Oh, Yes They Can! When Politicians Play Favorites with Media |
| Blooker Comments - Reporters and the Media | |||
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PR Reps Get Stuck in the Middle by PR Practioner Cherie Kerr, President KerrPR Though it is thought to be not only appropriate but ethical among PR practitioners to disseminate information to the media in equal fashion ... that is, to release the same story at the same time to the same pool of reporters ... it does not always happen that way. In fact, in the political world it rarely does. Many times politicians decide to play favorites, giving one reporter, with whom they have “buddied up,” a scoop. Better yet, sometimes knowingly and other times not caring so much, they play reporters against one another opting to give prime stories to the Big Media Cheeses. In so doing, they hope Those Guys will feel ingratiated to them. (They often have the PR Professional cry: “I’ll give you an exclusive if….”) As a result, the politicians hope, such Cheeses will not only report their story more favorably, but that they will also give the story bigger play. That is hard on those of us who serve these politicians in a public relations capacity. Because, here’s the problem: Many Little Media Cheeses move from Media Hole to Media Hole. Some of the Little Ones wind up in the Big Cheese Media seats. Then what? Well, then the politicians who stepped on the Little Cheeses to claw their way to the Big Cheeses at the Top will have, for lack of a better description, screwed themselves. Actually, people like me are often relegated to the “screwed” seat. It is a delicate dance, this Media Tango. And one never knows quite who to partner up with and take to the Media Dance Floor. Politicians tend to fill up their dance card with the better known, high-stepping Cheeses. And, we are asking to do their bidding for them to get them to the Dance. But, that does not always work well because who may have been somewhat insignificant last year ... maybe a reporter for the Niagara Falls Gazette, for instance ... suddenly becomes an important Cheese at the New York Times next year. But, once you step on the wrong Dancer’s toes, there can be hell to pay! PR people know that only too well. We try to make everyone happy; our client and the reporters. But sometimes, politicians chat it up with reporters and diss others without our knowledge. That is why butt-kissing in politics is a 24/7 job. But that is a whole different story. A prime reason we tell our political clients how unwise it is to play favorites is that it not only compromises a politician’s integrity, it strongly affects the outcome of the story. We try to sneak in a little plug for ourselves, too, suggesting that we would like to keep our fine reputations. But, back to the outcome of the story: In a desperate attempt to get a better story, many journalists, eager to outdo their Fellow Cheeses, “bend” the story, picking through the press release handout, or using their privileged information, to key in on whatever aspect the other Cheese Guy might not be covering. There they ferret out a story angle that will outdo that Cheese to garner their Media Outlet more “aha” or “ooh-and-ah” responses among their readers/viewers. This goes on every day. Sometimes those of us who sit in my Cheese seats are powerless and frustrated. We River Dance our way through many delicate moments. We often sit by and watch reporters and journalists play their competitive “my-story-will-be-better-than-your story” game. And, whether the Big Cheese Journalists will ever admit to it or not, the thrill oft times comes in the kill ... killing their competitor’s story because they have already gotten a jump on it, all because a politician gave them a sneak preview of that great story. As such, some newspaper and broadcast Cheeses have reported on it before the other Cheese could do so, rendering that journalist’s story “yesterday’s news.” It is in those (daily) instances ... shortly before the presses or the cameras roll, or the web folk post the pieces ... that those latter Cheeses are scurrying for something new to punch up their piece. That can drive us crazy because we want to give them something additional or new (since they were not in on the story they wanted from the get-go) and because we do not want them picking their own news pegs that might harm our political clients. The most recent presidential campaign was a wonderful illustration of exactly what I just referred to. Every journalist cheese wanted his/her story to dominate the news cycle. Every politician wanted his/her story to dominate the news cycle. Every PR person wanted his/her story to not get out of control. Sometimes there can be cooperation between the factions, and sometimes not. In this maddening world of “real-time” news, many journalists find it hard to be charitable to their colleagues. Yes, some share sources and leads, some even trade information, but then again, there are those journalists who, no matter what, do not play nice in the sandbox. More work for us PR types. Their game ... this latter group ... is to bargain with press secretaries and public affairs officials ... us PR types ... suggesting they will certainly “highight specific talking points” if they were to simply be given a quick heads up. All this goes on while the public sits innocently by wanting nothing more than to take in the day’s news events ... events as they really happen. As they really are. They look for this as they read the paper, plop themselves down in front of the tube, or jump on the Internet to catch the latest headlines, especially the political ones. Knowing what is taking place today is especially important. Most want to know how much they lost in the stock market hour-by-hour or how long they are going to suffer in this Recession/Depression or whatever the politicians and the media finally decide to call it. They also want to know what their president and congressional representatives are going to do about it. There are even those who would like to know when it might be time to step up and claim their bailout package. For those reasons, most people are paying far more attention to what the Cheeses write today than they did a year ago. They want to find out what the politicians are feeding the media and what it is the media are feeding us. But, when politicians are betting on which Cheeses to play (with) and those Cheeses are busy playing the game with them (all the while trying to upstage their fellow and /or competitor Cheeses) that begs the question: what happens to the end result ... the actual story? Does the story become somehow slanted or somewhat skewed? Does the public always get the truth? There are times when the truth skates on the edge. But nevertheless, the Cheese Chiefs bill it as news. Today, news is approached as Entertainment. Every Cheese wants high ratings. But then, so does every politician. PR people just want to heave a sigh of relief at the end of the day and know they got the job done. This leaves many to wonder what the masses would see and hear if there was no spin. I and other PR types enjoy strategizing, of course, but when we counsel politicians we often plead with them to forego the elaborate spin and give the public what it truly wants: facts and truth. We also highly recommend that they not play favorites, and when we are asked by a politician to do just that on his/her behalf as we hand out news items, it becomes painful; sometimes as traumatic as a Sophie’s Choice moment. Each PR professional changes camps, too, and none of us wants to slit our public relations throats. We have to use our instincts as we navigate our way through what is expected of us and what will secure our careers. We also have to be extremely diplomatic in the process. Naturally, we want to keep our integrity intact. Our work would be so much easier and the public would be so much happier (and rightly informed) if politicians would collectively agree to give their stories to the Reporter Cheeses in the same format at the same time. No more favorites. No more whispering into the phone. No more sneaking aside to fire off cryptic text messages. No more meeting in back rooms to give a Cheese an exclusive on a breaking story before a press release is officially issued. Yes, it could be the simple act of distributing information, simultaneously, on a mass scale. But that is not realistic. We are beyond that now. So, it is up to the public to do some fact-checking, some vetting. They must learn to read between the “lines,” all of them, because somewhere in there lies the real story. (KerrPR has offices in Santa Ana, Calif., Los Angeles and Denver. Cherie Kerr founded the firm in 1978. She is the author of eight books on communication.)
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