This week's perspective from Bob Reid: I’m still confused by this whole same-sex marriage/divorce thing that has blown up in the last 24 hours or so – and, based on media columns, blog posts and social media chatter, so are most of us. So there’s clearly a communications problem at play, despite the best efforts of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson to reassure people that there’s no plan to re-open the same-sex marriage issue. So I call a Fumble on the Justice department staffers who failed to recognize that, when their counsel was going to take a controversial stand on the matter as part of a court case now underway, they had a ticking time-bomb of a major media and political issue on their hands. This should have been flagged to senior issues and communications advisors in the minister’s office and the PMO, so that they could have had a communications and message plan in place before the thing blew up in the media. If there was such a plan, I can’t see any evidence of it. Harper and Nicholson are saying the right things, but they’re doing it now in the wake of screaming headlines like “Government nullifies thousands of gay marriages” and with the social media sphere on fire about what it all means – or doesn’t.
Bob Reid has been a journalist and media advisor to a former Ontario Premier. He is now Veritas' principal media coach.
0 comments:
Post a Comment