Friday, June 16, 2006
Bad News is News, Good News is Advertising
Imagine if Chippenham or South Northamptonshire had picked a new candidate who was white, male, a lawyer with 2.4 children and a Volvo in the drive. Imagine the headlines there would have been in The Times. CAMERON IN A LIST SNUB, or LOCAL TORIES DELIVER BLOW TO CAMERON. But of course the papers were rather disappointed to see that instead, a black farmer and a woman were chosen. The more fair minded among you may have been expecting to see a headline of BLACK FARMER IN 'A' LIST TRIUMPH or ANDREA LEADSOM - PHEW WHAT A SCORCHER! But you'd be disappointed. There's not a mention of either selection today. Admittedly there was one sentence in yesterday's Telegraph. It is astonishing that neither the Telegraph nor The Times have featured either an interview with or profile of Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones today. But you see good news is advertising. Wait for the first seat to select a non 'A' list white male with a golden retriever and a wife called Tara and you'll see the contrast.
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12 comments:
To be fair to the Telegraph (and its esteemed Political Correspondent Brendan Carlin) they did carry a piece yesterday on the Pauline Latham selection in Mid-Derbyshire.
The problem is that the old media have a script - a story line they want to push. ( Eg Tory's need to have their clause 4 moment. ) The facts that support this line get reported, those that don't used to be lost. I'm not talking about bias here (so only this mention of the BBC), but more on the lines of media group-think.
Of course this is where Blogs upset things...
True, but don't be downhearted Iain, at least Labour have been hogging the 'news' in the last three years!
What do you have against Golden Retrievers? They are lovely dogs. (Not to say that Jack Russells are not either)
I thought it was usually the golden retriever who was called Tara.
CAMERON'S CONSERVATIVES DO AS THEY PROMISED
It's not exactly news, and you wouldn't expect to see it about any party. Expect fluffy pieces sometime down the line, but it's not particularly interesting. Having said that, the Bromley decision wasn't really 'news' either, at least not in the sense in which it was reported.
But then we really shouldn't be bothered about any of that. If the candidate is the best then I congratulate the local association. I think the less the press talk about some of the A-listers, the better.
With 2.4 children? More proof Tories eat babies.
Were the papers covering all New Labour selections in mid-90's?
I suppose that after a couple of them it's easy for them to get bored.
So ....... the point you're making is, 'the whole A list scheme, the over-selling of it, the hype involved, the idea that such well advertised tokenry, positive discrimination etc etc has, in fact, backfired'? I hope that's the point you're making.
The A List was always a bad idea, and it is, in terms of the publicity it's gaining, doing entirely the opposite of what its inventors claimed it would do.
Of course, what they openly claimed for it - it's "getting rid of the tainted brand" rationale - doubtless has very little to do with the real, private reasons the A list was introduced. And you, as someone who has been excluded from it, should surely understand what those are, and who they're designed to benefit.
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