This week, however, many of us were exposed to the same turns of phrase in a very different context – via a video link-up to a primary school classroom.
And while Steven Marshall’s use of the form generally has an undercurrent of petulance and passive-aggression, the teachers I’ve heard uttering similar qualifiers are doing so with practiced patience, if not a certain creeping exasperation.
I tell ya, if you’re minded to complain about journos asking the same questions over and over again, come check out my kids’ school Webex hook-up, a hot mess of chaotic cross-examination and confused inquiry.
Mind you, just sitting there watching the horror show unfold gave me renewed appreciation of the person suffering through it all, and made me just feel really, incredibly sorry.
For myself.
Sure, the teachers and students didn’t seem to be having much fun either, but they can get in line as far as I’m concerned.
Still, at least the week thus far has provided a much needed moment of clarity.
Some media types, once they reach a career crossroads, branch out into tutoring or teaching.
I will not be one of those types.
Still, at least the teachers endeavoured to answer all the questions and ensure everyone present left the daily Q&A fully briefed.
Marshall’s regular chats, by contrast, tend to consist more of well-practiced soundbites preceded by a daily rundown of COVID stats whose very form has become so familiar it is almost approaching pantomime.
The script never wavers – only the specific data changes.
Begin by expressing regrets at the “sad news” of the daily fatalities, then pivot to the daily case numbers, hospitalisations et al, and – increasingly of late – enthuse about the downward trajectory and what it might mean for the future easing of restrictions.
Of late, however, as the sense of crisis surrounding the spiralling caseloads of the previous month has dissipated, a new element has been introduced to proceedings.
The daily COVID briefing has increasingly been rolled into a concurrent political event, generally a ‘good news’ funding announcement or update on some potentially popular project.
A couple of weeks back, I made some cautious noises about the prospect that the daily COVID meetings and briefings might, even inadvertently, politicise the pandemic in the lead-up to an election now a mere six weeks away.
That the Premier claiming a seat at the table – the head of the table, no less – in the room where the level of ongoing restrictions is decided may constitute a conflict of interest at a time when it is at least, that public health and political expediency may be at loggerheads.
But the way the briefings have evolved since then is hardly inadvertent – it is blatant.
We saw it first when the Premier’s daily update was preceded by a lengthy media conference announcing new funding for Surf Life Saving SA, complete with various industry guest stars to enthuse about the largesse.
For those tuning in from home for the latest on the Omicron outbreak – perhaps desperate for info that could affect their livelihoods or dictate how they spent the first two weeks of Term One – they had to first endure several minutes of a routine we’ll call ‘Government Patting Itself On Back’.
This format has continued intermittently since then – just in case anyone had any doubts that it might have just been an unfortunate one-off.
Today was a case-in-point: anyone tuning in for the latest on COVID first had to sit xjmtzywthrough almost 20 minutes of Transport Minister Corey Wingard spruiking major roadworks south of Adelaide.
