A young ballerina is pictured fastening her pointe shoes alongside an ominous caption: Fatimas next job could be in cyber she just doesnt know it yet. Shared online just days after the chancellor had come under fire for comments he had made about retraining parts of the workforce facing redundancy as a result of the coronavirus, Fatima the Ballerina became the poster child for government insensitivity.
The message was read as a sign of Tory callousness, asking creatives to give up on their lifelong ambitions because the Treasury wouldnt bail them out. Liberals on social media were quick to go on the attack insisting that Fatima should be financially supported during Covid-19, while the singer KT Tunstall suggested the Government could be barred from enjoying any arts for the rest of time. The photographer behind the picture said she was devastated by its use.
Only it wasnt all that it was made out to be. Rather than part of a government push for retraining in the wake of the pandemic, the advert was part of a 2019 campaign for cyber recruitment that existed long before the pandemic hit. Even when users pointed this out online, the news failed to travel as fast as the initial outrage. For many the details were irrelevant, as the wider point of a government that cared for money not the arts in their minds held true.
This is not a unique scenario. While most of us are used to the concept of fake news by now, its often been viewed to be the preserve of angry American presidents, Russian trolls or conspiracy theorists. These days its more complicated. These kind of half-untruths are put out by all sides and used as weapons. And while the Right has a reputation for fighting dirty, the Left has sometimes been seen to be above this. It was Michelle Obama who coined the phrase, When they go low, we go high. But in the aftermath of the Labour Partys 2019 election defeat, the attitude on the Left seems split: between those on one side who argue for an if you cant beat em, join em attitude and those on the other who think they should rise above anything that can even be perceived as foul play. So, just how low should the Left go when it comes to taking on their opponents?
Adam McNicholas is the founder of One Rule For Them, a new grassroots group aimed at supporting the Left in marginal seats through political persuasion campaigns. While he supports a more aggressive stance, he says the focus should be on framing. We dont need fake news, these guys give us enough ammunition as it is, he tells me, citing Dominic Cummings trip to Durham during the first lockdown as an easy area on which to capitalise. Not that his campaigns avoid controversy. Last month his outfit released a new video on Dishy Rishi asking whether the chancellor was on voters side. The video argues that the smooth talking politician is not, citing his alleged celebrity lifestyle and career in finance.
The video was criticised from figures on the Left as well as the Right for being too personal and negative. However, McNicholas was satisfied with its impact and the more than one million organic views it received. The principle behind it creating rows about things we want to talk about meant the plan was to draw attention to Sunaks background as a hedge fund manager.
While some in the Conservative Party thought it unfairly suggested Sunak was living it up, figures close to the chancellor say they were not put out. If thats what they need to resort to then good luck to them, says a source close to Sunak.
One figure who can see some merit in this type of aggression is James Schneider, former Momentum organiser before working as director of strategic communications to Jeremy Corbyn. I think the One Rule For Them framing just as a name is quite good. That is quite a good narrative for attack, he tells me. However, he said it would benefit from a less personal focus on Sunaks possessions. There is no point taking the piss out of the fact hes got some expensive tea heating mug thing that sends data to his Apple Watch, but him having worked in hedge funds and wages stagnating for the past 12 years, those links are better.
Schneider has had to deal with the question of how the Left should win over voters: the tussle between positive messaging and the negative. He says the Labour Party has been too focused on incredibly long stat-based attack documents that basically dont do anything a 100 days of Tory failure or whatever, he says. Those are really ineffective so almost by definition any move away from that type of attack would be good for the Left. Under Corbyn, there was a push to focus on a more positive approach. While Schneider says that should still be the focus, it doesnt mean you cant criticise your opponents.
So, what cuts through when it comes to changing minds? Is it a Rishi attack video, Fatima the Ballerina or something else entirely? James Johnson is a former pollster for No 10 under Theresa May who regularly conducts focus groups in his role as co-founder of JL Partners. He says, Theres a difference between the things that people have heard of, which is one definition of cut-through, and the things that really change opinions of a brand. Fatima the Ballerina was an example of the former: People have referred in focus groups to that ballerina advert itself and they were sort of pretty critical about the whole thing but actually it hadnt really impacted their view of Rishi Sunak at all, he explains.
What impact then does it have when the things being discussed in the focus groups stretch the truth? In discussions on the ballerina advert, James Johnson said the fact it was a 2019 campaign did not come up. However, he still believes the public are better at questioning sources than they are often given credit for. There is always that interrogation and that feeling of is this really real, and its particularly accentuated if its seen on social media, he says. People are hyper aware of where they are getting their news from and how its painted.
If the public are switched on, do parties even need to bother to step in to correct the things put out by their supporters? Any effort could be futile. When something happens like that it can spread like wildfire particularly if celebrities join in, a Conservative aide explains. Theres not much you can do; often its bad luck.
Schneider says such dilemmas ought not to distract from the most important goal: getting your message out there. I think how progressive forces should think about all different forms of communications is how many times can you get your message in front of people and how effectively versus the other side, he says. That should be more the focus than trying to police how much due diligence someone should do before they retweet a meme because I think there, youre bumbling into an unpoliceable zone.
The Left has long believed that the press in this country tilts right so there is an argument that these attacks could level the playing field. But the challenge for them is walking the tightrope of getting peoples attention while keeping their integrity intact.
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Why is the liberal Left resorting to fake news too? - Evening Standard