In what can only be described as an informercial, the PLP website today posted a video of Finance Minister Paula Cox being 'interviewed' by Roger Scotton for a program called "The Expert View".
I started watching and immediately was struck by how odd and contrived the whole thing felt, particularly with the attempt to BBC-ify the segment.
So I did a bit of looking around about "The Expert View" and Mr. Scotton and can find little info on either, certainly nothing on any news show called The Expert View, which only appears to exist on the PLP website.
Mr. Scotton is a former XL Capital PR guy, whose bio on a website he appears to consult for describes his services as:
Roger is an experienced communications professional with extensive knowledge of strategic corporate communications (CEO & "C" level messaging, employee engagement, media relations and training) and its practical role in supporting business objectives and the development of an effective corporate infrastructure and culture.
And then it all made sense. Watch the interview.
This is a not so subtle piece of propaganda, PR disguised as journalism where Mr. Scotton asks all the obvious questions but never probes or challenges, rather giving Ms. Cox a platform to begin her post-budget image rehabilitation.
It's all a bit bizarre really. I suspect this will be looped on CITV, masquerading as news and an independent journalist interviewing the FInance Minister, when it's quite patently some pretty bad propaganda that you'd expect to see out of the Soviet era or China.
I wonder how much the taxpayers of Bermuda paid to produce this political advert?
Enjoy:
[UPDATE: Embedded video removed due to inability to stop video playing automatically. Click here to view.]
