.
THIS week political journalists were doing what they love doing the most - talking about themselves.
I'm referring to the announcement that former tabloid editor Andy Coulson has been named the Conservatives' director of communications, which was quickly followed up by claims that he's being paid a nice big wedge too.
There's always been a steady flow of journos going into public relations as both professions are closely linked. Even locally, a number of people I've worked with have ended up working for councils and other public sector organisations and seem to make the transition of poacher-turned-gamekeeper very well (actually, I think that last analogy is a crude way of putting it but it sums it up quite nicely).
I must say though that for all the talk of spin in politics, the local parties seem to be able to do it perfectly well themselves. Rather than paying someone top dollar, the methods used at grass roots level are actually a lot more subtle.
From time to time for instance, I'll notice that letter pages carry comments from residents which look as if they are just from a normal member of the public. But if you scratch the surface, some of them are actually written by people with close ties to a certain party.
It's amazing, actually, how many times the 'Average Joe' is brought out to try and add some human interest to a political story. Like I said, very subtle and almost impossible to spot by anyone other than seasoned hacks.
Another example I remember from my early reporting days was when I received a press release and photo about a parliamentary candidate. It read something like as follows...
"Candidate Bloggs has held a meeting with top local business leaders to discuss a number of their concerns regarding government red-tape."
When I turned to look at the pic, I saw that every single one of them was a member of the same party - the candidate's party to be precise. When I pointed this out to the candidate's manager, he looked at me the same way my mum did when I said to her: "Father Christmas isn't real, is he?"
No wonder we're all now professional cynics...
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »