BNP in ‘King of the Castle’ PR Campaign

February 16, 2010

Woody sandcastle

More on the BNP’s latest appearance on centre stage. It turns out that its ejection of Times journalist Dominic Kennedy from a playground – sorry, press conference – was part of a PR overhaul. We understand that no less a figure than Mr Nick Griffin, the BNP’s uberfuhrer, issued an edict declaring that the only language the British electorate understands is not German but that of the King of the Castle. Here’s how it happened:

“I’m the King of the Castle! I’m the King of the Castle!” said Griffin, with an enigmatic Teutonic undertone.

“We agree!” said his loyal troops.

“Me especially!” said the BNP’s Chief of PR.

“I’m the King of the Castle! I’m the King of the Castle!” insisted Griffin. His troops, who were halfway up a Bavarian hill, agreed. So, too, the Chief of PR.

“I’m the King of the Castle! I’m the King of the Castle!” shouted Griffin, and all his men, who were halfway down a Bavarian hill, agreed. And then the Chief of PR had an idea.

“Even though you are rightfully the King of the Castle of this Green and Pleasant Land,” he said, “it seems to me that life in the playground is full of outrageous politically correct slings and arrows masquerading as fortune. To overcome them we must stamp our feet harder and louder than everyone else. We must show that you are truly the King of the Castle!”

The King of the Castle pondered this carefully. It was, after all, nothing less than the most cunning PR plan his Chief of PR had ever devised. And then he smiled.

“I’m the King of the Castle! Down with the snivelling PC brigade! I’m the King of the Castle! I’m the King of the Castle!”

[Time will tell whether the King will lead his followers to ever greater triumphs of the playground.]

The image, entitled ‘woody puts my sandcastle in perspective’ by Flickr user sandcastlematt, has nothing to do with the BNP.

 

Comments

Please submit comments to Swordplay below.

Good work by Rusbridger

February 10, 2012
scissors

The headline says it all: ‘Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger takes pay cut‘.

Dan Sabbagh’s piece says a bit more: said editor ‘emailed staff at the newspaper to say that his salary in the upcoming 2012-13 financial year will be £395,010, compared with £438,900 in the current financial year’.

Some voices say: ‘How worthy.’

Others opine: ‘Well, he would, wouldn’t he?’

But we say: good work by Mr Rusbridger. For the sake of the media’s survival, we hope that others in senior positions in the industry will follow suit.

Image of toolkit allegedly deployed by Alan Rusbridger courtesy of Flickr user LollyKnit.

From the inside of the maze, ethically outwards

February 9, 2012

Curious times in the media; strange days at The Times.

Would ‘Dacre Cards‘ – the system of licensing journalists proposed by Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre – have prevented the embarrassment now palpable at the Times over the NightJack story?

Times editor James Harding’s evidence to the Leveson Inquiry seemed heartfelt and contrite, albeit that the paper’s former long-serving and much-respected lawyer, Alastair Brett, seems to have been, er, rather dropped in it. Clearly, mistakes were made with regard to NightJack by young reporter Patrick Foster who, once he had hacked into NightJack’s account and thus discovered his identity, then embarked on a quest to expose it via legitimate methods. This, as Inquiry counsel Robert Jay QC put it, was “rather like working from the inside of the maze out”.

But had Foster been licensed via a Dacre Card, would this unsavoury episode in the Times’s history have been avoided?

We suspect not. A raft of laws were in existence at precisely the time when many News of the World journalists seemed to believe that they were entitled to hack any phone they liked. Those laws forbade them from doing so, and yet made no difference. Aside from the obvious objection to them – that they will squeeze out freelancers and citizen journalists – Dacre Cards would simply amount to something to circumvent.

What is really required is an ethical shake-up, from top to bottom. Society generally – not just journalists – needs a sense that some things are just plain wrong.

Supreme Court on Twitter

February 6, 2012

Something remarkable happened today. Yes, the Supreme Court launched its Twitter feed. It even has a Twitter policy, one of caveats, disclaimers and little by way of illumination but regardless: who would have thought that the successor body to the House of Lords would stoop to engage with the world of tweets, hashtags and retweets?

We look forward to the day when court business will be conducted via Twitter. Meantime, check out this link for an excellent blog on the Supreme Court.