The power of uncertainty

And why there is no such thing as a hung parliament

People might know that I go back a long way with journalist Margo Kingston, back to her days running WebDiary for Fairfax, which launched in early 2000. In my first book, The New Front Page, I cited WebDiary as the seminal move by the mainstream into the world of online media, even if most of her bosses and colleagues at the time were too ignorant to recognise its importance.

I was thinking about Margo today because I listened to her most recent podcast with pioneering ABC journalist Peter Clarke (a podcast I sometimes contribute to) and I heard her say something that, to me, defines precisely why she has always been a great journalist. It happens in an exchange where they are talking about the sorts of attacks the Republicans are likely to launch against Kamala Harris and Peter asks Margo how Harris will likely respond.

“I don’t know,” Margo says. “I don’t know.”

My ears pricked up when I heard that and it was a little epiphany for me. How often do you hear a journalist say that? That …