Wednesday 11 May 2022

"That's not my job"?

I am getting thoroughly fed up with an advertisement I cannot avoid seeing. It comes from the party which is, if opinion polls are correct, the party poised to win government at the election.

The advertisement has taken the words "that's not my job" which were spoken by the PM but used them completely out of context. The advertisement is designed to make people believe that the PM has not (and won't) take any responsibility for governing the country. 

The problem is that when the words are put into context  what the PM is saying is something very different and something very reasonable. For example in one of those clips he is saying that it is not his job to tell people how to spend their money...their personal money, wages and savings.  In that he is absolutely correct. 

If you leave those words out, leave out the context in which it is said, and use just four words "that's not my job" then you get a completely false picture. That is of course what the advertisement intends. 

It is false advertising that in any other setting those promoting the advertisement would be asked to remove and issue a retraction. This however is politics and different rules seem to apply.

Should they? Perhaps they should but I think there are limits here. This is not simply an encouragement to "vote for us". It intentionally libels the PM of the day. 

If you have the policies to do the job then there should be no need to use such tactics.

1 comment:

PCWith said...

In Canada, we have laws requiring all campaign signage to be removed from voting locations and nearby property prior to the election. I now realize the importance and necessity of this law.