Our weekly (well, we missed last week) look at media spin tactics: let’s dissect the PR and propaganda that aims to blow one’s own horn, bury one’s errors, resurrect the shambling zombie corpses of well-flogged deceased equines, and ooh look! A Big Distracting Thing!
Busy threads here over the last 2 weeks touched on predictions for 2020, the Queensland floods, Western assumptions of universalism, how we could change the way that we approach dialogue with each other, climate crunch, whaling, employment policy, our Neanderthal cousins, Gerry Harvey’s decision to tell all his customers how much cheaper they could get things online, the latest BMJ statement on Wakefield autism paper and the multiple shooting in Arizona. If you have something to add to these topics, best leave it on the appropriate thread.
For other discussion, check out our latest roundtables and the 50 Most Recent Posts list in the sidebar on our general archive page to see what else has generated most interest since last week, and what got overlooked.
Some of those stories are still in the headlines, others are getting hardly any attention. What other stories are being buried while more flashy stories are hogging the limelight?
It may not qualify as spin, but according to the front page of the Age (currently):
“Doctors are cautiously optimistic about US Republican Gabrielle Giffords after a man shot her in the head and killed six people in Arizona Saturday. (02:05)”
There should probably be a word in the lexicon for such carefully neutral phrasing around a hugely controversial incident.
She’s not a Republican.
Oh – of course! Good catch.
Bullet in the head; most PROBABLY = Brain damage, hence chances of sitting in Congress again PROBABLY nil.
Peter at 3 above. A member of the House of Representatives is often referred to as Rep So-and-So. Often I have assumed they were therefore a Republican. However, that is no excuse for a publication like The Age to make such a mistake.
Particularly annoying this week has been the news that the area impacted by flooding in Queensland is the size of France and Germany combined. It was retweeted at a record breaking rate under #thebigwet, even by experienced journalists (looking at you @Colvinius), which was annoying enough. But did anyone fact check this little item? Apparently not. The combined catchment of the river systems flooded at the time – Fitzroy, including Dawson and Isaac, and the Bologne/Condamine – are not even as large as France. The whole of Queensland is not much bigger than France and Germany combined. The floods are devastating enough, we don’t need hyperbole.
And wtf with the stories of waking Gabrielle Giffords. Surely with this type of major trauma, they would be aiming to keep her sedated for quite a while.
A story hit the newswaves this morning: Institute of Public Affairs is against high state taxes (gasp). This Melbourne ABC story links it to cutting stamp duty. While they do at least call it ‘free market think tank’, its traditional role as a Liberal Party policy stalking horse is politely unremarked upon:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/01/10/3109400.htm?site=melbourne
Essentially the low tax mining states of WA and Queensland are better off than the ‘high tax’ other states. I’m sure the people needing flood relief are pleased with their state governments’ low revenue bases at the moment.
Julian Assange has hired a London PR firm to help with his image after damaging leaks about him personally (I’m guessing they mean his dating profile). He is also writing his autobiography. I think he’ll probably end up doing at least a trilogy (is that the correct term for non-fiction?) as I’m sure we haven’t seen or heard the last of him.
Mindy @9
He can call the first instalment ‘Women Who Hate Men’, the poor put-upon chap. For the Swedish edition, at least.
polyquats @7 – this was actually fact-checked (and found wanting) in a good piece in Saturday’s Age, along with a few other flood myths. It may not be coincidental that the lead reporter on that piece is more often a crime reporter, where getting your facts wrong can mean a court case collapsing.
A member of the House of Representatives is often referred to as Rep So-and-So
Rep, in the context of a member of the House of Representatives, stands for Representative.
This would have to be the most appalling spin for some time IMHO
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/palin-aide-crosshairs-on-target-list-not-actually-gun-sights.php?ref=fpb
Because surveyors marks are SUCH politically meaningful symbols.
Though, bmitw, the fact that they’ve had to come up with this amazing pieces of political bull-shit is an admission of guilt in itself. It is also grossly insensitive to the victims of the Arizona massacre.
Difference this time PB also is that the victim somewhat presciently called them out on it last March when the map was published.
Makes it hard to duck and weave.
Polyquats @ 7, I’ve rechecked the figures using only Wikipedia. The combined area of France and Germany is 1,031,800 sq km. The area of Qld is 1852,600 sq km. That makes France and Germany combined 55.7% the size of Qld.
Also you missed some areas. The Burnett R basin (Bundaberg) was seriously impacted and flooding, whether major, moderate or minor, was not restricted to those basins. I’ve posted a map at the end of the other post. Depending on how you join up the dots and what you regard as an impact you could stretch the area to the equivalent of France and Germany. If you take roads cut at some time, for example, to major service centres. I mentioned on the other thread that there was a death from being washed off the road at Aramac.
The statement that was really weird was that an area equal to France and Germany was under water, which was common.
BTW, the Mary River is now up, and there is flooding in both Gympie and Maryborough.
I suppose Gerry Harvey’s venture into the media spotlight is not exactly spin.
But it raises the interesting possibility of a new topic such as Own Goals of the Week.
What fun we could have with that at times.
Brian,
The figures on the catchment sizes are available on the DERM website. You can add the Burnett and the Mary, and you’re still not even close. Regardless how you try and play the numbers now, it wasn’t correct at the time, and still isn’t. Either someone made a mistake (and no-one bothered to check), or it was unmitigated spin. Will have to find the Age article, if it available online.
The “Age” has been ruined, Peter Whiteford more or less said.
Just reading its junk online and thought, “even SMH is better than this”.
Shame on the pigs who have had hands on the controls at Fairfax over the last decade and its decline parallels public broadcasting.
What went to sleep over Xmass?
Island?
Ah.. Ireland’s economic troubles.
Or was that was that Korea nuling itself into an island.
ahhh Gitmp. Thats right, that’s on an island isn’t it?
Here you are Julian, here is David’s old cell dwwaaaa!
You know that accountancy firm that did the Libs costings for them pre-election?
I reckon I read somewhere that the relevant professional body was going to conduct an investigation.
Anybody got any news about such, its awfully quiet out there?
You are correct, hannah’s dad. Here is a link from when that was first commenced.
http://www.petermartin.com.au/2010/08/robb-says-perth-auditor-as-good-as.html
I am a member of the relevant body and have not heard anything further through my in-house correspondence although these investigations usually take some months. Oh, and the firm used by the Coalition is not a large firm in the PwC sense, but a franchised group of small firms across the country.
I just want to raise an objection to the way Piers Ackerman tried to turn this flood disaster into a political issue already.
“I reckon I read somewhere that the relevant professional body was going to conduct an investigation.”
1)It will take a while to complete
2) As it is by a professional body (not a government body etc) don’t expect to hear the result.
3) Discliplinary action (if any) will be taken against individual professionals not the firm as such.
“way Piers Ackerman tried to turn this flood disaster into a political issue already”
Ditto for Tony Abbott in the speech I saw on ABC last night.
Badtux on Palin’s very peculiar turn of phrase – blood libel.