Pop quiz: you have to do a news conference where you have damn-all in the way of actual news to announce. The media’s already prickly, and liable to turn on you.
Do you:
a) repeat your message over and over, making it the only clip reporters are likely to get from you, and hope that clip combined with the pictures will carry the day;
b) tell your aides that you won’t do the event without something newsworthy to say; or
c) lash out in a condescending display of ill-temper and, dare I say it, desperation?
If you chose option c), you may have a very brief future as a Liberal MLA. Via Rick Barnes, this story (From the Heartlands: Kelowna MLA’s tried to hoodwink the media) should serve as a cautionary tale for anyone facing a less-than-hospitable scrum.
Rick links to some astonishing video footage (Windows Media format) of the news conference. It’s astonishing… especially given the time and (your) money the Liberals have spent on stage-managing these events.
Hey, at the end of the clip, was that really a big, steaming pile of crap that they dumped at the edge of the river?
Heh. Judge for yourself:
A shouting match ensued, with MLA Sindi Hawkins insisting that a truckload of sand signified the beginning of work on a causeway for the span. But the construction company admits the sand was just window-dressing. The real fill material won’t be brought in for a couple weeks. Fellow Liberal MLA Rick Thorpe accused reporters of being cynical and negative and not wanting progress.
– CHBC TV, April 8, 2005
bah – this reannouncement of a reannouncement of a recycled good story happens all the time in Alberta, and the newsmedia doesn’t bat an eye.
you uppity BC people will get used to it once you’ve had 30 years of those guys.
Shannon has a point–
Just got back from a trip to Alberta and what really gets folks with even the slightest centrist tendencies down the most there is the endlessness of the right wing lock.
And thus, even though their stupid mistakes are funny when taken individually, the longterm goals of the Great Gordian PropSpin Smackdown are anything but.
The word “cynical” kept getting used in this clip. A little highlight of my favorite phrase: Cynicism is worthless, but skepticism is invaluble.
I love the “talking point” that is the phrase “We’re moving forward”. “We’re… moving… forward!” “WE’RE … MOVING … FORWARD!!!”
They’ll be asking for brains next.