TONE AND HABIT

Will jerking around the press hurt Rick Scott?

To pose the question bluntly, will jerking around the Capitol Press Corps really hurt Gov. Rick Scott?

Absolutely.

My own advice to people is to be as accessible as you can, provide as much information as you can, and always return press phone calls before deadline. There are lots of good self-serving reasons for this, but mainly (as someone who started his career as a journalist) it’s because I regard journalists as the Fourth Estate, a voice of the people that is essential to democracy.

Now, about Scott, who told a group of Florida reporters and editors yesterday at the AP Legislative Planning Session that he doesn’t read Florida newspapers.  (He’s not alone BTW – barely a third of the people in this state probably read a newspaper yesterday, according to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.) He made some attempts to be nice yesterday, but overall appears to be doing his best to corral the press and limit access to his decision-making process, whatever it is.

Will it matter?  Yes, and here are some implications:

• In his inevitable disagreements with the Legislature, Scott loses even more influence.  In contrast to Gov. Scott, the Legislature’s leadership appears to be going out of its way to be open to the press.  Senate President Mike Haridopolos is doing it for obvious reasons – he needs to stay in the media spotlight as much as possible for the next year and a half to win his primary.  House Speaker Dean Cannon appears (at least for now) to be open because he’s a genuinely conscientious public servant.  They’re already sitting on veto-proof majorities, and they’ll have the press as a megaphone to advance their arguments.  Bottom line, the legislators are going to have a much better time telling their stories in the hometown papers, and they’ll win any public opinion battle with this governor.
• Repetition matters, and four years of hostile press is going to take a toll on Scott in the next election.  Scott squeaked into office with horrible approval ratings -- somewhere around 33 percent.  Despite using a self-funded campaign account to outspend his opponent by something like 4 to 1, he did not win a majority, and only beat Alex Sink by 1.2 points. He’ll never drop the baggage of the Columbia/HCA fraud.  Since he’s been elected, he has seemed bent on giving potential opponents even more ammunition to create a potentially damaging narrative – out of touch executive bent on selling state to special interests. I’ve seen it take down elected officials time after time – while one or two negative stories barely dent public opinion, months or years of sustained negative coverage can erode your support and get you unelected.
• You don’t need the press to win an election, but you want the press to help you govern. I can think of a couple examples to illustrate how this works. Scott won his election because he had enough money to “speak directly to voters,” which for him meant ignoring mediators like editorial boards and instead blanketing the state with 30-second spots. President Barack Obama, when he was merely candidate Obama in 2008, was criticized at times for not being accessible to the press, but again used an overwhelming fundraising advantage (and a great ground game) to deliver an unmediated message to voters.  After Election Day, you can’t afford to prop up public opinion with continual advertising.  The only way you can continue to communicate to the 2 million plus people who put you in office, and who are now counting on you to deliver results, is through the mass media.

Don't get me wrong. I think a Twitter town hall is way cool, a great tactic. With the rise of social media, there are more channels than ever to engage the public directly, without the press as an intermediary. Without a doubt, the mainstream media is not as influential as it was even 10 years ago.

But the press is finally catching on to social media too, and I’d still advise a healthy respect for the creativity and commitment  of today’s journalists to continue the old mission to “give voice to the voiceless, and hold the powerful accountable.”

You want them working with you, not against you.

Have courage in 2011

A man down on earth needs our help.

Splendid! Is he sick?

No. Worse. He's discouraged.

-- From “It’s a Wonderful Life,” 1947

I know it’s a holiday, and we’re supposed to be in good cheer, but can we admit that it’s OK to feel a little discouraged?  It’s been a tough year.  Courage is no small thing, and 2011 promises to be another year where we’ll need all the courage we can find. 

You’d have to go back three generations -- to 1940 when national unemployment averaged 14.6 percent – to find a year that has been as bad as this one for working people.  More than 1.1 million people are out of work in Florida, and today’s statewide 12 percent unemployment is about where we were last year around this time.

There are families going without –without food, without medicine, without transportation – and they are still losing ground.  Small business owners are closing the books on 2010 and wondering if they’ll still be in business in a year.

It’s not a coincidence that Christmas comes at our darkest time of year.

The Winter Solstice, the longest and darkest night, happens around this time.  We’re entering the bleak days of mid-winter, a time of famine for our agrarian ancestors.  Maybe that’s why we celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day, the tentpole for what we all recognize as the spirit of the season.  (The Gospels never actually mention the time of year of the Nativity.)

“It’s a Wonderful Life,” the 1947 movie starring Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, a broke and depressed family man on Christmas Eve, wasn’t a hit when it was released, but it’s hard to imagine a Christmas without  it now.  On February 12, 1938 (so the story goes) a historian named Philip Van Doren Stern had an idea while he was shaving – a story about a small-town man who contemplates suicide until a guardian angel shows him what life would have been like without him.  Stern tried to write the story, “The Greatest Gift,” for the next five years, and never seemed to get it right until he changed the setting to Christmas.

Frank Capra, the director who adapted Stern’s story, was a Republican who bragged that he never once voted for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but also a populist whose films were liberal enough to get him summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee. In Capra’s film the villain, Mr. Potter, becomes a caricature of a greedy banker, but hero George Bailey is a banker too.  The main difference between the two is heart, and maybe what we would today call ethical business practices.

Potter makes his money by fleecing the working people of Bedford Falls.  He’s critical of the Baileys’ lending to low-income buyers, and their forgiveness to people getting behind on their payments.  “What does that get us?” Potter rants, “A discontented, lazy rabble instead of a thrifty working class.”

George replies, “Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?”

If you follow politics, you’ll probably hear echoes of recent controversy.

