Tomorrow night Liam Fox MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, is speaking at a CIPR event called 'the politics of spin'. I wonder how Mr Fox's views will differ to those in John Lloyd's hugely entertaining Finanical Times article titled 'the truth about spin'?
Extensive discussions have taken place over the weekend on the blogs of Neville Hobson (28 comments and counting!), David Tebbutt, Philip Young, Antony Mayfield and others about this FT article. The most entertaining portion of the article is below. You've gotta love that attitude.
There is a phrase attributed to, among others, Harold Evans when he was editor of The Sunday Times, which was advice given to his reporters: “Always ask yourself, when interviewing a politician, why is this bastard lying to me?” It’s been denounced as cynical, but it’s from a more innocent age. It was self-servingly innocent to assume that “lying” is a one-sided phenomenon. Today, advice by any government communications adviser to ministers, MPs, civil servants and political aides would be a variation on the Evans advice: “Always ask yourself, when being interviewed by a journalist, how will this bastard distort what I’m saying?”
[disclaimer - Liam Fox MP is speaking at the LEWIS Media Centre]
Liam Fox trained as a medical doctor. But many of his colleagues (David Cameron, Ed Vaizey, Rob Wilson et al) trained as what are popularly known as spin doctors. PR is clearly important in politics; I'd argue conversely that politics is essential in justifying public relations (ie it's a function of liberal democracies).
Posted by: Richard Bailey | April 24, 2006 at 09:32 PM
Drew - why didn't you write:
"Tomorrow night Liam Fox MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Defence, is speaking at a CIPR event called 'the politics of spin' at the LEWIS Media Centre."
I find all this self-important 'disclosure' stuff at the end of a post really irritating. I read your post knowing that the disclosure was coming and asking myself why you just hadn't mentioned it first.
Honestly, I don't think you'd be writing about this if it had been taking place anywhere else. A full post, then disclosure, suggests it's a coincidence.
Was it? Really?
Posted by: Jon Silk | May 03, 2006 at 11:57 AM
No coincidence, but did you know the disclaimer was coming because you knew about the event? Most people that read the post probably didn't.
Posted by: Drew B | May 04, 2006 at 01:34 PM