{"id":1181,"date":"2016-08-24T15:00:06","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T03:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=1181"},"modified":"2016-08-24T15:00:06","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T03:00:06","slug":"what-the-reader-takes-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=1181","title":{"rendered":"What the reader takes out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TowerOfBabel\"<\/a>As a friend of mine is wont to remind me from time to time: whether you are seeking to inform or persuade, it\u2019s not what the writer puts in; it\u2019s what the reader takes out.<\/p>\n

More years ago than I care to remember, I volunteered to help a friend and neighbour with his campaign to become a councillor \u2013 and ideally the mayor \u2013 of our borough.<\/p>\n

Doc did all the hard work \u2013 the public meetings, the baby kissing \u2013 and I dreamed up most of the publicity \u2018events\u2019, wrote the official press releases, and bombarded the local media with \u2018backgrounders\u2019.<\/p>\n

Doc was a would-be politician blessed with real experience of the real world.\u00a0 He had started his working life as a bank clerk, migrated into the specialist security construction industry, run a restaurant and bar in Franco\u2019s Spain, started a successful property company (in the days when most property companies were not all that successful), and then trained as a tutor for a technical institute \u2018to give something back\u2019.<\/p>\n

However, despite his real life experience, Doc had never held political office of any kind.\u00a0 And we were very aware that, in local body elections, previous experience, and\/or a familiar name, gives the candidate a certain advantage.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, one of the backgrounders that I wrote was a piece about Doc\u2019s extensive involvement with a couple of local schools.\u00a0 We hoped that it might help voters to see him as a community-minded candidate, well capable of working with others.<\/p>\n

I sent the release to one of the two local community newspapers which, somewhat to my surprise, ran the story almost word for word.<\/p>\n

A couple of days later, I ran into the paper\u2019s editor.\u00a0 I asked her if the election was generating any interest.\u00a0 Oh, yes.\u00a0 Just that morning she had received a letter from an irate reader.\u00a0 The paper was telling lies, the reader said.\u00a0 And he demanded<\/em> that the paper run a retraction, making it clear that Doc had had no local government experience whatsoever.\u00a0 None.\u00a0 Not a skerrick.<\/p>\n

\u2018Well, I didn\u2019t suggest that he did,\u2019 I said.\u00a0 \u2018I just said that he had had several years working \u2013 very successfully \u2013 with a couple of the local schools.\u00a0 So, unless your chaps added something \u2026.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018No, no,\u2019 she said.\u00a0 \u2018But it\u2019s a good reminder that many readers read what they want to read.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it happens all the time.\u2019<\/p>\n

The story did have a happy ending.\u00a0 On polling day, Doc received the second highest number of votes.\u00a0 And, clearly impressed by the new boy, the man with the most votes, that man who became mayor, chose Doc as his deputy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a friend of mine is wont to remind me from time to time: whether you are seeking to inform or persuade, it\u2019s not what the writer puts in; it\u2019s what the reader takes out. More years ago than I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1182,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181\/revisions\/1182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}