Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' election win has defied conservative critics and it appears some media commentators misread the room during a lengthy press campaign against the Labor leader.
The hashtags 'Sack Dan Andrews,' 'Dan Must go' and other directives to put Labor last on the ballot infiltrated social media in the lead-up to Saturday's poll and the Herald Sun newspaper, owned by Rupert Murdoch, ran an anti-Andrews campaign.
At one stage, the Herald Sun had a headline -'shock upset' referring to a exit poll of 159 voters in Dan Andrews' Mulgrave electorate suggesting he was behind his opponent and could lose his seat.
Yet the Labor leader won a third successive term in government with a decisive victory over the weekend.
So how did some conservative media figures get it so wrong this time before the public vote?
The Age's state political editor had reported a tight race for the Liberals, when Labor ended up securing a clear election win.
The party is on track to claim more than 50 seats in the lower house but it did experience some swings against it in Melbourne's western suburbs.
Days out from the election, the Herald Sun reported Labor was 'losing ground' based on a poll.
Another report in the the same newspaper also indicated Mr Andrews was losing support on the day of the official vote.
It's been a divisive time for Victorians in recent years, particularly in relation to Mr Andrews' pandemic response.
Mr Andrews has earned praise from supporters for his navigation of COVID-19 lockdowns and his chants to '' while at the same time faced backlash over his health rules, but he chose to focus on unity in his celebration speech.
"That sense of connection, that sense that we are all in these together has been confirmed today," Mr Andrews told the Labor party faithful after his win on Saturday night.
"Friends, hope always defeats hate," he said to a cheering crowd of Labor voters.
Headlines on the front pages of some newspapers in Victoria included 'Toxic Dan' and he was often characterised online as 'Dictator Dan'.
The Premier was also confronted with a leaked interim anti-corruption report published by The Age featuring allegations against the Labor Party.
"Our politics may well be divided, but our community is united," he said.
Monash University's politics lecturer Dr Blair Williams explains the 'Dictator Dan' narrative was developed during the pandemic.
"You saw for example, the Herald Sun really push that narrative during both the major lockdowns despite the fact that the lockdowns were kind of supported by Victorians en masse," she said.
Dr Williams compared the state election to a presidential-style race.
Media organisations have a long-history of endorsing candidates at election time.
La Trobe University's adjunct research fellow Ian Tulloch told The Feed some of the media coverage of the election campaign was the worst example of bias in the media since the Gough Whitlam Dismissal era in the mid 70s.
"It was totally unbalanced," he said.
He was critical of the Murdoch press and what he described as a deliberate campaign to disrupt Labor.
"I think it breached a broader media code of conduct that reporting should be fair and reasonable," Mr Tulloch said.
News Corp is a member of the Australian Press Council, which has a Statement of General Principles which relates in part to accuracy and clarity and fairness and balance.
Mr Tulloch also questioned newspaper coverage of Mr Andrews' accident in March 2021 when he fell down stairs and ended up in intensive care with broken ribs and damage to his vertebrae.
Herald Sun coverage in the lead-up to the election appeared to cast doubt on Mr Andrews' explanation of the accident.
"If the conservatives had won, it would have been I think completely different coverage," he said.
Monash University's Dr Williams said coverage of the election as a tight race is a more dramatic narrative for the media.
"The conservative commentators and conservative parts of the media also targeted you know, 'Dan the Man' she said.
"They very much wanted to remind Victorians of his supposed totalitarianism, his supposed dictatorship," she said.
His fans and followers often turned his daily health press conferences into goofy memes but negative coverage of his leadership dogged the state election campaign this year.
Mr Andrews' deputy Jacinta Allan spoke out about the negativity during the ABC's Saturday night election coverage.
"The past four years have been so incredibly difficult," she said live on air over the weekend.
"There's been some criticism of this campaign," Ms Allan said.
She called out some of the "negative" and "appallingly toxic" presentations of the Premier's personality.
The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance's annual press freedom survey shows in order to restore public trust, more than half of respondents believe media and journalists could do more to admit errors in news reporting.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Victorian Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan attending a press conference with media after the election Source: AAP / James Ross
Federal election and US votes
This month's Victorian state election is not the first poll where predictions have missed the mark.
Hillary Clinton's shock loss to opponent Donald Trump in 2016 was somewhat unexpected.
At the time, the former candidate revealed she was 'gobsmacked' and that she struggled after the defeat.
In the 2019 federal election, when former leader Scott Morrison was elected, media predictions had strongly tipped then Labor leader Bill Shorten would claim power.
But the opinion polls indicating Labor would narrowly win did not eventuate.
Mr Morrison then won and declared his victory was for 'the quiet Australians' who voted for him.
Mr Andrews is set to become Victoria's longest-serving Labor premier next year.
