Politics and the media circus - the imagery this conjures of the nation's press galleries being comprised of clowns, dwarves, bimbos and toothless old lions. Rather it's because this description raises squarely, for us to think about, the whole question of the media as spectacle and entertainment - and whether or not that part of its role is now so dominant in political discourse as to leave our society the poorer.

Nobody doubts that part of the media's role - and this goes as much for print as electronic - is to entertain.

Part of a speech to the Australian Institute of Political Science 65th Anniversary Dinner in Sydney. Gareth Evans former Deputy Leader of the Opposition

Full speech at http://www.australianpolitics.com.au/media/98-02-20evans-speech.shtml

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An audience with a Dame

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