Crisis communications is the art of the narrative. You can never make the misdeed completely vanish (“Dammit, Jim! I’m a PR pro, not a magician!”), so instead you craft and popularize a new storyline that explains it on your own terms. That’s why crisis communications is also the art of the redirect.
Here’s how you do it: Out of all the facts, assumptions, smoke, and substance we’ve got to work with, what’s the most positive — and the most believable — storyline we can write?
Believability is key!
A wonderful, heartwarming tale about you rescuing orphans, adopting crippled puppies, and housing war widows isn’t helpful unless your audience believes it.
So you agree on the best possible story. Next, you determine the ideal spokesperson to propagate it, and boom: There ya go. The rest is just media tactics. But the heart of crisis communications is ALWAYS the story. All the clever, crafty PR tricks won’t matter if your story is lousy.
Should Harris pull a Hindenburg and go down in flames tomorrow, the liberal media will be in crisis communications mode. At this point in 2024, the media and their audience are simpatico; not too many conservatives are tuning into Rachel Maddow (or her ilk) for advice. They’re mostly preaching to themselves.
They’re gonna need a new narrative that their liberal audience will accept.
The media are in a very uncomfortable position: For most of the presidential campaign, they’ve been assuring their viewers that Kamala Harris was destined for victory. Sure, Donald Trump is diabolical and evil, so you can never totally count him out, but those MAGA morons are in the minority. This is still Obama’s America! Goodness and decency will somehow prevail! The voters will surely remember that horrible day of January 6, when America nearly died!
And now, you’ve got to sell ‘em on a Trump victory? (Or possibly a Trump landslide?) So what’s the most believable “redirect” in the media’s arsenal?
Harris, Joe Biden, Tim Walz, and the entire Democratic leadership will 100% get caught in the (metaphorical) crossfire. That’s a given: The losing quarterback and losing head coach always get the blame when the team chokes. It’s the same for presidential politics.
But that’s not enough.
Remember, you’ve been assuring viewers that Joe Biden was one of our “most consequential presidents.” (Barack Obama said so himself!) And just a few weeks earlier, Harris was a fearless leader whom we should all admire. That’s the narrative they’ve been selling their audience! To suddenly turn around and say they’re lousy, incompetent, brain-dead dupes who were undemocratically installed would be a bridge too far.
(And ever since Chappaquiddick, Democrats have an aversion to bridges.)
So instead, they’re going to blame you — for being a racist, sexist, misogynistic, homophobic bigot: “We always knew racism was a major problem in this country, and this election just proved it! My GAWD! Look how bad it’s become!”
In fact, it’s already begun:
Ms. Magazine (today): Sexism in Politics: It’s the Same Old Story
The Washington Post (Oct. 28): Why Some Black Men Won’t Vote for Kamala Harris
Mother Jones (Oct. 29): In 2024, Women’s Futures Are on the Ballot Like Never Before
The New York Times: (Oct 23): Why Gender May Be the Defining Issue of the Election
The New York Times (Oct. 28): The Misogynistic, Bigoted and Crude Rally Remarks Trump Hasn’t Disavowed
The Guardian (Nov. 2): Threats, Racism, Misogyny: Trump’s Disturbing Final Week of Campaigning
MSNBC (Nov. 1): Women Are Voting — and It’s Driving MAGA Men Mad
At this point, it’s probably a necessity: Their liberal audience simply won’t accept an explanation where the American people rejected their ideas, their policies, and their results.
That’s too bitter a pill to swallow.
Don’t ever forget that the media is MORE than just a propaganda machine; it’s also a business whose profit model depends on retaining (liberal) eyeballs. If you give your audience an explanation that offends their liberal sensibilities, they’ll walk away and find someone else who’ll tell ‘em what they want to hear. (And let’s face it, liberals have thousands of media options to choose from.)
If (when?) Trump wins, they’re coming for you, you lousy, no-good racist. But blaming you is just the first step.
The second step will be far more dangerous.
That’s when they’ll try to punish you for being a “bigot” by deplatforming your accounts, demonetizing popular conservatives, and using their media / Big Tech / legal cabal to stifle free speech. It’s absolutely coming.
I guarantee it.
The battle between conservatism and liberalism won’t end on Tuesday. To quote Winston Churchill, “Now is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
Enjoy phase one. But get ready for phase two.
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