As the Herald Sun sticks to News Corp's election playbook, does it think its readers are idiots? | Andrew Dodd

First, demonise the Labor leader and deify the opponent. If all else fails, focus on crime, particularly gang crime and, best of all, race-based gang crime ...

This is how I imagine a recent news conference unfolded inside Victoria's most popular newspaper, the Herald Sun. The state was embarking on an election campaign so there were all sorts of important issues for the senior editorial staff to discuss, including debt, law reform and renationalising the state's electricity grid.

Anyone got any ideas?" asked the editor. Sure," said a senior reporter, I've got a hot tip about a cyclist colliding with a car driven by the then opposition leader's wife nearly 10 years ago which has been thoroughly investigated and where no wrongdoing was found."