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14 July 2016

If Jesus understood public relations... #nlpoli

Jesus understood public relations.

John 10:25 (Authorised Version)

Are you the Saviour?  Tell us plainly.

"I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me."

Saying something isn't as important as doing it. Actions speak louder than words. This is a really simple idea but you'd be astonished at how many people do not get it.

Dwight Ball isn't any saviour;  no politician is.  But given the massive hole Dwight is in, he'd do well to take some advice from Jesus.

A junior staffer in the Premier's Office moved on Friday to a new job in the education department.

James McLeod from the Telegram asked about it.

The Premier's Office stone-walled him.

So McLeod wrote a story about third staffer who bailed on the office. He posted it to the Telegram website on July 12 and it appeared in the print edition on July 13.

It's not the first time Ball and his people have done this to McLeod.

And it is not the first time this sort of thing has turned into a story that looks very bad for the politicians involved and does absolutely no damage to the Telegram or McLeod.

This story about the junior staffer was the Wednesday political story of the day and prompted NTV to start its 5:30 PM newscast with a political science professor discussing the ongoing crisis in the Premier's Office.

At 7:11 PM on Wednesday, July 13,  the Premier's communications director sent McLeod a comment by email, which he dutifully posted to Twitter.

The comment consists of a couple of sentences of passive aggressive bullshit, which is, of course, the only description for the little war the Premier's Office is waging against McLeod.

Every time they play one of these games Dwight Ball and his staff look like childish, incompetent amateurs.

McLeod gets another byline and his employers get another story that moves a few papers or draws a few eyeballs.

On Wednesday evening, McLeod posted another story. This time McLeod is highlighting the new practice in the access to information office of censoring profanity in response to requests.  There is no legal basis for the censorship and, in fact,  the government only censors the information in the version they post online.  It's a new practice and it looks immature.

McLeod didn't get an interview.  He got an emailed statement.

Every time the folks in the provincial government play these silly games,  McLeod and the Telegram win.  Ball, Coady and the Liberals lose.

Every.

Single.

Time.

Two things.

Dwight and Siobhan should remember that the works that they do bear witness of them.

Their actions speak louder than their words.

They campaigned on being honest, open, accessible, and transparent.  Their actions toward McLeod look like something else.

The other thing is that the reason people are talking about where a junior staffer is working is because Dwight and Siobhan have nothing better not to talk about.

Think about it.

-srbp-