Gordon Brown's "Bigot" Gaff
Today, Gordon Brown met a long time Labour voter on a photo opportunity walkabout who asked him about immigration among other things. As he got into his car he didn't realise his mic was still recording and asked "who put me with that woman, she's bigoted". Unlike the media I'm not concentrating on the word bigot, but on the amount of manipulation the major parties do every day to help portray an image.
Forget the fact that he's the current PM seeking to win his first election as Labour leader. He is a leader of a political party seeking our votes. He goes from one photo opportunity to the next to the next, along with interview after interview after interview. The "who put me with that woman" line is more telling, as it's an example of how far the party machine will go to concoct the right scene for the news media. This is the point where they only expose the leader to party members who will dutifully pretend to be a random member of the public and ask a question the leader wants to be asked, so they can grandstand their pre-prepared answer. They want to give the impression of someone in touch with the voters, Mr Smooth.
Normal members of the public don't get anywhere near them. They can't be relied on to ask easy on-message questions. They can't be relied on NOT to ask awkward questions the leader would rather avoid at all costs. This is not a Labour exclusive, although their spin machine got particularly refined in their level of deception under Tony Blair, it's still the same machine now. The other day the Lib Dems were exposed for having a party member dress up as a Policeman for one of their MP's to talk to on camera. They all do it, it's cynical, it's deceptive and it's treating the voters with contempt.
It'd be nice to see the news media expose this when they see it, but they thrive on making a mountain out a molehill. The way they hounded the Labour woman at the centre of Brown's gaff today showed them as the jackals they are. They don't want to expose these deceptions because they'll be left out of the loop by the spin doctors, so their competitors would get a leg up on new stories.
If you believe the media, there's a lot of important issues in this election like:
- How the leaders stand
- How the leaders dress
- How the leaders do their hair
- What the leaders wives wear
Informing the public on stuff that actually matters is apparently an afterthought. Trying to force the agenda of your paymaster and entertain with gossip is much easier.
With both the parties and the media content to deceive and manipulate the voting public, is it any wonder that voters are increasingly turning away from all of them?
I did note that the other parties couldn't help but respond like the stereotypes they are, and pounce in to rub salt on the self inflicted wound today. It seems leopards really can't change their spots, despite all the adverts to the contrary. I'd have sympathy for Brown at this point except for the fact that I know if the shoe was on the other foot, he'd react in the exact same way. The Labour propaganda machine would be all over it, piling salt on.
A funny side note came from Peter Mandleson, who tried to defend Gordon Brown by saying "sometimes the PM says things he doesn't mean". That's the standard operating mode for all MPs. None of them ever say what they mean, they say what they think will win them the argument in the circumstances. In the case of an election campaign, it's about fooling enough people to turn up and put their X in your box, after that they can be ignored until next time.
