National’s growing silence explained

• the sprout
• 15 years ago
• Categories: Media, national
• Tags: brian edwards, judy callingham

Judy Callingham (partner of Brian Edwards) has a new post, one of a series of media tips they write on. The latest tip might suggest National are slowly learning the hang of managing the media and explains why National are already clamming up and failing to front on so many important issues.

Yet while Callingham and Edwards’ advice is undoubtedly sound for individuals and organizations that aren’t frequently the centre of news, persistent silence is an impossible strategy to maintain as a Government: because of the constant hounding of the 4th Estate, because caucuses and all the machiavellianism they entail tend to leak like sieves and because if you don’t fill an information vacuum when speculation arises you very often end up with even worse public perceptions – whether they’re accurate or not.

It also has the nasty tendency of turning Press Gallery journalists even more septic than they tend to already be – into a perilous state of frustration that’s developing with each new controversy. At this rate, soon it won’t have to be a scandal at all to be perceived as one.