Is it time to fire the messengers?
An opinion piece by the Glens Falls Post-Star’s Will Doolittle is getting talked about a lot today by North Country journalists.
Doolittle says it’s time to fire a lot of the media spokespeople who work for various state agencies (“flacks,” we call them in the trade).
When Gov. Andrew Cuomo is deciding how to pick the 10,000 or so state workers he wants to lay off, he should look at the state’s press officers.
Many are former reporters and editors who switched to the low stress and good benefits of state employment.
A handful make a good-faith effort, through their dealings with the media, to provide the public with public information.
Most are defensive and uncooperative. They obfuscate and mislead. If you’re persistent, they stop taking your calls.
This is a bit insider-baseballish — something we journalists deal with a lot, but which many members of the public might yawn over.
But Doolittle’s certainly right that these media people play a powerful role as gatekeepers and middle men, controlling a lot of the info that we gain access to about our government.
What do you think? Do the various state agencies need designated spokespeople to handle the media and our questions? Or should we have direct access to the actual staffers and public servants who know the issues best?
Tags: journalism, politics
I had no idea that we even had these positions, on the face of it it sounds nuts so the state needs PR guys? There is no way that anyone is serious about a so called budget crises when you have any of these types of positions.
good idea. fire them all.
Some people were just up in arms over a perceived lack of communication and information surrounding the land acquisition process…
I don’t see how you can have it both ways. If you demand more and better communication from the government, then you need people who work on that. It doesn’t just happen on its own.
If the current “flaks” are not good at their job, replace them… but I don’t see how getting rid of them all together will achieve the demand for more information and better communication.
I disagree with Will. Many of them are more knowledgeable than their bosses, and the best of them (former reporters) will work as hard to get information as they did when they were still filing stories for papers. I shared an office with Tom Bergin when he was Se, Stafford’s spokesman, and I know that he gave them more time and attention than the Senator would have been able to. The spokesmen are essential to getting information out to the public. – Tony Hall, Lake George Mirror
Tom Bergin is one of the few exceptions to the rule — not only a great guy and an excellent reporter in his day, but a hard-working spokesman who goes out of his way to get your questions answered (and understands what you’re asking, and what you need).
It’s also worth noting that other states don’t have the huge corps of press officers NY does. When I called the Massachusetts liquor authority, I got the director on the phone immediately. In New York, it took weeks, and a new director, to get the head guy on the phone. In New York, it’s worth your life, in some big agencies (like the governor’s office), to get even the head of the communications office on the phone, especially if you’ve been asking tough questions.
It is insider baseball, but it is also a matter of public importance, because this is the method by which public officials are held accountable.
It’s also important because of the millions of taxpayer dollars that go to these guys’ salaries.
And, Dave, the flaks are generally doing what they’re told, I believe. The problem is systemic, with the overpaid, swollen ranks of administrators using an overpaid, swollen crew of flaks to buffer them from the public and media.
Right on Will but I would add – fire everyone making more than $150,000 at tax payer expense.
Will’s excellent point is that many of these “spokespeople” make as much as the people they’re speaking for. Give them a secretary (or “administrative assistant”) at $50-60k instead of three times that.
When I worked in DOL and got a call from the press I ah to refer the reporter to one of these guys. Then I’d get a call from them telling me they had gotten a call from a reporter about “X” and asking what it was about. I’d tell them what I would have told the reporter and then they would call the reporter back and tell the reporter what I said. Fire them. They’re a waste of tax dollars. Yeah, I know they are supposed to put the administration spin on what I said. Maybe we should stop spinning things.
I’m not sure that the salary is really an issue as long as they are doing a job that makes them responsive to the people and disseminate information that is needed for the public. My uneducated, outsider sense of what a spokesman does today, whether it is a government or corporate position, is to isolate rather than educate.
It works both ways, and a little less isolation is in order.
Hats off to Will Doolittle. This press positions are unnecessary and nothing more than glorified spin doctors. It’s an outrage how Di Napolli created a new 6 figure position in the middle of fiscal crisis.
People seem to be confusing Grannis’ new position with a press position. An unrelated point: flacks, like any other source, must be cultivated if they are to be useful. That’s part of the job of the reporter. Another point: although staffers may have useful information, they have jobs other than that of talking to the press. That should be respected.
But why would an individual NYS government agency need a press person? Is the machine that massive that each department has its own PR people? I can understand communications people at the executive branch level in the gov’s office, but each agency? That seems over the top to me. So the taxpayers pay for people to defend the agencies against questions from the taxpayers?