Suppose we were asked as PIO’s to meet with the media directly after a structural fire where much more went wrong than right. Instead of confronting the situation and transparently addressing where we succeeded, where we failed, and what we should have done to make things run better we took a different tact. We decide to ignore the present, forget about the fire and tell the press that things would have been much worse under the leadership of the past Chief and things are going in the future to get much better. The press would look at us like we were raving lunatics.
In Washington politics, where the main objective in my mind is to get reelected by trying to pull the wool over the voter’s eyes, this scenario is common place when it comes to public information and media spin.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was a guest on NBC’s “Meet the Press” this past Sunday, where he rolled out messaging and spin voters can expect to hear from now until November. He said -
“We have a choice: Are we going to go back to the movie that we’ve already seen, and we know the results, or are we going to look forward? … David, I’m not here to unfold the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner. OK? We’ve got a lot of work to do, and the president understands that … But the president’s going to lay out a choice: Look back to where we came from, and … look forward to where we’re going. …We can look backward, and we can look forward.
Get ready to hear more “look backward” or “look forward” in the coming months, and not confront the current problems this country faces. At least the media, in this case David Gregory, are starting to get it and look past the smoke and mirrors. Listen to Gibbs tell half truth after half truth and think that the American public is probably eating out of his hand.
What a bunch of stooges. How come we as PIO’s are held to a higher public standard when these empty suits can say whatever they want and expect the American public to believe them.
Take people for fools and you’ll end up at the end looking like the dimwit.
Also on The Fire PIO…
- How do I Address a Judge? – November 18, 2010
He is certainly better than Dana Perino (Oh Goodness, I’m looking back!) standing there lying about everything everyday. The press core certainly needs to step up and start asking the tough questions, but back in 2002. Had they been paying attention then (Oh goodness, I’m looking back) the lies spewed from that podium wouldn’t have cost over 5000 American Lives.
PIOs have a responsibility to give the press the facts, the press secretaries are completely different in my mind. They are rolled out to “clarify” what the Administration meant when they say something off the cuff or “off script.”
Like when the Vice President tells a member of Congress to “Go fuck yourself” the press secretary isn’t there to tell us why he said it, but to try to make us forget he did. Or when he shoots someone in the face, or someone makes an inappropriate comment about a white cop and a black professor.
We can go around in circles about what how the PIO is different than the White House Press Secretary, but please don’t act surprised that we’re being asked to remember 8 of the last 10 years when going to the polls. We were told the same thing by the last guy. (Sorry, looking back again.)