ABC's Radio National
Media Report recently
interviewed former media adviser and now journalist Niki Savva about the roles of parliamentary media advisers. Savva will be familiar to many as the regular right-wing panellist on
ABC Insiders, whose comments are guaranteed to draw a torrent of criticism in the Twittersphere.
The discussion was about media advisers going too far, in the context of the Prime Minister's adviser Tony Hodges getting the axe after prompting the debacle at The Lobby restaurant on Australia Day.
In the interview, Savva said:
"... half your job is to protect and promote your boss and the other half of your job is to make strikes against the opposition."
I have a fundamental problem with that, because naive me always thought politicians were there to govern the country the best way possible. So by extension wouldn't a media adviser's role then be to promote their own good policy, and point out flaws - if there are any - in other people's policies?
