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Arthur Solomon Remember when people used to argue whether baseball or football is the national pastime?
That all changed in June, 2015, when Trump announced he was running for President. Shortly thereafter, he introduced a new national pastime to America: attacking the media for reporting established facts. “Play ball” was replaced with “Play insult.”
Trump’s attacks on the press hit rock-bottom in August 2015 when, upset by Megyn Kelly’s questioning during a presidential debate, he said, “You know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” Many thought that would be the low-point of Trump’s remarks. But there have been so many low points since it’s difficult to choose a nadir.
Without doubt, another of his low points occurred on June 29, when His Crudeness tweeted that “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski was “bleeding badly from a face-lift.”
The less-than dignified presidential tweetburst allegedly was caused when Ms. Brzezinski made fun about Trump properties displaying trumped-up (pun intended) Time magazine covers.
While Trump’s remarks drew criticism from within the President’s party, you can bet the farm that his line-up of spokespersons will never say anything that upsets their boss.
On June 29, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, one of the President’s three-principal parrot-like spokespersons — the others being Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway — defended the President’s tweets, saying that Americans knew what they were getting when they elected Trump. Sanders strongly defended Trump’s coarse remarks at one of the recently infrequent daily on-camera press briefings, during which she and Spicer treated reporters as spoiled brats to be punished for asking questions that upset the President.
Which raises the question: why does the press put up with being used as props by attending press briefings, considering the President’s spokespersons never answer questions that they don’t like?
As a former journalist, I understand why the briefings must be covered. I also understand why the cable networks must attend: they need footage for their less-than-packed 24/7 political coverage. The no-news press briefings are a perfect fit for the lack of news cable political programs. Most of the really important news stories are done by enterprise reporters for the major print dailies, who obtain their facts outside the staged propaganda-laden press briefings.
As long as the White House press briefings remain packed and political journalists accept the scripted pap as news, there’s no reason for the administration flacks conducting these staged sessions to change the performance.
When I told my journalist colleagues that I was taking a job at a PR firm, they said, “well, that means we can’t trust you anymore.” It was said in jest, but after witnessing the staged, scripted performances of Spicer and Sanders, it wouldn’t surprise me if the believability of people in our business is at an all-time low. And that’s one accomplishment that no one can deny that Trump made happen.
There are three important take-a-ways young people in our business can learn from watching the White House briefings. One, make certain that media results on client reports are truthful, and do not use phony mock-ups during presentations. If clients find exaggerations, it can cause major difficulties for you and the agency, as it did for Trump.
Second, when dealing with journalists regarding unfavorable coverage, keep calm and don’t lecture them. Shouting and demeaning journalists’ work is sure to result in a “he said, she said” situation, which will only result in additional negative coverage.
Finally, and the most important lesson, is directed to those just entering our business: watch how Spicer and Sanders conduct press briefings. Whenever a tense media situation arises, make certain not to act as they do.
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Arthur Solomon was a senior VP at Burson-Marsteller. He now is a contributor to public relations and sports business publications, consults on PR projects and was on the Seoul Peace Prize nominating committee. He can be reached at [email protected].
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