Obama’s Media Strategy: Blitz or Backfire?

Posted on June 18, 2009. Filed under: Latest News

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I was first a journalist; then a public relations executive; now a communications coach.  Atop this tripod of experience, I see that:

  1. Barack Obama remains, all by himself,  a compelling story (journalists love that)
  2. He has a publicity machine unmatched by any other administration (PR folks love that)
  3. Everytime he opens his mouth, something silky-smooth comes out (communications coaches love that)

Two sides of me - the PR person and the communications coach - are fascinated by, and continually learning from, the Obama administration.  The journalist in me wants to wretch.

NBC News spent three solid days in the White House to bring us two nights (three, if you count the re-run) on how cool it is to work in the White House - whether as the president or one of his interns.  No news, really, just cool pictures.  Now ABC News is blowing out all kinds of regularly scheduled stuff for two days of Barack Obama and health care reform.  While the Republicans are peppering the White House with requests for balance, so far ABC has said no.  They have even turned down a paid spot that would have played after the White House Health Care Showcase.  Something doesn’t smell right to me.

Then, you crank in all of the public service announcements and paid commercials that the White House creates (i.e. the 60-second spot praising Sonia Sotomayor.  Did that feel sort of icky to anyone else?), and it’s all feeling perilously close to a frightening level of propoganda.

If you’ve ever read my blog, you know that I voted for Barack Obama.  I’d vote for him again.  You see, this propoganda machine is not his fault. It’s not his administration’s fault. It’s their JOB to try to spin the media in their direction!

It seems to me, it’s the media’s job to find the real news - and then balance it.  To do that, they will have to wipe the stars from their eyes.

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