Government PR mostly propaganda

I fully support the claims of former Army PR Officer Andrew Bird ("Veteran charges Army over spin", Sydney Morning Herald, 12 Feb). Article

It's a sad fact of life that all Defence PR (in fact all government PR) these days exists to paint the government in a positive light. It's called propaganda.

When I first served in Army PR, in the mid-1980s, PR Officers first and foremost represented the Army and the local military commander. PR Officers could speak to the media. That is not the case now. Everything is cleared by Canberra. I honestly don't know why any self-respecting PR person would want to be in uniform these days.

We have the Howard Government to thank for the manipulative process which now permeates all levels of government PR. It's a dangerous path and does little to demonstrate the first rule of PR: be open and honest. It also does a great disservice to our people in uniform, who despise the manipulation when asked to "perform".

It's why I resigned after 23 years (four in the Regular Army). I could not stomach a government that lied about the casualities in Afghanistan.

Holden stretches credibility

Australian car manufacturer GHM stretched its credibility somewhat when it announced the third recall of its Commodore model – 86,000 of them, in fact.

The V6 vehicles are being recalled due to a potential fuel leak.

Company spokesman Ian Butler said it wasn't unusual for a vehicle to be recalled three times.

Really?

This blog also appears at http://www.prlab.com.au

Words in my mouth

A local AM radio station interviewed me the other day. The 6PR afternoon drive-time host wanted comment on the new Labor government's missive on telling certain agencies that all media material had to be cleared through the relevant minister's office.

What the shock jock wanted me (being an 'expert') to say was that nothing had changed from the previous Liberal government. Cripes, Labor's only been in power a few weeks and already the media's beating it up.

All I could do was to continually reinforce my key message (developed quickly after his introductory comments and first question) that "it was early days and you had to give the government the benefit of the doubt".

I doubt whether this chap was really listening. He had his agenda, and I really didn't. After all, I was just there to comment.

For me, this interview was a prime example of the media trying to influence opinion, when it should be striving for balanced coverage. How blissfully naive of me - a former daily newspaper journalist.

Yes, it asked for an independent person to provide comment, but it becomes hard when the interviewer just doesn't want to see the other point of view (or even a neutral one). It's not entertaining radio.

All up, it was a pretty amateurish interview (not helped by the cliché of 'spin' as an analogy linked to the first cricket Test, which was being played between Australia and India).

I didn't hear the interview, as I don't listen to talkback radio. One of my surf club mates said he referred to me as Dr Greg Smith, from Curtin University. Well, he got the university wrong, which just proved my point about the amateurism. It was my last interview on 6PR.

Howard calls election at last

It took him long enough. After months of fake campaigning and pork-barrelling, John Howard has called the federal election for November 24.

Now we'll really start to see and hear some spin ... though it's more likely to be seen, as elections these days are fought on our television screens.

The media maniuplation will be (hopefully) interesting to watch/see/hear. Every day a new photo opportunity and plethora of sound grabs. The same methods will be employed by Labor.

However, I detect that voters are wise to the tactics and have already cast their ballots. Certainly the polls have been consistently predicting a Labor victory for months.

As they say: "watch this space" (and lots of others).