After the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission was established by Congress to look at the causes of the current financial crisis, four Republican members broke ranks and put out a report pinning the blame on policies to increase homeownership among low-income buyers.  (This after apparently voting to exclude the words “Wall Street” and “deregulation” from the report.)

The theme of their renegade report is that, “The unprecedented number of subprime and other weak mortgages in this bubble set it and its effect apart from others in the past.”  The ultimate blame for the collapse and the destruction of millions of jobs is therefore on “declining lending standards.”  As Potter would say, we let too many of the “lazy rabble” buy homes.

Never mind that many people now experiencing the tragedy of foreclosure wouldn’t be in this position if they hadn’t had the unfortunate timing to be home-shopping in the middle of a bubble of speculation.  Or that the financial industry created consumer lending products that obscured the real costs of buying a home while reaping commissions from average folks ill-equipped to unravel all the “terms and conditions.”

I like that at the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Mr. Potter gets away scot free, even with all his bad behavior.

That doesn’t make good guy George any less wonderful.  Because when George Bailey goes to that bridge, an angel doesn’t save him from drowning.  He saves himself by jumping in to save someone else.

That’s Christmas to me.  For at least one day a year, you have the responsibility to be selfless and kind to your fellow man.  And as someone once said, you should do your best to honor Christmas in your heart and keep it all the year.

'Miracle' is a modern parable

When US Airways Flight 1549 belly-flopped in the Hudson River, you had to be moved by the story, even watching for the 10th time on CNN. Everyone lived. It was good news, and this is one of those years when we need to hear more good news.

The mind likes to make metaphors, so it was easy to find a little parable of America in the "Miracle on the Hudson." America's economy is on a not-so-graceful glide path down. We hit a few geese — toxic mortgages, credit derivatives, etc. — and they mangled the jet engines of our financial system. Maybe we all went a little crazy with the borrowing, and now we're losing altitude.

Things will be OK, I think. This is a great country, and we're a great people. We'll stay afloat, use our heads, watch out for each other, and take care of the children first. You might take a moment and ask yourself, what you are personally going to do to help?

Here's what a few of the people on Flight 1549 did:

A man sent his wife a text message that read, "Planes on fire love you and the kids." A young woman gave a soft kiss to her fiance. When things look bad, you remember what is most important.

A man sitting in the exit row did exactly what a man in his position is supposed to do: He read the safety card instructions for the exit door and figured out how to open it.

The Airbus A320 did what it was designed to do — it floated. The crew activated a special ditching switch that sealed the valves and ventilation ports, making a watertight seal and giving people time to get out. Thank the manufacturers and the engineers for that, because they didn't have to make the plane that way. It probably cost more, but it was the right way to make it.

People were nervous after the landing, maybe close to panic, but they took care of each other. A mother cradling her 9-month-old son struggled over seatbacks trying to get to the exit, until someone shouted "Get the baby out!' and a man picked them both up in a bear hug and hustled them to the door.

They weren't all heroic, but they pulled together. One woman tried to get her luggage out of the overhead compartment until someone dissuaded her. One man lugged his garment bag out onto the wing with him. There was plenty of elbowing out on those cold wings, but when the New York Waterway ferries arrived, people made sure the children got on board first.

They had the right leader in the pilot's seat, too. As his passengers moved to the wings, Capt. Chesley Sullenberger III walked the aisles of the sinking plane to make sure none was left behind. As they boarded the boats, he held a metal clipboard and ticked off the names on the manifest, using the wheelhouse radio to get a count from the other vessels. A newspaper account described him later standing calmly in a waiting room at the New York Waterway terminal, gray hair unruffled, the tie of his navy blue pilot's uniform still straight.

It's a good parable, the Miracle on the Hudson, so I'm hoping that the national media will be riding this story for a while longer. Capt. Sullenberger should overcome his natural modesty and talk to us, because our leaders need role models like him. America should reflect on this story, because it's a parable that might teach us a little about how we get through the next couple years.

America's economy has lost 2.6 million jobs. We're running on a deficit of a trillion dollars. National Economic Council Director Larry Summers admitted Sunday on "Face the Nation" that the economy is probably going to decline for some time to come, no matter what we do.

It would be too easy right now to hunker down and say "I got mine, you worry about yours," and trample the weak. That reaction would be, maybe, our easy instinct.

I don't think we'll react that way. We're good people, and we're Americans. If things get worse, we'll know what to do, just like the passengers and crew of Flight 1549.

Originally published in the Tallahassee Democrat at http://tallahassee.com/article/20090120/OPINION05/901200311/1006/OPINION

What you need, and why you need it now

If there is a book for communications professionals to read in 2009, and read again and again, it is Peggy Noonan’s Patriotic Grace: What It Is and Why We Need It Now. “Being able to persuade, to explain, to elucidate, and to lead truthfully, matters,” Noonan writes, and bless her for reminding us.

Noonan’s book, published before the outcome of the 2008 election had been decided, is an argument for greater unity in a nation that is facing turmoil.  It’s a call for calm, wisdom and maturity, and a roadmap for credible and effective governance.

 

We’ll be inaugurating a new president soon, and he’ll be leading a nation that is still divided in thought and spirit.  I’ll be learning from what he says and how he says it, because the content and manner of his communication will inspire many to heroism, just as it will infuriate many others.

 

Watch the effects on people, and make note of the emotional triggers for their varied reactions, because there will be lessons for you in how you communicate in similar situations.  We’re not all responsible for leading a nation, but your business, city or neighborhood can be just as divided and difficult.  The simple lesson, too often forgotten:  we are stronger when we work together.

 

Noonan writes, “So:  we have much to do.  And it all starts with a greater civility, a greater respect, both a higher – and deeper – tone to our political conversation.”

 

We can start today.