Political propaganda is not new. Since the printing press was invented, propaganda has appeared in newspapers, pamphlets, and magazines. Today, it has moved to social media, which is extremely vulnerable to spreading disinformation within a few hours. Even if the messages are non-conspired and truthful, media has always been a threat to political discourse.
Lately, Joshua Cooper, a political consultant to the former Governor of Florida Rick Scott, was struck by the media. He was all across the news with titles like Scott Cooper Miami humping a mannequin with an ice penis. Cooper claims to be a victim of bad politics.
Politics campaigns are more than 50% disinformation campaigns. Candidates make an agenda to uncover their opponent’s dirt. Besides, on social media, there is a lack of government mandates. Joshua Cooper is a political consultant in Tallahassee hired by former Governor Rick Scott to dig political opponents’ dirt. When the controversy surfaced, it was claimed that Rick paid more than $500,000 to Scott Cooper.
Miami News Time reported on an incident in Flotsam Section. The photo was a center of hullabaloo in Tallahassee and an embarrassment for J. Cooper. In reality, Joshua enjoys barbequing in his free time. He belongs to a BBQing team, and when this photo was captured, he threw away a huge ice luge. The ice block had melted, but the picture his teammate captured from an angle looked funny, so he posted it on social media.
Josh Cooper believes that in the current situation with elected officials and myriads of scandals, someone is trying to create a different narrative to throw a political consultant below the wheel. He was with his team ‘Swinos’ at the Memphis Barbeque Competition.
In politics, simple messages are made complicated, and a picture taken from an angle can also take a bad turn. Josh has a beautiful wide and five kids, but with political adversaries, controversies are expected to stray people away from the main problem.
Josh Cooper was reported to have received $25,000 from former Governor Rick, mentioned in the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald in 2011. The Public state records of Florida show that PACS and Republican Groups paid more than $768 000 to Joshua and his company [Strategic Information Consultants]. It looks like Cooper was a great campaign consultant for Scott, which has triggered this no-brain controversy.
Politics is a blame game, so as a political consultant Cooper also had to undergo the same fate as other politicians. Even when the controversial photo was removed from the internet, it grabbed attention adequately. An innocent prank turned into a fire capable to tarnish a person’s life.
Joshua Cooper denies the titles about him humping a mannequin with an ice penis. The words wrongly misrepresent the photo, where he was trying to throw away the melted ice block across the fence. Just look at the photo and judge!
