Because we've had extensive experience in major national newsrooms we view news developments in a somewhat different manner than many communications consultants; we see the news through the same lens as working journalists.

Our blog provides analysis of how recent news developments were handled or mishandled by the principal actors and their advisers. Who handled the press attention well? Who did not? How might they have fared better?

We will bestow the M.E. Communications Partners WMD (Worst Media Debacle) award in timely fashion to those we regard as the worst performers.

Karl Rove has been at George W. Bush's side for 14 years but that association will end on August 31. Not news perhaps by the time you read this post, it is the way that the end was announced that is the subject of our discussion.

Rove has made a reputation as a master media manipulator and image fashioner, a reputation he has carefully crafted and managed with care. Nothing testifies to that mastery more than the manner in which he chose to announce his resignation. He called in the editor of the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, Paul Gigot, a conservative ally. Together they sat in the "book lined study" of Rove's Washington home on Saturday afternoon. And that's when he dropped the bombshell that has captured the headlines today (August 13).

So what's new here?

So what's the takeaway from what is otherwise an interesting though hardly unprecedented story of a White House staffer heading for the exit as the administration nears the end?

Just this: the timing of his announcement was a master stroke because, you see, The Wall Street Journal has no Sunday edition. By choosing to reveal his decision to Gigot on a Saturday afternoon he gave his interlocuter the gift of time, the most precious gift a journalist can receive. With a hot story that surely wouldn't hold long, Gigot had a full day to write a long and thoughtful piece where any other journalist would have been rushing to meet a deadline. And by choosing to drop his news on Gigot, editor of the page that is the bible of the conservative movement, the daily must-read, Rove guaranteed that he would get good play. And he did. The piece stretches across the top of the op-ed page well above the fold where no one can miss it.

So Rove gets to display his skill as a media manipulator as he no doubt prepares to join the ranks of the K Street commandos, the lobbyists and image makers who pass through the capital's revolving door en route to private riches. And as he does so he has managed to post a powerful advertisement for himself.

1 Comments:

 beebop said...

Do you think maybe the manipulation was going further than Rove's self-promoting exit strategy? What was happening Aug. 13th that the White House wanted buried?

September 19, 2007 11:27 PM  

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