Bond and the fierce controversies over police corruption, to allegations of impropriety in Kennett's Victoria. This is a wide-ranging and provocative account of how our key institutions perform under pressure.

Contents:

Part 1 The Public Careers of Scandals

Chapter 1 Origins and Emergence 19

The incidence versus the visibility of corruption 19

Circles of secrecy, channels of disclosure 32

Uncertain beginnings 41

Chapter 2 The Growth of Scandals: Supply and Demand 46

Continuing supply: Political prosecution 47

Continuing but constrained supply: Official proceedings 56

Continuing demand: Newsworthiness 64

Chapter 3 Snowballing Scandals 72

Three-sided conflicts 72

Backstage behaviour 80

Hyper-demand: Feeding frenzies 90

Chapter 4 Avalanche: Rampant Royal Commissions 93

Part 2 Scandals as Politics

Chapter 5 Prosecution and Defence: Conflicting Interests in Scandals 117

Dilemmas of defence 117

Strategies of containment and counter-attack 123

Strategies of prosecution 136

Chapter 6 Deepening Mires: The Development of Secondary Themes 147

Duplicity 149

The politics of procedures and penalties 157

Evolving agendas 172

Chapter 7 Consequences 181

Personal 185

Partisan 190

Policy 199

Chapter 8 Lapdog, Watchdog, Wolf: The Media's Role in Scandals 206

The watchdog ideal 207

The muzzled watchdog 214

Lapdog 222

Wolf 228

The yapping pack 237

Chapter 9 Scandals, Corruption and Democracy 240.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0868406015

OCLC:

42930737