Mainstream media usually reflect a rather jaundiced view of politicians – probably because we spend large chunks of our careers monitoring them.
Mainstream media usually reflect a rather jaundiced view of politicians – probably because we spend large chunks of our careers monitoring them.
We watch their every move trying to catch them with their hands in the cookie jar – at least that’s what most of them think, and we’re fine with that.
The point is that journalists usually describe politicians in negative terms – they’re lazy, self-serving, greedy and power hungry – but that can’t apply to all of them.
No. Some politicians, and I use the term loosely here, do in fact have exceedingly tough jobs.
This week a few candidates for the ‘dirty jobs’ title came to mind.
Let’s start with US President Barack Obama – he has a really tough job. Sure, he flies around in enormous luxury jets and every time he goes anywhere a marching band strikes up a tune, but this week must have been one of his toughest yet: he had to publicly defend his new Obamacare website to the American people.
The reason why this defence was so daunting is because, quite simply, the site doesn’t work in spite of its gargantuan cost – some pundits say around $400 million.
In this country, we also have some hard-working politicians who are faced with unenviable tasks. Let’s take Ntombile Mabude, the South African High Commissioner to Malawi – she was called in to address President Jacob Zuma’s disparaging remarks about the quality of the roads in Malawi.
Zuma was trying to convince an audience in Johannesburg that they should pay e-tolls when he let slip a howler suggesting that Malawi was somewhat 'backward' in this regard. He implied that Gauteng should be judged by much higher standards than some other African countries, for example Malawi.
Zuma’s political opponents went berserk with indignation and immediately issued sanctimonious press releases, all of which were shot down by the man who must have one of the toughest jobs in the country – Presidency Spokesperson Mac Maharaj.
A spin doctor of note, Maharaj has already survived two presidents.Therefore he was not so naive as to go for a tried and tested “he was misquoted” defence, because he knew that the media had electronically recorded the President’s faux pas and stuck it on the Eyewitness News website. Instead, Zuma’s faithful Rottweiler went for the good ol': “he was quoted out of context”.
Good one, Mac.
