Members of the California press corps are not happy with the way Meg Whitman treats them. Throughout her campaign for governor, Whitman has routinely stonewalled, sidestepped and shut out journalists. She’s created her own in-house “news” operation to get her message out. She’s tried to choreograph everything. And it doesn’t seem to be helping.
Former eBay CEO Whitman’s once-gigantic lead in the race has shrunk. The TPM Poll Average shows Whitman leading Republican opponent Steve Poizner 44.0% to 26.6% in the state’s June 8 primary, but that is down from mid-March when she led Poizner 59.2% to 14.7%. As we reported yesterday, part of Whitman’s problem is the drubbing she’s taken over her ties to Goldman Sachs.
And she’s not exactly getting good ink these days.
In an editorial published Sunday, for instance, the San Francisco Chronicle condemned Whitman’s handling of the press:
Whitman has rationed her access to journalists to a degree not seen in modern California history. She has allowed interviews with only selected reporters, and has declined endorsement interviews with many newspapers — including the Chronicle.
Whitman’s campaign was no more generous to TPM, declining to respond to repeated calls and e-mails over the last two weeks. And it’s not just us…
In March, Whitman attracted attention for inviting the press to a meeting with Oakland railroad workers — and then refusing to answer any questions. According to the Chronicle, however, after shunning the press corps, Whitman did sit down with conservative columnist Debra J. Saunders for a 30-minute, one-on-one interview.
In another instance cameras caught Whitman stopping to answer a question, only to hurry away when pressed by reporters.
And, while taping a 30-minute town hall-style infomercial, someone leaked footage showing Whitman urging a staged audience to applaud for her: “You are an integral part of this. Lots of cheering would be good.”
Instead of working with the press, Whitman has built a lavish independent media infrastructure that is part press center, part message mill. There’s her website, which has the words “Meg News Channel” emblazoned at the top and reads like a news blog. Then there’s the 48-page glossy magazine that her campaign sent out to 500,000 Republican families. Not to mention a battery of television ads promoting Whitman’s business credentials.
One of Whitman’s more innovative strategies is a “video-on-demand” ad that allows viewers to use their remote control to sign up to volunteer for the campaign — or even buy a bumper sticker.
Mark Crispin Miller, professor of media, culture, and communication at New York University, says Whitman’s media strategy is nothing new.
“This kind of thing goes way back — at least to Nixon, who, as presidential candidate in 1968, used staged events to talk around the press,” Crispin Miller told TPM in an e-mail. “People are inured to [this sort of thing], so manipulative moves, and overall unresponsiveness, will probably not in themselves create a special problem for Meg Whitman.”
He went on to say that it “could be a problem if some adversary finds a pithy way to make an issue of it, and the press piles on.”
