I have a background in Public Relations and political campaigns (local, state and national). Have never been a “communications director” or anything like that, but have learned from some fairly well known people who were (given my access).
It occured to me, today, that one of the things that has always amazed me was the disclipine that the GOP had with their messaging. Everyone in elected office got an email for the day with the “message” that they were to try to get out if they were interviewed.
No matter what question was asked, these electeds would spew their message of the day, on FOX, CNN, MSNBC, national news, radio and so on. And they were all on the same page. Even if you listened to NPR you would hear their message, stated various ways, over and over. Message disclipine.
Now….think of what is going on right now. Where is this famous messaging from the GOP? Not there, well, it is there a bit in regards to Hillary and her emails and a few foreign policy matters. But beyond that, ????
And why? One of the biggest reasons, and why this is going to be a much bigger problem for the GOP moving forward is the defunct leader of their party at the moment, Donald Trump. What is his message? Today it was stating that his statements regarding an American Judge who has Mexican heritage were not racist (they are). And who in the GOP is repeating Trumps message?
Instead you have GOP leaders distancing themselves from Trump and what he is saying, from Ryan to Newt, they are actually disavowing Trumps message. There is absolutely NO messaging on what the GOP is running on this election. Again, that is because Trump is leading them and he has NO ideas, only hate, and self interest.
Controlling the message controls what the media reports, if you do not have good messaging the media will determine the stories….and that is what is going on.
Just today there were a number of elected Republicans interviewed for the Sunday shows….and where was the message other then attacks on Hillary and having to defend Trump? It just wasn’t there and it seems like there no longer is any centralized communication to keep the GOP on message.
Messaging is critical with free media. Trump has pissed off the media to the point that they are a dog after a bone, and they will not let go, especially with this issue about the judge. And they are playing back Trump’s own words to him immediately after he denies saying something.
Personally I do not think they have yet figured out how to deal with this, and as each day goes by it gets harder and harder for them to get any of their message out, to control what the media reports because they are in constant recovery mode from what Trump has said or done.
Anyhow…..just a thought about what I think is going on and something that might be interesting to watch and note as the days go on.