New Zealand Listener - October 13, 2018

OCTOBER 13 2018 LISTENER 33

LIFE

Doing a Donald

Twitter provides

Ardern with

a channel for

messages

unfiltered by

journalists and

editors.

STEVE BOLTON

BILL

RALSTON

I

f I were to say that Jacinda Ardern

is emulating Donald Trump,

the left would snarl in outrage

and attack me as deluded, and

the right would snicker under their

breath and shake their heads. Yet,

curiously, in one aspect of her pre-

miership she is following the Trump

White House model.

Shortly before Ardern left the

country for New York, National Party

leader Simon Bridges accused her

of behaving like Trump for giving

a TED Talk-type address to party

faithful after cancel-

ling interviews on

Three’s Newshub

Nation scheduled

for the previous

day and TVNZ 1’s

Q+A on the day of

her speech, citing a

“diary issue”.

In much the same

way as Trump rejects

speaking before

general audiences,

preferring partisan

crowds wearing

Make America Great

Again (MAGA) hats,

Ardern has been

tending to avoid

traditional media

scrutiny in favour

of more supportive,

non-confrontational

Our PM and the US

President aren’t a

million miles apart

in their approach to

the media.

“This year, I’m doing this amazing slow-roasted Ottolenghi

Christmas turkey, but I’ve got to get it in this week.”

public appearances.

During her UN General Assembly visit to the Big

Apple, an advertising company employed by her

office followed her, behind the scenes, into meet-

ings where real journalists could not go.

The footage taken can be expected to show up on

social media. Look out for a mini-documentary or

two on her Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Unlike Trump, who uses Twitter to rant, bludg-

eon and threaten his opponents, Ardern’s account,

which is followed by nearly 200,000 people, is

milder, full of happy chat, concentrating on what

she perceives to be the good news in New Zealand.

She confines herself to two or three tweets a week.

Nevertheless, social media provides the Prime

Minister with a channel for messages that can be

beamed directly to you and me, unfiltered by jour-

nalists and editors. Some of you may think that is a

good thing, but you’d be wrong.

B

arack Obama pioneered political use of social

media, successfully employing it to whip up

grass-roots support in his first presidential

campaign. Trump has embraced Twitter in an

entirely different way. He throws

out, seemingly at random, barbs in

up to 280 characters for his followers

and sympathetic media to chase.

A recent Trump tweet referred

to long-running US comedy show

Saturday Night Live: “Like many,

I don’t watch Saturday Night Live

(even though I past hosted it) – no

longer funny, no talent or charm.

It is just a political ad for the Dems.

Word is that Kanye West, who put

on a MAGA hat after the show

(despite being told “no”), was great.

He’s leading the charge!” SNL had

mocked Trump’s nominee for the

Supreme Court, who was having a

gruelling confirmation hearing in

the Senate.

There is nothing particularly

wrong with politicians using social

media to communicate with sup-

porters, so long as they also make

themselves available for serious jour-

nalistic questioning

or appearances

before audiences

that might bite

back.

Anything else

suggests your

media advisers

do not believe

you can hack the

pace by discuss-

ing and debating

the decisions and

inevitable mistakes

your government

may make. The

free interchange

of views between

politicians and the

media lies at the

heart of democracy.

Anything else is just

public relations. l