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Speaker: The End of Trust

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  • Jack Harrison,

    Public Relations, a term of infinite use.

    wellington • Since Aug 2014 • 296 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Semmens,

    . I sincerely hope the adverse publicity puts any future black ops work on hold indefinitely.

    A quick look at Whaleoil confirms the "tip line", Beehive tap and PR attacks are now firmly turned of, at least until after the election. The trick is to make it permanent.

    Sevilla, Espana • Since Nov 2006 • 2217 posts Report Reply

  • Graham Dunster, in reply to Kumara Republic,

    “Free speech has been cartelised.”

    Or maybe cauterised....

    Auckland • Since Nov 2009 • 184 posts Report Reply

  • tussock, in reply to Marc C,

    So much for "trust", I'd say, I lost trust in the media a fair time ago, and I never had much trust at all in any PR hacks, lobbyists and whatever else they may call themselves. Society is breaking to pieces and going to the pits in inter human relationship terms, it seems, because it is all about what sells, who can sell it, and how many buy what these days.

    None of that rubbish. The media are under vastly greater scrutiny than they've ever been, by a highly aware, extremely literate, and well connected public with excellent self-publishing skills. PR is a cat and mouse game between the skills of journalism and advertising, and we only get to hear about PR being anything because somewhere some journalists are doing a great job and letting us all know.

    Society is more wonderful than the people of fifty years ago could have imagined, it is entirely possible we live in the best times humanity will ever know. Yes, our improved public access to knowledge is showing us a bunch of crooked stuff that was invisible until recently, but cigarettes used to brighten your smile and make you breathe easier with "doctors" saying so on the evening news, and it was genuinely hard to find a way to tell anyone any different. I suppose you could say the same about booze now, given that it used to be illegal to advertise, and hard to buy.

    Dirty politics, it's rotten, it should go, but politicians used to just sack people who got in their way. Public Works Act everything on a whim. Decide which journalists got any access at all to parliament depending how nice they were to the PM. The bloody Official Secrets Act, where lying was just what politicians did and anyone saying otherwise with facts was up for prison. Cronyism on the public purse perhaps didn't happen under Clark much, but it's not at all new.


    Never stop criticizing government, it's good for them. It's a wonderful thing to even be allowed to do, many countries simply murder their critics, but don't forget that what we're fighting to hold on to is incredibly nice and we are privileged to be here to fight for it. Holding a light to the bastards just reminds them not to leave a mess on their short trip through office.

    Since Nov 2006 • 611 posts Report Reply

  • mark taslov,

    Beautifully put Tussock, timely and mindful.

    Te Ika-a-Māui • Since Mar 2008 • 2281 posts Report Reply

  • Chris Waugh, in reply to tussock,

    Never stop criticizing government, it’s good for them. It’s a wonderful thing to even be allowed to do, many countries simply murder their critics, but don’t forget that what we’re fighting to hold on to is incredibly nice and we are privileged to be here to fight for it. Holding a light to the bastards just reminds them not to leave a mess on their short trip through office.

    +1000万

    Wellington • Since Jan 2007 • 2401 posts Report Reply

  • Howard Edwards,

    John Drinnan's recent NZ Herald article on the use of PR consultants in the media gave me a "Jesus wept" moment when I read this:

    "Jennings said the controversy had been a wake-up call to the media to be careful about using PR people on current affairs programmes. But media could not afford to be wholly dismissive, he said, because they needed people who were intelligent and articulate on screen."

    Albany • Since Apr 2013 • 66 posts Report Reply

  • phplad, in reply to Pete,

    My apologies Pete, you are correct that I have escaped from Kiwiblog and Stuff and yes it is taking a while to acclimatise to a more ideological environment :). It was an analogy relating to ignoring warnings and then mindlessly blaming politics as though it inherently bound to corrupt practices.

    New Zealand • Since Aug 2014 • 17 posts Report Reply

  • Moz, in reply to Howard Edwards,

    Howard quoting some useless numpty from Te Hereld:

    media could not afford to be wholly dismissive, he said, because they needed people who were intelligent and articulate on screen

    Articulate, informed people are so terribly hard to find that media are just forced to go to PR flacks? Really? That's all you've got?

    If that's the best they can do perhaps they should do a stint with one of the university magazines or community radio stations. Then, once they've learned how to find interview subjects they could have another go in the bought media?

    My experience is the complete opposite: the bought media really hate having intelligent, articulate people turn up to express informed views. They act decisively to filter them out at every step, and if one somehow gets on live air they'll shut them down unless there's a huge problem (in one case, I got ~20 minutes of drive-time radio because there was a TV crew filming the announcer side of things in the studio).

    But heck, if ever someone wants a decent interview subject on bicycle riding or related subjects, I'm happy to speak up. I can also point you to female, non-anglo and disabled cyclists who will also be happy to chat to the media. Unfortunately if you want the usual "bikes bad" or "more roads good" angles I can't help you. That's usually what media mean by "we can't find anyone to talk about cycling".

    Sydney, West Island • Since Nov 2006 • 1233 posts Report Reply

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