Glenn Bunting Discusses President Obama’s Media Strategy on CNN
From CNN’s “American Morning”
Veteran public affairs relations consultant Ken Sunshine, who represents big names in business, entertainment, and politics, joins us from London this morning.
And we also have with us Glen Bunting, managing director of Sitrick and Company, a public relations firm specializing in crisis management and media strategy join us from L.A. Thanks to both of you for being with us.
KEN SUNSHINE, FOUNDER, SUNSHINE, SACHS, & ASSOCIATES: Glad to be here.
CHETRY: So it seems that everywhere we turn, as we’ve said, we’re going to be seeing a lot of the president. He’s appearing on five network shows, he’s doing late-night. He has been giving some speeches at rallies. He was at the University of Maryland yesterday.
Ken, what do you think? Is there a risk of overexposure in trying to get out your message?
SUNSHINE: I don’t think so. I think, frankly, he was underexposed for too long, particularly on this health care bill. And he’s turning it. He’s turning public opinion. He’s playing offense as opposed to defense, which is the cardinal rule in a political fight like this.
He’s going against the misinformation that was out there or the wild exaggerations — pulling the plug on grandma. And this guy knows how to sell something and he’s pretty good at politics. He reminds me of the campaign, and when he gets in campaign mode, it’s hard to bet against him.
CHETRY: Now, Glen, you say as a media strategist, you wouldn’t advise most of the time for your clients to do back-to-back-to-back interviews. Do you think there is a risk for overexposure, and why?
GLENN BUNTING, MEDIA STRATEGIST: Well, I do. I think that Ken ’s right. He is the person that you want selling his program. And when he is in campaign mode, as he proved, there is nobody like him. He is the best. And the American people do want to hear from him.
But we would never really recommend that one of our clients do five interviews like this, and it really has to do with preparation. It has to do with your ability to tell your message. And he has five journalists who are going to be gunning for him. Each are going to be trying to get him to slip up, to get their kind of “gotcha” moment.
And I just think that it’s a very risky strategy. He’d be much better off doing one, maybe two. Doing five, I think it’s a bit of a high-wire act.
CHETRY: And Ken, this is also interesting. When you do so many appearances and you’re out there, is there a risk that people sort of start to tune you out?
I mean, even the president, who we know is great when he speaks at the rallies, he was really credited with being a great campaigner and getting people very fired up. But at the same time, is there a tune-out risk?
SUNSHINE: You know, there could be a tune-out risk if he weren’t doing the same kind of shows, most of which are Sunday morning, geared to a very specific demographic of opinion-makers, and it doesn’t permeate middle America directly. If he were doing every primetime show on network television, it would be different.
But I think it’s very clever. It also ups the ante. Mess with him. Look the president in the eye and say that he’s going to pull the plug on grandma.
It also is seizing the moment and becoming offensive again as opposed to being defensive. This guy knows how to campaign. He’s in campaign mode, and that is what I think has turned the corner on this very complicated debate.
CHETRY: Glen, it’s interesting, Suzanne Malveaux, our White House reporter, brought up one aspect that I thought was interesting, which is, is there a possible fear that perhaps he wasn’t getting his message out the way that he wanted to get it out before, which is why he’s being forced to now go on so many shows and try to sell this health care pitch, that the pitch wasn’t working before?
BUNTING: Well, I don’t think…
SUNSHINE: I think he was forced…
BUNTING: He was relying on other people to do it, and that’s kind of the problem, you know, is that it was the spinmeisters, it was the people in his administration. And it began to just sound like clutter. And I think that he’s able to get through that.
And the American people have a lot of questions, primarily, how is he going to pay for it? And I think that’s what he really has to focus on.
And, you know, this may be more of a policy problem than a P.R. problem. People have a hard time believing right now, you know, based on his message, that it is going to be solving waste, fraud, and abuse is the way to pay for this. And he’s really got to kind of nail that one. I assume that that’s what he’s going to be asked about. And so, I think he has to have some good answers.
CHETRY: Right.
BUNTING: And I think the American people want to hear from him. And so, that’s really his challenge.
CHETRY: And Ken , before we go, is this sort of a double-edged sword for the White House? The media — members of the media constantly asking for interviews. Then they grant five interviews plus a Letterman appearance, and then we ask, is he overexposed? Is it a no-win situation in some ways?
SUNSHINE: It’s great. I love when the media gets what it wants and then complains about.
(LAUGHTER)
It it’s just the perfect media storm for the media to overanalyze the issue, as they always do.
The fact is that health insurance companies are a lot less comfortable with the argument now as opposed to what they were a month or two ago, when I think they brilliantly seized the issue.
And the president will, I think, change the whole course of this argument by being as aggressive and as, frankly, risky as he is. The one risk could be the “gotcha” moment, you know, the one interview that gets him to say something stupid or something that could be misinterpreted.
But I would bet against that really happening. But that is the one risk, in answer to your previous question.
CHETRY: All right, well, we’re out of town. I want to thank Ken sunshine and Glen Bunting for coming on and talking about it with us this morning. Great perspective from both of you, thanks.
SUNSHINE: Thank you.
BUNTING: Thanks.