Tragedy for the Scouts

This has been a tough week for the Boy Scouts, especially those who paid a great deal to attend the National Jamboree now going on at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia. The jamboree began with the tragic deaths of four scout leaders from Alaska, who were electrocuted while erecting a tent near live power lines. Then, during an unusual heat wave that sent temperatures soaring to near 100 degrees, hundreds of scouts, parents and guests fell ill while waiting in a sweltering field for a visit from President Bush.

Equally unfortunate have been comments made during these tragic events. A scouting spokesman was quoted as insinuating that the men who died during the tent-raising were responsible for their fates by not following established regulations. True or not, the comments came across as insensitive following so closely on the heels of the accident and were followed within days by clarifications from scouting headquarters.

Then, when the opening arena show featuring the President was canceled after the hapless young scouts baked for hours in the summer heat, the announcer revealed that the decision had been made earlier to postpone the scheduled entertainment until the following evening. Unbeknownst to the crowd, only the President was scheduled to speak that evening, and now a quickly-advancing line of thunderstorms necessitated canceling even that appearance.

The same spokesman later said it was not practical to cancel the opening event in expectation of the extreme heat, and yet, that is exactly what was apparently done as far as the entertainment part of the program and was ultimately done with the President's appearance as well.

There are two lessons in all this to those wishing to avoid such public relations fiascos. One is to use Murphy's Law in planning out the smallest details, so that such mishaps do not occur in the first place, admittedly easier said than done when dealing with a makeshift city of more than 40,000 scouts. But the second lesson is equally important. Once a tragedy occurs, do not try to level blame. Commit only to doing everything possible to make sure such a tragedy never occurs again, and then redouble your efforts to make that pledge a reality.

As so many of us learn the hard way, it's all in the details and the planning.

Questions or comments? We'd like to hear them! We will take a break next week. Look for our next entry on August 14th.

The Legacy of Sarge

This week, I attended a daylong symposium sponsored by the University of Virginia Center for Politics, spearheaded by Dr. Larry Sabato, an old friend from my TV days who has become perhaps the pre-eminent political commentator in the country. The subject of the conference was J. Sargeant Reynolds (pictured above), former lieutenant governor of Virginia, almost surely destined to become governor and quite possibly president. That is, until he was tragically cut down by a brain tumor at the young age of 34.

I happened to be a Senate page during the two sessions that Reynolds served as lieutenant governor and can speak to his charm and charisma. It takes a lot for a politician to break through in any meaningful way to a 14-year-old, but I worshiped him. He never talked down to us or made us feel unimportant. I can still remember crossing the street on my way to the bus stop after the session adjourned late one afternoon and hearing an oncoming car honk its horn at me. I looked up and there, behind the wheel, was Reynolds waving at me like I was an old friend.

One of the many interesting aspects of Reynolds that was covered in this symposium was his relations with the media. Despite his "Kennedy-esque" charisma, he tended to avoid news conferences, because he disliked the inevitable "pack journalism" questions. He was a man of substance and wanted that reflected in his media stories.

He also disliked traditional liberal-conservative labels. Just months before he died, he attended an old-fashioned political meeting in southside Virginia that, at the time, was closed to women and blacks to express his belief that a Supreme Court decision the previous day upholding school busing should be respected. He chose an unfriendly crowd to make his point, knowing they were precisely the ones who needed to hear his message. The following day, he made clear his personal opposition to busing. If it sounds unusual, that's because it's called political courage, and we don't see much of that anymore. We also don't see people who could wrap the media around their little fingers choose not to engage in certain types of exchanges because they lack depth. Imagine that.

J. Sargeant Reynolds has now been gone about as long as the total amount of time he was with us. I did not know him well, but he has a place in my pantheon of heroes.

As always, your comments or questions are welcomed by clicking below.

The Future of Network News?

For some time now while conducting media training seminars, I've been predicting (just call me Carnac The Great) that the current tendency in TV news of "teasing" us repeatedly with some story, hoping that we will stay tuned to all the other news while waiting for the one story we really want to see, is anachronistic and headed for the scrap heap along with eight-track players and reruns of My Mother The Car. Who waits for ANYTHING anymore??

When I was a kid working on a term paper, I accepted as inevitable the need to go and spend a full afternoon at the public library, looking up books and periodicals as sources. Nowadays, I google my sources in half that time and punch the computer if the web page I've chosen doesn't load within 20 seconds (see Anger Management 101). I have a feeling a lot of us are like that now, and yet we persist in letting the media hold us enthralled (!) while waiting for that irresistible talking dog feature.

Well, maybe not for long. CBS News announced this week that it will finally take the plunge and launch a 24-hour Internet-based video news service that will let surfers pick those stories they want to watch and -- grasp your heart now -- IGNORE those stories in which they have no interest! What's more, CBS assures us these stories will have their own look and feel, and not be merely video stories streamed to the net. Other networks and cable outlets are exploring similar ventures.

Once again, the networks are following rather than taking the lead in the information revolution. But at least they're heading in the right direction. Will the demise of the "traditional network newscast" be far behind?

Comments? Please post for all to see!

The Search for (a) Justice

For the first time in 11 years, the composition of the Supreme Court of the United States is about to change. To read much of what has been published since Sandra Day O'Connor announced her retirement, one would think the decisions from the court next term will be radically different from the current Rehnquist court. The media is doing little to educate the public about reality when it comes to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lifetime appointments such as these leave little incentive for justices to follow any political "line." Justice John Paul Stevens, generally regarded as the court's most liberal member, was appointed by a Republican. So was David Souter, another more consistently liberal voice on the court. History has many such examples, including Earl Warren, William Brennan and Harry Blackmun, all Republican appointees who went on to write majority opinions that were anathema to conservatives.

Bush Administration watchers would have us believe that such judicial surprises can be avoided by careful questioning of the nominee before his or her name is sent to Congress, in order to determine general philosophy if not specific political stands. It may have worked with Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, but it is far from foolproof. The very consistency that may make a nominee a safe bet for a nominating President may also ensure a more bruising confirmation battle. And, even if the nomination of a "philosophically pure" candidate succeeds, it is always possible that another moderate member of the court might move to fill the swing-vote shoes of a Justice O'Connor.

The respect for judicial precedent means most Supreme Court justices hesitate before overruling the decisions of prior Courts. This is a concept understood by most law school graduates. It is one that the media should help the public to understand rather than feed the misconception that Roe vs. Wade is about to be overturned.