Rather bizarrely, that looks to be the view of the Conservative Party’s Press Office. At the tail end of July, their attitude towards bloggers caught some attention following the refusal of a Conservative press officer to even email an already published letter to a Conservative blogger.
PR Week this week reports that the Conservatives have now changed tack somewhat:
The party has adapted its blogger relations policy after a staffer caused a storm in the Tory blogosphere by admitting the party’s press office does not consider blogs ‘important’…
However, the move stops short of a full overhaul of policy, because bloggers will still not be able to receive embargoed information.
However, both the Liberal Democrat and Labour head offices have provided groups of bloggers from their respective parties with embargoed information. So if it’s good enough for them, why not for the Conservatives too? Now, there are many things I’d say about some Conservative bloggers … but blanketing them all in this way as untrustworthy does seem rather rum.
UPDATE: As Iain Dale has pointed out in the comments below, several Conservative bloggers do receive embargoed information. I’ve not seen any complaint about the accuracy of PR Week’s report, so it looks as if someone from the Conservatives gave them a wrong briefing that made the party look worse than it actually is. Bizarre still, though a different flavour of bizarre.
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24 Comments
Are you thinking what we’re thinking…? 😉
Yes.
Are Tory bloggers less trustworthy than Labour or Lib Dem ones?
Yes by definition
All as bad as each other
Well, it’s true that all bloggers suffer from time to time from the short grumpy comment that doesn’t add anything much to the discussion 🙂
I’m sorry but the jump from “Tory Press Office doesn’t give bloggers information” to “Tory bloggers are more untrustworthy than labour or liberal democrat bloggers” is actually logically wrong and rather disingenuous.
Aric: it’s the logic the Tory Press Office used, because they said the reason they wouldn’t send embargoed stories to Tory bloggers was because they didn’t trust them to keep embargoes. Lib Dem and Labour press teams do send out embargoed information to bloggers and do trust them to keep to it.
“Aric: it’s the logic the Tory Press Office used, because they said the reason they wouldn’t send embargoed stories to Tory bloggers was because they didn’t trust them to keep embargoes. Lib Dem and Labour press teams do send out embargoed information to bloggers and do trust them to keep to it.”
If that’s true, it implies the Tories trust Tory bloggers less than the Lib Dems and Labour trust Lib Dem and Labour bloggers respectively.
But obviously that’s not at all the same as saying “the view of the Conservative Party’s Press Office” is that “Tory bloggers are less trustworthy than Labour or Lib Dem ones”.
That really is bizarre.
Exactly, Mr. Brown. It just means that the Tories have higher standards (because statistically we can assume that all bloggers will be around about the average level of trustworthiness) than Labour or the Liberals when it comes to these things.
I believe it is because Labour have nothing less to lose and nobody listens to the Liberals anyway so why bother worrying about them? CCHQ is being prudent because the risks outweigh the benefits.
“nobody listens to the Liberals anyway”: ah yes, Aric. You are a veritable sage of political wisdom. How can anyone argue with such incisive statements? It is a miracle that the world doesn’t fall at your feet in agreement with you when you deploy such arguments. You can truly be proud of the intellectual heights that you reach.
Mark
“You can truly be proud of the intellectual heights that you reach.”
Well, I’m afraid it has to be said s/he has a rather better grasp of logic than you. That’s on the assumption you actually believe the stuff you post, of course ….
Allow me to re-phrase.
I meant to say Labour have nothing “left to lose” and I meant that “only Liberal Democrat supporters read Liberal HQ announcements let alone blogs.”
So yes, there’s my more politically correct version.
I know of at least 6 bloggers who get all the press releases. Move along now, nothing to see!
So the press office doesn’t know what the press office is doing, is that right Iain 🙂
Aric: This is a Lib Dem blog. You are reading it. You are therefore, er…, a Lib Dem supporter or a nobody. Ah well, nice to have cleared that up.
“So the press office doesn’t know what the press office is doing, is that right Iain.”
?
Presumably you didn’t bother to read the blog you linked to, which made it clear that the press officer said he did supply material to Iain Dale and Conservative Home. I’m afraid it’s Mark Pack who doesn’t know what he’s doing …
Herbert: the PR Week piece said, “Bloggers will still not be able to receive embargoed information.” Iain says bloggers are supplied with information, though he didn’t use the word “embargoed”.
So either embargoed information is supplied and the press office person who spoke to PR Week doesn’t know what his/her colleagues get up to, or embargoed information isn’t supplied and Iain’s comment isn’t really relevant to the PR Week point I quoted in the post. Could be one, could be the other – which is why I asked. All nice and simple.
I and others receive embargoed info and op notes. Naturally, not every Tory blogger does, just as I am sure not every LibDem blogger does.
Thanks Iain. Rather weird that someone from the Tories told PR Week otherwise. I’ll update the post to reflect that.
Mark
“Iain says bloggers are supplied with information, though he didn’t use the word “embargoed”.”
No – in the comment you were replying to – and to which reply I was responding – he specifically said “press releases”. If you think press releases are “embargoed”, you really do have problems!
Herbert: You say, “If you think press releases are “embargoed”, you really do have problems!” but the reality is different I’m afraid. Indeed, even my own inbox has received dozens of examples of press releases from different organisations this year which don’t fit your claim about them. It’s a common, widespread practice. The problem would be if I knew so little about press releases that I didn’ t know this was such a common practice!
Mark
You really are a past master at twisting people’s words. Surely the point I was making must have been clear to you.
The point is that there is nothing in the comment by Iain Dale that you were replying to – which referred only to “press releases” – that implies bloggers received embargoed material. So there was no justification for your comment that “the press office doesn’t know what the press office is doing”. Because the quotes from the press office referred only to bloggers not being sent embargoed material. That is what I was pointing out.
Now that Iain Dale says he does get embargoed material, the situation is indeed different. Though, of course, your assertion about the Tory press office considering Tory bloggers to be less trustworthy than those of other parties is as nonsensical as ever.
Herbert: You previously said, ” you think press releases are “embargoed”, you really do have problems!” Press releases often are embargoed, so talking about embargoed material may/can mean press releases. It doesn’t have to mean that, as there’s other type of embargoed material too, which is why I asked Iain. It’s hardly twisting your words to point that out.
What’s “abbr title” I wonder?
Here’s “em”
striketitle?