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Ken's Propaganda Army
The size of London Mayor Ken Livingstone's taxpayer-funded PR machine has been the subject of some debate in Britain's press and blogs. There are said to more than 30 flacks working for the Mayor's office; more, then, that Prime Minister Gordon Brown is able to command.
One highly critical report (pdf) puts the figure of press and communications staff working at the Greater London Authority as a staggering 173. This figure must include hacks working on the "Londoner" freesheet distributed to the capital's homes, dedicated to Ken's activity.
We can find fifteen on the Greater London Authority's website: Besides two press and marketing bosses and their assistants, the Ken PR office is split into six departments, including Strategy, Transport & Environment, Environment (again); Economic Development; Culture & Community; and "Local Media", "Handling all subject areas covered by local media, providing articles by the Mayor for the local press; women's issues."
What do dozens of PR people actually do all day? With the election date fast approaching, they are busy bees, these PRs.
Any pro-Livingstone comments appearing in UK blogs are dismissed as being the work of Ken's PR machine.
The Guardian handed Livingstone a column which he used to attack his "Thatcherite" rival Boris Johnson. The column's publication on the webite - suspiciously late in the afternoon, as one commenter notes - was swiftly followed by a chorus of mindless praise for the Great Leader.
A couple of posters smelled a rat, and claimed that the column was posted late so Ken's staff could get home from work and at their keyboards, ready to defend their master's voice. Another noted "Gosh, lots of those Mystery Commenters here again, the ones that only ever appear on threads attached to pro-Ken articles."
And another:
"Yes I wondered why the first few comments on a Ken article were always so vehemently pro-Ken. I presume these are his lackeys forced to comment as soon as the article is published in the hope that no one will read further when all the normal people wake up."
Conspiracy theory or not? Certainly some of the pro-Ken comments were so corny ("Stay with Ken", "You're no angel Ken, but I've seen with my own eyes the positive changes that have occurred in London under your watch") that they couldn't possibly be written by real people.
It isn't difficult, either, to imagine a regime that has been a law unto itself ordering its PR army to pepper the comments pages with favourable remarks; in this respect, Ken would be merely emulating the activities of New Labour's PR machine, which has done similar to Guido's blog.
But still... even if Ken's men and women aren't policing the blogs, the fact that he employs such a vast PR army makes voters instantly suspicious.
