Status Updates From A Quiet Word: Lobbying, Cro...

One way if spiking a story is to offer the journalist an even better story about something else if they don’t write it. The promise of future cooperation is also important.

NGOs not only have less money than lobbyists, but they also occupy fringe positions outside the mainstream - because the mainstream is defined by the lobbyists, if they can. Appearing moderate and mainstream is a big help in press coverage.

Lying is risky for PR and lobbying firms, but exaggeration and distortion are common. For instance, the City pretended they would exodus to Switz if the tax passed, but they didn’t.

Journalists need to cultivate sources, but the PR-hack relationship is rarely equal. A negative story can land you cold shouldered.

When journalists meet lobbyists, often it isn’t just lobbyists briefing the journos but journos advising the lobbyists on reputation.

Aside from fronts and suppression, lobbyists might seek something more ambitious - to frame the whole debate, or ‘control the ground’. Lobbyists craft and then promote the acceptable ways of discussing the world.

More hidden is how lobbyists use the press to prevent information getting out. Research suggests that for every story fed to the press there is one being carefully kept out. Half or more of some PR company’s time is spent keeping their employer out of the news.

More hidden is how lobbyists use the press to prevent information getting out. Research suggests that for every story fed to the press there is one being carefully kept out. Half or more of some PR company’s time is spent keeping their employer out of the news.

Sometimes the press is used to get facts and arguments into political debate, such as arguments for Heathrow expansion. They feed facts to journalists, or commentators. Lobbying is always about finding fronts for your cause. Commentators, academics, think tanks...

Lobbyists prefer to avoid the press, because a good lobbyist is a quiet one. Press is only used when something has gone wrong and the subject has attracted public attention/media scrutiny.

Lobbyists do not use the media as a source of information on Westminster - they get their information from private specialist sources.

Lobbyists do not use the media as a source of information on Westminster - they get their information from private specialist sources.

Corporations use the media to talk not just to the masses but also to elites, particularly politicians, who are avid media consumers.

Secondments are a major means of influence

The system isn’t corrupted - it’s captured. Those in government and those who seek to influence them, mainly corporations, see their interests as mutual and interchangeable and think the same way.