Invoking outrage comes at a Price
STEVE Price is a professional media type who leans into the role of social and political commentator.
He has been around forever and had the opportunity to reinvent his career in Sydney and Melbourne. He now appears regularly on The Project on Channel 10 and plays the grumpy Baby Boomer role with an ease and authenticity.
He is the bloke who is happy to adopt the devil’s advocate position. No time for political correctness, you know, that guy?
He also came fifth in I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.
Yes, that’s right.
Old mate Pricey spent serious soul-searching time in reality TV land on I’m A Celebrity…
His choice of show is an interesting one. I’m A Celebrity… is not serious political journalism. It is the Australian TV version of the Betty Ford Clinic. This is where celebrities go to rehabilitate their brand. They say they are raising money for charity but this is a sad sort of procession of small-time actors, former footy players, real life reality TV second placers and people who used to be in The
Brady Bunch.
“Hidden” cameras record apparently unscripted interactions that are edited as genuine conversations that miraculously somehow show the celebrities in a softer, friendlier, nicer way. Apparently these people are not the terrible people we thought they were. Who knew?
No wonder they regularly find themselves neck deep in spiders or facing their worst nightmares. It is only in this manufactured perfect isolation under the gaze of multiple TV cameras that we really get to see the inner truth.
This is the sort of show that Price should hate. But in 2017 he used it to gather a new lease on his media life. He emerged 10 kilos lighter and happily told the public that he had “changed”.
Yes. Good old TV. It did the trick, and Pricey grew an empathy gland.
“I had to be more tolerant and understanding of other people’s opinions. I had to be less assertive and bossy, and, if it’s even possible, less grumpy — but without it being fake. My one message out of all this is no matter how old you are and how set you are in your ways, you can change.”
Well, maybe that was all rubbish or maybe it’s time for old mate to go back into the jungle for a crash course in empathy?
This week the same bloke saw fit to start taking drive-bys at a sick person.
It isn’t cool, it isn’t funny and it’s a long way from understanding.
The Victorian Premier (you may remember) has suffered a serious spinal injury.
He had a lengthy stretch in hospital and rehabilitation. Surprise, surprise, Daniel Andrews has not been holding daily press conferences. Apparently his lack of public appearances has upset old Steve.
The failed I’m a Celebrity has complained that 60 days without an Andrews presser is just far too long.
Pricey knows that spinal injuries are serious, but he also reckons Andrews absence smacks of “arrogance”.
It is hard to understand why you would bother to take this swing at a politician who is clearly physically incapacitated. The government is functioning. The Acting Premier is steering the ship.
The Opposition is still Tim Smith and a hot mess.
Andrews is not chucking a sickie, he is working to ensure that he has movement for the rest of his life. But for old mate, this is an excuse.
If Andrews took to the airwaves to say “Hello world, let’s talk about my health…” he would be hung, drawn and quartered by people like Pricey.
Imagine the outrage if we had Daily Dan Updates from rehab.
The haters would portray him as a Premier who was a “control freak”. A man who believed he was a celebrity, a man searching for relevance.
The Andrews absence has demonstrated the depth of talent in the Labor front bench. Merlino is a steady hand as Acting Premier. He’s nothing to bleat about. The worst that Price could muster was to describe Merlino as “a cheery chap with a nice smile and clean glasses — certainly not as physically intimidating as Andrews...”
It’s almost like Steve has had to manufacture something to be outraged about. Perhaps the real problem for Pricey is he’s got nothing to complain about? Life is pretty good for Boomers in Australia. Always has been. Get over it.
IMAGINE THE OUTRAGE IF WE HAD DAILY DAN UPDATES FROM REHAB. THE HATERS WOULD PORTRAY HIM AS A PREMIER WHO WAS A ’CONTROL FREAK’.”