Blind Prophecy

Looks like Mayor Rocky’s in (PR) trouble. From the Salt Lake Tribune:

Canned Anderson employee fires back
Spokeswoman: Deeda Seed says the mayor is an abusive grump; Rocky says it’s just sour grapes

By Heather May
The Salt Lake Tribune

Rocky Anderson’s spokeswoman has now become his detractor.

On Friday, the Salt Lake City mayor fired Deeda Seed, a former city councilwoman who worked as his spokeswoman for about 1 1/2 years and previously worked on his re-election campaign. Before that she was his chief of staff.

Okay, I’m sure that people will accuse me of being willing to forgive Rocky nearly anything because of the good he’s done, but really…

Her chief complaints (and those of other employees):
1. He’s a mean boss who yells when he’s unhappy.
2. He swears.
3. He talks badly of political opponents.
4. He belittles the LDS church.

My response:
1. Boo hoo. Look, of all her complaints, this is the one I sympahtize with the most. Still, I’ve interacted with Dedda Seed a few times (as a member of the press) and I’ve not been overly impressed with her abilities.
2. Oh boo fucking hoo. They’re words, get over it.
3. Duh. Our political process is built on adversarial relationships – most politicians dislike each other passionately behind closed doors. Talk about reaching “across the aisle” and “nonpartisan cooperation” is usually just a lot of hypocrisy. Besides, there’s a lot to mock in the SLC City Counsil.
4. Of all the accusations, this one sounds to me like the one most calculated to do the most damage – also the one he categorically denies. If I were a professional PR agent wanting to discredit a politician in Utah, I’d pretend to have inside information that they mock the Mormons. The fact is, you can disagree fundamentally and passionately with the doctrines of the church – you can even talk about those disagreements – without being a “religious bigot.” Tolerance doesn’t mean you have to keep your mouth shut when you disagree with someone else’s beliefs.

But of course, we’re headed for more angry letters to the editor about Rocky, more divisiveness between Mormons and non-Mormons (the irony being that Seed was very involved in one of Rocky’s programs called “Bridging the Religious Divide”), and other attempts to smear his name and reputation (not that there haven’t been plenty already).

Filed under: livejournal by Jere Keys