A few days ago I posted that WA Liberal leader Troy Buswell's was politically finished. The problem for Mr Buswell is that, after the now infamous chair sniffing revelations, the media have tagged him a walking joke, and everything he says or does from now on will be interpreted through that prism.

I make no comment on Mr Buswell's fitness for his job; I don't need to. The latest revelations, which I won't even mention here - read it for yourself, have been seized on by the conventional media and the blogosphere, variously with indignation or with a snigger. Check this selection out:
The West Australian
Nine News
The Age
Andrewlanderyou
Possum Comitatus

The media needs a narrative in political reporting, a framework into which they can readily place people and events. It enables a large amount of information to be processed without having to re-assess everything anew, and allows the reader a degree of comfort and predictability in what they read. The problem is that reality can move on leaving the narrative behind. Thus, for a long time, John Howard's narrative was that of a "conviction politician" who knew the Australian people and could win elections from anywhere. Reporters and commentators stuck with this almost to the last gasp of the 2007 campaign, even though the empirical evidence for months prior pointed elsewhere.

I don't criticise the media for using narratives. They are a form of stereotyping and we human beings use stereotypes all the time as a standard socialisation tool. In the case of Troy Buswell, the media's account of him as a figure of ridicule has now become so dominant that there can be no resurrection. The WA Libs will shed him; it is just a matter of when. If they don't act soon, premier Alan Carpenter will call a snap election and they will be stuck with him.