Political propaganda of the visual kind
Posted: June 10th, 2010 | Author: wade | Filed under: Ethics, Politics | Tags: Ethics, Federal Election Campaign, Politcs | No Comments »
When the PM travelled to Perth yesterday it was always going to be an opportunity for political theatre. The trip had been identified by mining industry strategists as a key moment in their public campaign against his government’s proposed new “super profits” tax and Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest lead a TV ambush as good as any.
In the media we deal with those who peddle visual propaganda every day of the week. Marketing dressed up as news is just another mode to get your message across. And while that’s a marketer’s job, it’s our job to distill the legitimate news-matter and to ditch the rest.
I have to say that most of the calls we get offering us an “exclusive opportunity” to shoot so-and-so’s new underwear range, and the “tip-offs” we receive informing us that if we’re at a certain place at a certain time we’ll be able to witness an impromptu “protest” over some fringe-interest, are all generally very clumsy efforts and it’s easy to see them for what they are. I think what we saw in Perth yesterday was but another form of marketing and it was just as disingenuous.
Anti-mining tax protesters in Perth yesterday. The signs are suspiciously uniform, no? Photo: Sharon Smith
Disingenuous because it was so clearly orchestrated by interest groups. Examine the uniformity of the signage being waved around by all of those “disgruntled constituents” and you won’t be surprised to learn they were centrally produced and distributed to the crowd by over efficient organisers.
Disingenous because so many of the faces just happen to be recognisable mining industry hangers-on, former Liberal Party figures and other conservatives of varying degrees of note. They of course all have a right to protest but spare us the pretence that they somehow represent the mainstream view.
Disingenuous because Andrew Forrest saw fit to don a yellow worker’s uniform for theatrical effect and wear it not only while perched on the back of a truck, shouting down his megaphone at two thousand-odd protesters, but also to the PM’s Press Club address and later during his Lateline interview. A gratuitous stunt – pure and simple.
Twiggy in worker-mode at the miners’ rally. Photo: Sharon Smith
Twiggy in costume at lunch with the PM. Photo: John Mokrzycki
Twiggy still in costume on ABC’s Lateline.
But if making yourself the lead story on the TV news last night and getting splashed across the front of the nation’s newspapers today was the objective, then the plan worked. But it’s still little more than political propaganda of the visual kind.
There was, however, one picture shot yesterday that I think gives a meaningful insight into what this campaign is actually all about. It shows Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop embraced by – and herself embracing – one of the country’s richest “workers”. I think it illustrates a marriage of convenience between the mining fraternity and the Federal Opposition – one side fearful of what it has to lose, the other with an eye on what it could possibly win.
Mining theatrics on the front of today’s Sydney Morning Herald. I think this picture captures the marriage of convenience between the mining industry and the Federal Opposition.
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