Pauline Hanson has said that if the media won’t play nice, she won’t play with them.
In a sign of where the power really lies in the Hanson-media relationship, she’s turned to her Facebook page to tell supporters of her recent meeting with Malcolm Turnbull. Most Australian media outlets promptly reported and linked to the contents of the video. The Sydney Morning Herald even ran the video on its Facebook page, giving it greater reach — after slapping a Fairfax watermark on it (perhaps justified by the captioning of what Hanson was saying). News Corp also ran the video online, but without the watermark.
The video was covered in all the News Corp tabloids, in Fairfax’s metro papers, on the Daily Mail, The Guardian, and plenty of other places we cared to look. Which shows Hanson doesn’t need to talk to the media or even subject herself to a press conference (which would require a back-and-forth with journalists) to get blanket coverage.
Today’s Isentia index shows Hanson was the third most-mentioned politician in the Australian media this week, and the most popular on social media and talkback radio.
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