Senator Ted Cruz running away from fellow Texans to Cancun
We are learning to be Public Affairs specialists. Military public affairs is, by nature, crisis
public affairs. The best practice is to
be ready for every contingency. So when
a real crisis befell DINFOS, why did the center of public affairs not have a
plan that put students first?
Our instructor said before the shutdown that having the same
journalism instructor grade their students throughout the course was a priority
at DINFOS. Clearly not enough of a priority
to keep the civilian journalism instructors here.
Features is considered the most difficult part of the BPASC
course. Anyone paying attention to the
news knew weeks in advance that the Republicans were going to shut the
government down. So why were the
journalism instructors furloughed?
In just one week we lost four students. One of them was an otherwise strong student,
a woman named student captain in the detachment, who got contradictory coaching
from two new instructors and failed. If
students were really a priority, how could there be no provision to keep two
instructors during the most difficult week?
Since it is clear the current Congress could shut down the government a
half dozen more times before the next election, is there a plan to put students
ahead when federal tantrums occur?
In public affairs, we had a contradiction that would have
been funny if the participants were conscious of it. One morning early on we were told how
important it is to maintain our commitment to the DINFOS motto “Strength
through Truth.” The morning instructors
told us that all we have in our relationship with the media is our own
credibility. If we lose it, it is
difficult or impossible to recover.
Then in the afternoon, two Air Force instructors who are
married to each other recounted how they handled the media the day after Osama
Bin Laden was killed. The story went on
for a while with the two sergeants enthusiastically handing it back and forth. But the important thing was the command
message. The fact that Fairchild AFB was
on high alert and everyone was backed up at the gate for miles trying to get to
work had NOTHING to do with Bin Laden’s death.
The sergeants knew the message was BS. But they told us with glee that they met the
media at the gate, they stayed on message, and were successful because none of
the media at the gate reported that the high level of security on base was
linked to events in Pakistan.
I work in PR as a civilian.
I understand their glee at getting a difficult command message
through. But most of the students are
new to the field. The message the
students were murmuring at break: “Wow.
They lied their asses off.”
Everyone in crisis PR knows a time will come when they must
stay on a ludicrous message. But this part
of Public Affairs is not something the best practitioners take lightly. In my own media relations experience, I know
how difficult it is to make and keep relationships with reporters. I would not use an example like this with
basic course students.
Linking this incident back to the shutdown, the sergeants
who stayed on command message at the Fairchild gate came up with a plan and
executed it overnight. So if two
teachers in training could do that, I have to assume the whole of DINFOS could
come up with a plan to benefit students in a month and execute it
flawlessly. The other alternative is
that protecting the students from the shutdown was not a priority.
