A Dance With The Press May Get You Noticed – is there such a thing as bad press?
Media Relations and press coverage continue to be the way to get noticed by most people as they run for office or market goods. Not all of the coverage is good yet we may notice people and form our own impressions. The media slant on the information they provide does not always translate to all Americans. Why do I say this? – Donald J. Trump has changed my mind.
Though I may not agree with everything said by our President Trump, or even agree with all of his positions, I am impressed with how he is using the press to his advantage. My impression of him as a business continues to be favorable, but I now see him in a new light.
Dancing With The Press
I used to think Donald Trump was playing chess with media and was amazed at the results he continued to have, regardless of the message put forth by the main media outlets. As his campaign wound down and he began to promote his policies and deflect criticisms it has been very interesting to see how his counter-points changed the perception of the public area of the country.
Do we all really listen to the commentators as they give us the news and their interpretation or do we listen to the facts as they present them and form our own opinions as they continue with their translation of the facts? I’m unsure myself, but I find it quite interesting to see how the press appears to be manipulated regardless of how much a talking point is repeated throughout the other media outlets.
It is imperative that we look objectively at the facts media outlets present us and form our own opinions. I remember “back in the day” when the facts were presented as such without comments, and a separate editorial was given by a spokesman for a news outlet. The editorial was presented on live TV as a separate segment with an “editorial” backdrop to make sure it was known that these were only the opinions of the commentator. This is quite a change from what we have today in our world of News Magazines in print and television. Commentators blend the news into their own shows now and come off as news programs although they aren’t.
While the news is often given a slight slant one way or the other, we have seen more outlets give sharply angled views on information. Ones I see lately are Fox & Friends in the morning and CNN or MSNBC. As I watch the morning news, I’m taken aback flipping through the channels to see that two distinctly different views come from the same bit of facts. One is a pep-rally for the president and the other prepares to indict him. The president himself comes off somewhere in the middle from my view.
There appears to be a lot of smoke and mirrors and redirection when dealing with the press. Media outlets themselves are a new animal from what they once were. This is more repeating the work of others than there is real journalism and digging to find their own stories and truths. Reporters are frequently producing information that has to be retracted because they did not do their due diligence in checking facts. This leads to much more of tango back and forth with the media than a strict reporting of the new facts of the day.
Is there such a thing as bad press? I say yes. Others would say no as it gets their name out there and the focus on them. Such an opportunity is seen by people valuing bad news as an opening to spin the information and refute such facts as a means of also promoting new information as well. Donald Trump’s world appears to be embracing such tactics. His supporters have apparently adapted.
How does that position us for the future? Does it make us more or less susceptible to misinformation? Only time will tell.
Until next time –
