It’s reputation that matters when spin doctors go back to the newsroom
As press secretaries increasingly shift from their roles back to the world of journalism, it’s important that newsrooms monitor exactly how much of the Kool-Aid has been drunk, argues Caroline Fisher in this crossposting from The Conversation.
For some editors, the risk of the returning journalist being perceived as politically biased would be too great, and they wouldn’t be employed. For others, the benefit of fresh inside knowledge and connections outweighs the risk.
ABC Insiders host Barrie Cassidy was once press secretary to former prime minister Bob Hawke
I interviewed ten Australian news editors and nine politicians in 2015-16 about managing the shift from press secretary to political reporter. The responses boiled down to questions of professionalism and reputation.
Editors made a distinction between press secretaries they perceived to be actively engaged party members – or “spear chuckers” as the former editor-in-chief of The Australian, Chris Mitchell, described them – and those who were more detached communications professionals.
Who write the heading with the term spin-doctors? Isnt it time we moved on from this sort of silliness?
Tony: no, not at all. Our news media is awash with spin. In fact anyone who has been in the game can see that spin doctors are running the asylums. We have guys like Aston, whose career was in spin and who seems to retain a quite close relationship with both an exotic, even risque spinner (she who barks up hywood’s tree) and a more domestic version. His mate in London is also of spin and he’s literally running the place. Then you look at the Romanians who control the ABC, ex-spin. The people who once might have been hacks but today aspire to minor celebrity (like the Fitz). And of course the huge number of flaks whose work has all the hallmarks of “handler” action (yes, Damon.)
It ain’t reporting and it is spin, doctored.