Monday, April 23, 2012

Is The (not)Premier's 'Grove' Good Prop?


There'sNoGrowthLike
FirstGrowthVille


It's an interesting idea from the 'Ancient Forest Alliance'.

Specifically, they are trying to flip propaganda on its head and use it to accomplish tangible good.

Here's the short version of the story:


...“We’re hoping that Christy Clark won’t let the Christy Clark Grove get cut down, and will show some leadership by creating a plan to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests,” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance photographer and campaigner, and discoverer of the Christy Clark Grove.“Already 75% of Vancouver Island’s productive old-growth forests have been logged, including 90% of the biggest trees in the valley bottoms. Why go to the end of an ecosystem when there is an extensive second-growth alternative now to sustain the forest industry?”
The newly found grove is on unprotected public (Crown) lands not far from the town of Port Renfrew in the Gordon River Valley on southern Vancouver Island, just a half an hour drive from the famous Avatar Grove that was recently protected due to public pressure....

Clearly, the story is working to some degree given the amount of proMedia spin it has managed to wurlitzer up on pretty short order.

But here's something I was wondering, which is a slightly different spin-free version of a tangentially similar political conundrum....

Does a time ever come for a sitting politician when they see they writing on the wall and just start doing the right thing, regardless?

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I put this question to someone who was once in the game, and whose opinion I trust....

And guess what....

They pretty much laughed at the fact that I was even naive enough to ask the question.

Why?

Well, as near as I can figure it, it would appear that, based on the way the game actually works these days, those who who self-select to play it are physically incapable of even attempting to reduce the political expediency variable to zero.

Or, put another way, those who insist on trying to ignore politically expediency, not to mention ideological rigidity, are soon drummed out of the sport.

Or they quit at the first available opportunity.

That is not a good thing.


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And despite the positives I can see in the AFA's attempts to use propaganda for good I do not approve.....Sure, they might do something tangible in this specific case, and that is good....But...What if this allows the (not)Premier to use this as green cover to, say, frack up a storm in the Peace River Valley?....In otherwords, in my opinion, there is no-prop that is good-prop...


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2 comments:

Chris said...

You're talking about politics here, not journalism, right?
Because...
Oh, never mind.

RossK said...

Chris--

Geez.

Hadn't though of that.

Good point.

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