Selling something scandalous

Posted by admin on Oct 31, 2007 in Issues & Ideas | 0 comments

We live in a society surrounded by salesmen. Everywhere we go, someone is trying to sell us something. From the moment we leave the door, or turn on the TV, we are lambasted by language saturated by sales pitch after sales pitch for someone’s new fangled gadget or philosophical truth. Television is telling you about the thrilling joys of the newest toys. In the classroom, every professor is proffering their own take on the world (implicitly or explicitly, whether or not they admit it, “objectivity” is rarely achieved). At church, every pastor is preaching their own revelation and interpretation.

And believe it or not, this is not more true anywhere else than it is in the political realm. Unlike the professor or the pastor or the TV adman, the political pitchman doesn’t even get to pitch his own product. In order for Stephen Harper to communicate anything to the public, he and all other politicians are incredibly reliant on the power of the press. It is the press, the media and the people who write and broadcast things who get to decide what it is important, what is interesting. It is here we find the complicated, intricate and often times insane relationship between political agents and those who cover them.

It is no secret that the climate in Ottawa between Harper and the press is “strained”. Harper has refused to engage the national media, choosing instead to keep much of his policies and reasons for policies tightly under wraps. According to a recent article in the Globe and Mail, “The public release of information has both slowed down and decreased since the Conservatives came to power in Ottawa last year.” Harper is doing what he does and isn’t really telling anyone why.

Why has he decided to do this? Well, for one, it could be a brilliant political strategy. Without any facts or information, the media has a hard time reporting on what exactly is going on inside the government. Without media coverage, Joe Voter has little insight into the inner workings of the ruling conservative caucus. Without daily coverage, Joe Voter goes on with his day, going to work, paying his mortgage and playing with his kids. Until someone reminds him, he has little use and frankly little interest in the government. Why should he, after all? There are far more important things in life than worrying about the implementation of 500+ page policy papers.
However, this strategy has a certain drawback. Once Harper is ready to address the voters, letting them know what brilliant and great things his government has gotten up to, the media just might not be ready to cover it. After being snubbed for two years, they may decide that Harper’s bright and shiny new “policy initiative” that will forever change the face of Canadian society is just not that interesting. Joe Voter continues on with his day, reads the front page of the paper, finds the story of recent tragedy slightly moving, but hears little of Stephen Harper.

We live in a world where language and those who control the flow of it control what we know and what we care about. The internet has begun to democratize this process but even still the big media outlets are the major sources of information. Politicians and reporters have always had a tumultuous relationship; this is nothing new, and has little to do with conservative prime ministers or liberal TV channels. Everyone is selling something. And in our society, sexy sells.