The other day, I was reading one of the posts I had book-marked about Canada’s chief of defense staff taking to Twitter and proclaiming that “Diversity makes us stronger, inclusion improves our institution”. This statement was made as he highlighted the discussions on the issues of origin and gender diversity at the top levels of the country’s armed forces.
This is all great, and we would not expect anything less in any democratic country these days, especially in Canada. But…. As you will see once you click on the link, he included a picture of this meeting on his Tweet and that picture included 8 white men sitting around the table. You could see another white man and a white woman on a screen, participating remotely.
Now, to be fair, he has already apologized about this cock-up and yes people make mistakes, but as long as they are not very serious, nor out of malice and are rectified, the society moves forward. I only bring this up for something else: Such a high ranking official, in a cerebral country does not run his communication, be it tweets, by a communication advisor? He does not have one, or he considers his tweets off-limit to professional control?
This example also brings up the question of where the private person separates from the public figure in these new tools and media? We recently saw the departure of the master of this blurring of the lines from the White House, but seriously, shouldn’t the public officials look a bit more seriously at their social media communication with the public?
I do not have a clear-cut opinion on that, and I know that this has been a hot (and cliché) discussion item, especially since many of our media (TV, periodicals, dailies) seem to substitute Tweet-citing for investigative or reporting journalism.
To see the Guardian article and the picture:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/12/canada-military-diversity-picture-eight-white-men
Paris, March 12, 2021
Zeejay