Público
Manuela Ferreira Leite, leader of the Opposition party in Portugal, admitted Wednesday 12th November that she was having some difficulties in getting her [party’s] message across, as reported in the national newspaper Público.
“With media like this, it is very difficult to get the message through” she continued, defending that “it cannot be the [traditional] media that decides what to transmit” and that “the biggest responsibility of [traditional] media is to transmit different ideas nationally and let the people judge them.”
She claimed that:
- It is not possible to get the message out with just one voice;
- Just because you are talking [at] a full room, doesn’t mean you are getting through;
- Nobody will view a 4 second news item in 14th place in the primetime news, broadcasted in a
- Portuguese National Television station
- Even less will view it if it coincides with a major football game Benfica-Sporting
Just in case you are wondering, owing to the number of posts that I have written about Manuela Ferreira Leite, this is not a political issue – it’s a communications gaffe verging on stupidity, ignorance and self righteousness. No politician has earned the right to have an audience when, how and if they so choose. It’s not naïve; it is to all effects plain stupid!
Is Manuela Ferreira Leite, and her accompanying band of uninformed aides, the only people on this earth to have missed the brilliant and almost flawless campaign behind Obama’s victory to the White House? Did they miss the traditional and non-traditional extensive coverage of Obama’s majestic use of Social Media? Anyone proclaiming to be in the “hands of traditional media” should by now have discovered the ever so obvious alternative.
Ferreira Leite’s official blog churns out press releases disguised as posts; her team erases comments left by its few followers (I had a comment erased) and gives into the paltry change that comes from her Google adds, which seem to promote the most outrageous of products and services, including sexy girls in chats, Madonna’s IQ and a host of other mindless services.
Their lack of control over the brand “Manuela Ferreira Leite” is evident in sites such as Twitter and yet she has the audacity to rave about her rights to the audience. Well people are listening – they are just getting a very different message: an egocentric, unknowledgeable and out of touch politician claiming to be a victim of the “system”. In the 80’s, she might actually have gained some sympathy.
Miss Milk, welcome to the Groundswell!
For those of you wondering, the translation of Leite from Portuguese to English is Milk, which should actually be recommended to everyone, though perhaps not in this specific case.
