Grandmother's dream

As you know, every year on December 31, Muscovite Zhenya Lukashin and friends go to the bathhouse. Why in the bathhouse? Yes, the devil knows why! They have such a tradition.

In our Volga region, there is also an interesting tradition: every year, about a month and a half before the bath runs (followed by the irony of fate) Lukashin and the company, the regional mininform distributes budget gifts among journalists. To comply with the decorum, the treasured envelope with the check is issued to almost every potential grantee, but the amount is different in words: someone finds a number with one zero, and someone with six.

Since the media community in the province is not so great (and generously) as in the capitals, any awl here is difficult to hide in a bag. Those who got less than zeros are always happy to prejudice to discuss the lucky ones and condemn the mininform. In turn, the lucky ones, remembering the fable about the crow and cheese, usually prefer to keep silent, and the ministry most often repeats the mantra about the black envy of outsiders. In general, everything is as always, but ...

This year almost brought a sensation. It turned out that as many as 6,000,000 rubles, that is, almost a third of all the gifts allocated by the media received a non-led pensioner from St. Petersburg. Since in Russia, pensioners are the most deprived part of the population, there was a rumor that Robin Hood wound up in our mininform, who, under cover of night, takes money from a rich state and gives it to the poor. Alas! Pretty soon it became clear that the pensioner was not so poor. Moreover, it turned out that the old woman is a native grandmother of a local deputy from United Russia, who, as you guessed, is by no means the owner of a certain media business, but simply a respectful grandson who disinterestedly looks after grandmother's property.

They pay for the elementary PR of any actions of the regional authorities: the negative must be excluded, positive is total, and the name of the governor surrounded by epithets appropriate to appear in the text of the article or report at least twice

It is clear that none of the journalists in the ministerial fairy tale about the Red Hat believed, but Vera is a metaphysical substance, and according to the law, everything seems to be normal, you can’t formally find it. In the end, each creature on the planet, whether he is a deputy or gamadril, has at least one grandmother. So the problem is not in a particular St. Petersburg old woman. The trouble is different. All fighters for a piece of the budget cake know in advance in advance that they are paid not at all for the objective coverage of certain topics (whether it is the economy of the region or social sphere), but for the elementary PR of any actions of the regional government: the negative must be excluded, positive, and the name of the governor, surrounded by epithets, is obliged to appear in the text of the article or reporting at least twice. Who does not like this approach, let him not submit applications for a grant.

Well, this has its own savage logic. But if so, the mininform should be lured in large amounts the most authoritative or at least mass publications. However, all the media of the deputy grandmother, for example, are neither one nor the other: a dwarf franchise and a niche television channel. Since the audience of such media strives to zero, it will be equal to the PR effect from the tambourine in the obvious void. So what is the focus? Why all these games?

It seems to me that the era of "honest" PR is also in the past. The authorities, really not elected by anyone, are absolutely independent of the population, and therefore no longer needs his opinion about himself or his little support. And if so, why allow someone except yourself, friends and relatives to a serious cut of grants? Why even spend money on some extraneous journal? When you ask a rhetorical question ("Is I in the world the nicer, all blush and whiter?") And when no one, except you, is not needed a ritual review of this fairy -tale password, a large mirror does not need anything. Even a pocket mirror is no longer required. A tiny fragment of it will also fit. Here he is, even if he whispers a pre -paid answer.

Roman Arbitman - Saratov writer

Opinions expressed under the heading "Law" may not reflect the point of view of the editorial office