Polity: “Promoting” vs “endorsing”

Written By: - Date published: 8:22 am, March 12th, 2014 - 16 comments
Categories: john key, Judith Collins, national, same old national - Tags: ,

Rob Salmond at Polity sharpened the needle for John Key here

The Orivida mess smells worse by the day for National. Yesterday, it turned out the Cabinet Office’s advice clearing Judith Collins of any wrongdoing had failed to even look at the most important piece of the evidence – the Chinese text of Orivida’s website. It had to rush out new advice to cover that off, which Key still won’t release.

That is why today John Key will spend much of question time dancing on the head of a pin, trying to say with a straight face that “promoting” a product and “endorsing” that same product are two completely different things.

Here’s a screen grab from thesaurus.com to help you decide whether he is right:

Yes, there’s “endorse” right there in orange as one of the most common and most relevant synonyms for “promote.”

Oops.

16 comments on “Polity: “Promoting” vs “endorsing” ”

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  1. Jim Nald 1
    12 March 2014 at 9:00 am

    Ok, what will Key say to try to bump this off the news?

    How about announce a referendum for a new ‘National’ anthem while he and Judith Collins dance to the first couple of lines of the single from The Castaways:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8rCy173y7Y ?

  2. RedLogix 2
    12 March 2014 at 9:04 am

    The thing is everyone in public life in this country knows perfectly well that this is a blatant, clear-cut conflict of interest.

    Key can smile and pretend for the cameras, but he’s making a fool of himself with a lot of people who do matter. Now they are for the most part Tories, and they aren’t going to cut their man down in public – but for the most part these people live and die by the letter of the rules.

    And here’s Key doing a piss-take on them. You work it out.

  3. fender 3
    12 March 2014 at 9:34 am

    Expect something like:

    “He’s one Thesaurus.com, and like thesaurus’s, I can provide you with another one that will give you a counterview”.

  4. xtasy 4
    12 March 2014 at 10:15 am

    John Key has obviously been advised on the literal meaning of words, and he has found a loophole to perhaps get away with something, yet again (“Trader John”).

    en·dorse·ment –
    noun in-ˈdȯr-smənt, en-

    • a public or official statement of support or approval
    • the act of publicly saying that you like or use a product or service in exchange for money
    • the act or result of writing your name on the back of a cheque

    pro·mo·tion –
    noun prə-ˈmō-shən

    • the act of moving someone to a higher or more important position or rank in an organization
    • the act of moving a sports team to a higher position in a league
    • something (such as advertising) that is done to make people aware of something and increase its sales or popularity

    Also:
    2 the act of furthering the growth or development of something; especially :
    – the furtherance of the acceptance and sale of merchandise through advertising, publicity, or discounting

    See Merriam Webster dictionary:
    http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/promotion
    http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/endorsement

    So if the Cabinet Manual may mention it represents a “conflict of interest” if a Minister offers an “endorsement” of a product, Key swiftly finds that what Judith Collins did was “merely” a “promotion”.

    In some sense it may mean the same, in particular circumstances, but the word play is his desperate attempt to cover his own back-side and past comments, and his Minister.

    So we may with such “work plays” also logically conclude, if any endorsement or promotion is done my any Minister in a foreign laguage, like Mandarin or another Chinese dialect, then it cannot be applicable to New Zealand, because it is in another language, as it is not even an “official” language of New Zealand. Therefore the Cabinet Manual would not apply, as the words used for such actions are not clearly mentioned in the manual.

    Hey, what a precedent our great leader is setting again.

    Welcome to the future, anything goes if you do it in another country in another language!

    New Zealand is the “least corrupt” country in the world, yeah right, our PM shows the way!

    Perhaps see also:

    ‘Transparency International New Zealand -not what it is cracked up to be’

    http://www.transparency.net.nz/2013/05/

  5. stever 5
    12 March 2014 at 11:14 am

    Yes, all the above.

    Plus, of course…(altogether now..),…”explaining is losing!!!”

    🙂

  6. ghostwhowalksnz 6
    12 March 2014 at 2:07 pm

    They need to repeat many many times – The Prime Minister is being tricky

  7. Tracey 7
    12 March 2014 at 2:25 pm

    whaleoil must be sore his journalistic endeavours didnt uncover this in his fight to bring honesty and integrity to nz politics.

    • fender 7.1
      12 March 2014 at 5:32 pm

      +1

      I’m sure Jordon Williams and the Taxpayers Union will follow it up though eh…

  8. greywarbler 8
    12 March 2014 at 4:40 pm

    Seems that being in government is a handy second career to other business interests for NACTs.. This is the way to go for the young scions of wealthy families, go for government while you are pliable and have no set ethics (You don’t like my principles, well I have others). Great options and how careful do you need to be when you have the whole country of NZ to dispose of?

    • One Anonymous Bloke 8.1
      12 March 2014 at 5:34 pm

      cf: Simon Lusk “…lucrative business careers.”

      • ghostwhowalksnz 8.1.1
        12 March 2014 at 6:58 pm

        Lusk has spent so much time flinging excrement at others, that it has come floating back to him, as his comments about the Waipawa River close by his orchard show

  9. Jo Cole 9
    13 March 2014 at 11:27 am

    I’d much rather see John Key dancing on the other end of the pin.