Posted on 10/26/2007 7:29:26 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
AS the fires roared across the region this week, so did California's governor.
Arnold Schwarzenegger zipped from Malibu to Orange County to San Diego to Santa Clarita to Lake Arrowhead, and then back again.
He visited fire-command and evacuation centers. He got briefings on firefighting efforts from local officials. He personally thanks fire crews. On Thursday, he played guide to President George W. Bush, who toured the devastation.
And if the governor was working hard during this time, so was his image-making machine - making sure each and every one of his good deeds were duly noted by the media.
Arnold's P.R. crew sent out at least 10 e-mail press releases to hundreds in the media on Monday, 19 on Tuesday and a whopping 25 on Wednesday - more than enough to qualify as spammers.
Even on a normal noncrisis day, the governor's press-release mill is in high gear, blasting e-mails to every news agency about every accomplishment large and small.
Of course, it's important and valuable for the governor to be visible to the public at a time of crisis. And his visits and attention earned him buckets of political capital. He needs to be there.
But the fire crisis P.R. management underscores the absurd extent to which what was once a very important aspect of government - providing public information - has been transformed into personal publicity vehicles.
These days it seems the state's vast ranks of PIOs, employed by virtually every elected politician or department down to the most obscure, are less concerned with informing the public and are really there to make their bosses look good. And we get to pay for this service.
Of all people, Schwarzenegger doesn't need to whip up the media's attention. He gets press coverage even if he's just riding his motorcycle down the street.
In fact, all the spin doctoring only serves to cheapen all the good work he has done during the firestorm by making it appear manufactured simply for a great sound bite.
The best propaganda machine in political history.
Beats FEMA by a landslide. ;-)
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