In a Crisis, It's All About Spin Control

After cutting his teeth as a journalist in Chicago, Seymour Hersh moved to Washington to cover the big game. To his surprise, the hard-working Hersh was shocked at the somewhat lazy journalism taking place in D.C. The Pentagon would have press briefings about what was going on in Viet Nam, and the journalists seemed to swallow it all without any serious questioning, turning it into tomorrow's news. 

Now throughout this time, the Pentagon was spinning. And the press went along with it. Hersh didn't, but even when he uncovered explosive stories, the editors at the Associated Press would water them down. 

Frustrated, he broke free and wrote independently, focused primarily on the war. When he learned of a story about an incident in My Lai that the Pentagon was burying, he used his bloodhound instincts to track down Lt. Calley, who was hidden away at the time. When the news broke, it not only shocked Americans but it also  alerted other journalists to stop sleeping. There were stories to be told that the American people needed to hear. The My Lai Massacre story earned Hersh a Pulitzer Prize in 1970.

* * * 

While going through some old files this week I came across a lengthy 1993 article from CFO magazine titled Spin Control. The article is primarily written for C-suite executives to improve the way they work with the media during a crisis. 

The author, Anne Monroe, interviewed three industry veterans with regard to the "fine art of communicating bad news." Although CEOs are certainly on the firing line in a crisis, it's CFOs who interface with the financial community who must sell the spin on Wall Street. 

The article proceeds to tell a tale of three companies that faced different issues and how they handled them. Tim Metz, who had experience on both sides of the desk, stated that "you have only two things to sell: your competence in framing an effective message and your integrity. In all, you must make sure you remain firmly rooted in the facts."

* * * 

What happens when there are no facts, only perceptions? This seems to be the current status of life within the Beltway. You can hardly turn around without running into another crisis. 

The article closes with a series of statements regarding how crises are mismanaged. 

HOW TO MISMANAGE A CRISIS

1. Ignore or deny the problem.
(Isn't this what's happening at the border right now?)

2. Compartmentalize
(Another form of denial in which the blame is laid elsewhere. "Not my fault.")

3. Lie, or Tell Misleading Half-Truths
(Lying is unacceptable, but maybe we can downplay the problem by revealing only part of what's really happening or its consequences.)

4. Dribble Out Bad News
(One way to ensure that the story continues instead of making a clean breast of things so you can move on.)

5. Assign Blame
(That's the name of the game in D.C., isn't it?) 

6. Panic and Paralysis
("Looks like we'll have to order a few more pizzas. It's gonna be a late one.")

7. Overreact
(It happens. "We have to take action!" 
"Yes, sir, but we don't have the facts."
"Who cares about facts? It's time for action. I have to look like I've got things under control."

* * * 

This week was President Biden's first summit with international leaders. The spin doctors were busy scripting long before the events of this week began. What really happened is hard to say. If you read a cross-section of media outlets you'll find find every shade of spin. Perceptions are quite malleable. Here's some commentary extracted from the Twitterverse.

Biden comes out stronger from this summit. Look how much smaller Putin seems today than in Helsinki in 2018.

The big summit. Biden shows up with cue cards. Putin shows up with brains.

Did Biden make us proud or what! So much stronger & smarter than the last guy!

Biden is dominating Putin in this summit, and both men know it.

Pres. Biden declared the summit a success at his solo press conference, saying "I did what I came to do."

Biden blew the summit as soon as he sat down

Schiff: The Biden-Putin summit "marked a new turn in America’s relationship with Russia – one defined by a strong and forceful rejection of Putin's authoritarianism, adherence to our values, support for human rights around the world, and the advancement of American interests."

NY Post: Biden bumbles and Putin preens at summit.

Who knows? It was an event, and the really important things that came out of this may not be known for 20 years. 

Meantime, life goes on....

Related Link
He Who Controls the Narrative Controls the People

These Are The Times That Try Men's Souls. Is Paine Still Relevant Today? You Decide

Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Gottlieb Luetze

This weekend the quote "These are the times that try men's souls" crossed my mind. Certainly these have been quite trying times for our lives and our nation, so I decided to investigate further into its origin. 

I knew that Thomas Paine, pamphleteer and author of Common Sense, was the man who penned it, but I recalled little else.

When I found the quote I read the rest of this essay and found it quite illuminating with many passages quite relevant for our own trying times. It is the opening essay of a compilation of essays under the title The American Crisis.

I also discovered that in order to fortify the resolve of his troops, George Washington ordered that this essay be read aloud to his men the night before they crossed the Delaware in their December 26 surprise attack on Trenton. 

Portrait of Thomas Paine by Matthew Pratt

“THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated” 

The American Revolution had one pre-eminent ideal: Freedom.

In the first section Paine writes:

'Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. 

Does this sound like today? The next sentence amplifies that with the reminder that "All nations and ages have been subject to them."

Next, he points out that panics have value and can be useful. Why?

Their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered.

* * * *
So it is that we are in a time of crisis, times that try men's souls. There are forces at war which have lain dormant and below the surface. What is emerging has been coalescing for a long time. The American Revolution did not "just happen." It had been evolving for quite some time.

I've been reading C.S. Lewis again lately. His book The Abolition of Man sheds light on this cultural rift, a collision of worldviews. In That Hideous Strength, the third book in his sci-fi space trilogy, he uses fiction to illustrate how these ideas emerged and what the intentions are.

Huxley's Brave New World and Orwell's 1984 point to seeming different dystopian scenes, yet they all have a common denominator, which I hope to elaborate upon in a future post.

* * * *
Paine's essay then outlines events that had occurred up in the vicinity of Hackensack and the Colonialists escape from the Brits there, which sets up this section a little further:

I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it? What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a common man; my countryman or not my countryman; whether it be done by an individual villain, or an army of them? If we reason to the root of things we shall find no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we should punish in the one case and pardon in the other.

How relevant are these notions to our situation today? I believe parallels can be drawn. This is why so many voices are being raised. Something big appears to be at stake.

There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both.

* * * *
This document, one of a series, was written December 23, 1776, approximately six months after the Declaration of Independence.

Full essay:
https://www.ushistory.org/Paine/crisis/c-01.htm