Nothing is easier to knock off than a political deadweight.

The ¡¥war of words¡¦ between the former Opposition Labor Leader, Kim Beazley and the current Opposition Leader, Simon Crean has been widely documented and reported. The Australian media, however, with some evidence of bias, has given two sides of the conflict ¡V that of Beazley and that of Crean, and has produced a rather inaccurate depiction of the ¡¥Labor leadership battle¡¦.

I have limited my attention to analysing this skirmish through the news print sources, The Australian and The Courier Mail, and focussing in particular on the weekend of the 26th to the 28th of April and a later date of the second week of May. Two of the three elected articles were printed shortly after the battle first erupted and the third article, from May, was published less than a fortnight from the next scheduled caucus meetings. These two time periods allow the differences between the articles to become apparent as time can be used to distort an issue.

The potential for accuracy distortion...