The court transcripts from the Peter Slipper case make interesting reading for radio people. radioinfo even gets a mention. James Ashby, a former radio presenter, joined the staff of former House of Representatives Speaker Peter Slipper as a media advisor. He is now suing Slipper for sexual harassment and the phone and text records of both parties have been admitted into evidence.

In his PR work Ashby dealt with many people in the radio industry in an effort to generate positive PR for his employer. Some of the texts given an interesting insight into how to pitch PR ideas, including this little gem proposing that Slipper do a fun interview on the Today network:

Merry Xmas and no doubt a happy new year. I’m now advisor to the speaker of the house in Canberra. He shares one of the countries most hated titles along with Kyle and Julia Gillard. If you’re interested in any fun exclusive with Kyle and Jackie let me know. James Ashby.

The court documents show that Ashby believed it was in Slipper’s political interest to make a real effort to get some positive media: “Mr Ashby’s impression at the time was that a number of journalists found Mr Slipper and his office very difficult to deal with and Mr Ashby’s advice to Mr Slipper was that it was in Mr Slipper’s interests to take real steps to remedy the situation.”

Ashby also gave Slipper good advice about using social media and developing a presence on YouTube. Slipper was grateful for the advice:

James thank you for the best piece of media advice I have ever been given. It enabled us to be proactive. On way to pick you up.

And on the topic of the best website to place an add for staff there was this exchange of text messages:

What were those websites you recommended for the ad please? 

Radioinfo.com.au & jocksjournal.com

Thanks…

I think you’ll get a flurry of interest from those sites. It’ll make people go “fuck radio, fuck tv, I’m going into politics”! It’s good money and there’s life after radio.

Although they say that all publicity is good publicity, at radioinfo we’re not sure that this is quite the kind of endorsement we’re looking for.