WHY THE CANDY MAN CAN
COULD the Candyman become Gold Coast mayor? Stranger things have happened – and not just at the so-called Candy Mansion.
This is a man capable of going from obscurity to minor celebrity in a short space of time.
A man whose every utterance becomes a headline.
And a man who has more than 800,000 people following him on social media.
Somewhat unfortunately, because they understand how to navigate the digital world better than most, people like the Candyman – whose real name is Travers Beynon – would appear to own the future.
If you’ll pardon the indulgence, about the only thing that stands between people like Mr Beynon and high office, if they seek it, is local media.
The more ordinary people tune out of traditional media and confine themselves to what they read online, the more social media stars like Mr Beynon can dominate the landscape.
Whatever your views on the Bulletin and our radio and TV colleagues, it is true that we put enormous effort into fact-checking and verifying, into investigating stories properly and in depth and holding politicians of every kind to account.
We do not get everything right 100 per cent of the time. We cannot. Unlike the algorithms deployed by the web giants, we are human. But nobody else even tries. Certainly not the clutch of American-based social media sites that dominate online publishing.
Instead, it’s anything goes, and what you end up with is a febrile stew of untested and unverified theories. There are no rules. Clever operators like Mr Beynon can flourish in such an environment.
Some already have. Donald Trump defied all expectations by bypassing traditional media and spreading his bile via Facebook.
In this way, a man who boasted of grabbing women “by the pussy”, who called on his supporters to violently attack hecklers at his rallies and who spread ridiculous rumours about political rivals could make his way to the White House.
He now travels the world insulting allies and kowtowing to despots.
I know some Bulletin readers hold a favourable view of Mr Trump. But I can never respect a man of such high ego and low manners.
Despite his lewd Candyman persona, Mr Beynon is clearly not guilty of anything like the same outrages.
I have little trouble believing that, as columnist Ann Wason Moore reported, the Candyman image is just a front to serve a business interest, behind which lies a decent family man.
But what Mr Trump has done is shown how social media can be used to manipulate voters to devastating effect, to send messages unchallenged, and to win elections.
Mr Trump has set a clear precedent that we are likely to see repeated in politics at all levels around the world.
It’s not just people like me – with my obvious bias – who make the case.
A number of fascinating studies have been conducted showing what happens in regional cities when local newspapers close.
An excellent article by the Kansas Press Association has collated many of the results.
It includes a 2015 study by political scientists Jennifer Lawless and Danny Hayes, which concluded that voters were far less familiar with candidates and their policies once their local paper shut up shop – and thus less likely to vote.
More surprisingly, a recent study by a group of economics professors found a direct link between the loss of a local newspaper and higher borrowing costs for local governments.
Why? Because of the reduced scrutiny of public projects.
“Governments lacking local media coverage would be perceived as riskier borrowers and forced to pay correspondingly higher interest rates on the funds they borrow for public works projects,” they wrote. “The costs stemming from higher interest rates would ultimately be borne by local taxpayers.”
Studies in the UK have found similar results. A paper by Dr Martin Moore from King’s College in London found that the passing of local newspapers led to a “democratic deficit”.
Dr Moore told the BBC that his study showed social media incapable of filling the void.
“We can all have our own social media account, but when (local papers) are depleted or in some cases simply don’t exist, people lose a communal voice,” he said. “They feel angry, not listened to and more likely to believe malicious rumour.”
It’s that ability to spread rumour online, unchallenged by a trusted voice, that has created the opening for the social media-savvy to win high office.
Without local media, anyone with the money and the know-how to fill the information void can get themselves elected.
And they’ll face very little scrutiny when they get there, which has a real flow-on cost for taxpayers.
There have been many times over the years when one couldn’t help but feel that certain Gold Coast politicians would wish the Bulletin wasn’t here.
For sure, we can be quite the irritation. Good. It means we are doing our job.
But such politicians would be wise to be careful what they wish for. A Gold Coast without this newspaper would be a Wild West of claim and counterclaim, where traditional, responsible politicians could be tarnished with all kinds of untrue rumours and usurped by minor celebrities of every kind.
I don’t actually believe the Candyman will be the first to try translating his social media following into votes. It is hard to imagine his 800,000-plus Instagram followers will happily trade images of scantily clad models for images of council chambers, where meetings, while sometimes testy, lack the excitement of parties at the Candy Mansion.
His musing over the possibility of running for mayor was probably just another well-crafted means of winning airtime.
You may say it’s hypocritical I write this, because of the prominence the Bulletin gave Mr Beynon’s comments.
But believe you me, if he did run for mayor, we would subject Mr Beynon and his policies to the same rigorous examination we apply to all candidates likely to garner more than a handful of votes.
Without us, who would do that to any real effect?
Not the army of one-eyed keyboard warriors agitating from their bedrooms.
The truth is, love us or loathe us, this city needs the Bulletin, its advocacy and its sleuthing.
We stand for small business, for innovators, for everyone who rises in the early hours to do another hard day’s work.
Without us, there will only be the self-promoters, free to say and do as they choose.
Politics would become an even greater circus than it already is – and people far worse than Mr Beynon could be the ringmasters.
IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE THE CANDYMAN’S 800,000-PLUS INSTAGRAM FOLLOWERS WILL HAPPILY TRADE IMAGES OF SCANTILY CLAD MODELS FOR IMAGES OF COUNCIL CHAMBERS