Andrew Bolt gets demonised from the Left and the centre, and from some embarrassed sections of the Right, for his tendentious newspaper columns and his table-thumping Sunday morning TV show.

That’s the Bolt everyone sees. The look-at-me journalist who selects his topics for their entertainment value and pretends to be upset when he causes so much distress.

But what about the Bolt beyond journalism? The man who has positioned himself as the underpinning conscience of the Abbott government. The man whose policies on climate change, refugees, economic rationalism, the ABC, racial discrimination, the arts and many more subjects are so closely synchronised with the government’s policies, and laws, they could have been made around the cabinet table.

That’s the Andrew Bolt who casts the shadow. The Andrew Bolt beyond journalism. The compatriot. He who is obeyed.