Clever consumers don't blame the supplier, they just take their coin elsewhere

Coalition MP Joe Hockey has a chuckle
in the House chamber.

You hear it all the time from ordinary Australians, even from people you know had a decent education and should know better. By God you hear it from the legions of syntactically-challenged trolls who flounce around the internet dropping their opinions with all the aplomb of rabbits in springtime who manure the verdant pasture with their stinking scat. Here's an example of the kind of unenlightened chagrin people sometimes bring up: why are politicians so pathetic? And it's not just politicians we denigrate. Yes, we make fun of them because we can, after all we're the boss of them. But people also tend to make fun of journalists, and denigrate them, because, well, because it's so damn easy to do. We've heard them a million times, the popularity rankings across common professions which place journalists and politicians right down there with used-car salesmen and lawyers. Dregs. Offal. Ordure.

But did you notice something? Yes, I said "we're the boss of them", and it's true. It's frankly stupid to denigrate a whole class of people who are elected to office by ordinary Australians. Politicians, as we know, study opinion polls assiduously, and take their cues from them. When to come on strong. When to retreat. And they read the stories that journalists write, and take other cues from there as well. They talk with constituents and listen carefully to what those people tell them. They watch TV and movies and read books, and pay attention to the popularity rankings and the profits and the reviews. Because it's the signals that we send them that determine how they conduct themselves. And it's the same with journalists, who are, like politicians, pretty smart people. It's a little unfair to criticise a journalist for something they write, especially in these days of instant feedback and accurate digital metrics, when the journalist is assiduously watching what stories are most copiously consumed by their readers. Again, they take their lead from the people who read their stuff.

If you want politicians to conduct themselves with more dignity, then applaud good behaviour and punish bad, give your vote to the dignified man rather than the hypocrite. Make that call to the radio shock jock and say your piece, telling him what you really want. Write that letter or make that comment on the online news story, and make it clear what kind of person you want to sit in the legislative chambers of Australia. And if you want journalists to write better stories that more objectively focus on the real issues rather than the day-to-day biffo and the personality competitions, then ignore those stories and pay attention to the stories that deliver what you say you want. Because I do really believe that we are the boss of the politicians, and I do really believe that we are the discerning customers that observant journalists try to please. If any of these people fail to do so, the fault lies with us. We're the ones who reward poor performance because we want it cheap and we want it quick and we want it now, and yes, please flatter me because, you can hardly blame me, it makes me feel so good (I've had a bad week).