The Seattle Times’ Joni Balter piles on the Seattle teachers union, describing their reaction to the district’s dissing of their collective bargaining rights as a “PR nightmare“…
But when it comes to exaggerated, ridiculous behavior about something so obvious as a loss of a single day of pay, I cannot side with the teachers. I can only say, “Who does your public relations?” This is hugely embarrassing to be so indignant and so inflexible! Holy cow!!
A PR nightmare for sure, but not for the reasons Balter implies, and a nightmare shared by unions, politicians, and advocacy groups across the Puget Sound region. For with Seattle reduced to a one editorial board town, and the number of full time political reporters having shrunk by about two-thirds statewide over recent years, the public relations profession has become nightmarish indeed.
It was, after all, the Times who initially characterized the teachers’ reaction as outrageous and inflexible, who chose to front-page an otherwise minor story, and who has mercilessly pummeled the union in a series of editorials and blog posts. But could the union’s public relations people really have expected any better treatment than this, at the hands (and fists and steel-toed boots) of an editorial board that has proven so consistently and vociferously anti-labor?
As I joked at the time of David Postman’s departure, if many more journalists leave the profession for media relations jobs, pretty soon there won’t be any media left to relate to… but this quip didn’t garner much of a laugh from longtime media relations professionals who were already struggling to push their message through a collapsing universe of reporters and editors. The region’s PR firms are now shrinking too, and those who survive the layoffs must reimagine their profession’s role in a post-modern-media world where the explosion in number of media sources combined with the implosion of traditional news and opinion gatekeepers has rendered the time-honored press release all but obsolete.
During last fall’s Sound Transit Phase 2 debate, Prop 1 spokesperson and former Seattle Times reporter Alex Fryer complained to me about the difficulty he faced pushing a conversation about the ballot measure’s many impacts on the Eastside suburbs. The Times had built up its suburban bureau during Fryer’s years at the paper, but now it was gone, along with the King County Journal, and there was nobody left at either the Times or the P-I who was tasked with covering the Eastside transportation beat. How frustrating must it have been for a man whose job was to talk to journalists to know that some of the only journalists providing in-depth coverage of his issues, sat on the editorial board of a paper historically hostile to any expansion of light rail?
Likewise, imagine the poor PR staff at the Seattle Education Association. Balter can berate them all she wants, but honestly, what can a union PR flack do when the only editorial board in town is so openly and vehemently anti-union? I mean, really, SEA president Olga Addae could have faxed a photocopy of her bare ass to Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson, and gotten no worse press from the Times than she did for the terse statement Balter alternately characterizes as “awful,” “tone-deaf,” “exaggerated,” “ridiculous,” “embarrassing,” “indignant,” “inflexible,” and “over-the-top”:
“Despite Seattle Public Schools’ earlier denials, the district has indeed sent contract nonrenewal letters to 3,300 Seattle teachers – effectively terminating their jobs. We encourage Supt. Maria Goodloe-Johnson to rescind those nonrenewals. If not, we are working with our attorneys to determine the next legal steps toward upholding the law and our collective bargaining agreement. In the meantime, we have asked Seattle teachers to have patience and to delay filing individual appeals. We want to give the superintendent time to fix her mistake. We look forward to continuing contract negotiations with the Seattle School District administration in a productive and positive way.”
Adding insult to injury, Balter blames the SEA for its own bad press, but how were they to anticipate that a statement so nonconfrontationally bland would be vilified with such an over-the-top string of adjectives? Tell me Joni… how much clearer could the SEA be than Addae was in a recent letter to members, publicly posted on the union’s web page, and distributed to you and other journalists at the Times and elsewhere?
“Let me be clear, the issue at hand is more than whether we should or should not keep a Learning Improvement Day in our calendar. The issue is the integrity of our Collective Bargaining Agreement and the process outlined by law to negotiate the terms and conditions of employment.”
That is the nightmare facing local PR professionals: a media landscape so barren of true opinion leaders that the few remaining now feel free to hold the public debate hostage to their own capricious whims.
In the same way that the Times’ brutal editorial bludgeoning effectively obfuscates the teachers’ primary grievance—it is not the 182nd day that is at issue, but rather the integrity of the union’s collective bargaining rights—Balter’s insistance on blaming this genuine PR nightmare on the union itself, only serves to distract from the very real obstacle facing advocates seeking to influence public discourse through traditional media channels: the dearth of competition has not only greatly diminished the opportunities to engage in effective PR, it has also left the few remaining opinionists free to distort the debate, intentionally or otherwise, without fear of comeuppence from a competitor of comparable status or circulation.
Especially for those of us advocating from the progressive side of public policy debates, the Nightmare on Fairview Avenue will remain palpable indeed, until we either manage to dream up a PR strategy that effectively bypasses the last remaining media gatekeepers, or we somehow establish a viable mass audience media alternative of our own.
Balter should go across the street and cut down her neighbor’s tree to improve her view. Then she’ll find out that not everything is strictly about money. Every dog knows pissing on another dog’s fire hydrant isn’t about money, it’s about territory and prerogative. The tree might be worth only $50 as firewood but watch the neighbor sue Balter for $50,000 — and get it from a jury. The dog who pisses on another dog’s hydrant is gonna get his stupid ass bit! It’s about the fact it’s not your tree or hydrant, and lack of respect for the neighbor and the other dog. This is about getting bit in the ass for disrespect.
Don’t worry, teachers. There’s no problem here that can’t be solved by good lawyers. Who cares what the Times editorial board thinks; they’re newspaper employees, not judges. Their opinion doesn’t count for beans.
This is exactly what The Olympian (and several other newspapers) did to the state employee unions that filed suit against Gov. Gregoire for her decision to unilaterally toss their contract. The unions stood accused of being “greedy” based on the erroneous assumption that the lawsuit was all about preserving a 2% COLA during a budget crisis.
For a good analysis, see the Washington State Labor Council article, “Collective bargaining at stake,” at http://www.wslc.org/legis/09lu0220.htm
The truth is, certain public officials around here don’t seem to understand that a contract is a contract. If times get tough and you, as an employer, suddenly find yourself unable to honor the contract that you signed, then you ask to renegotiate. You give your employees their chance to bargain over budget cuts and to vote on what they are willing to do. This is happening as we speak all over the state as city and county workers are agreeing to furloughs, wage cuts, etc. to try to avoid job cuts.
It doesn’t have to be an adverserial hostile process. But it necessarily becomes one when your boss just decides he/she can ignore your contract and write a new one him or herself.
That’s illegal and if the SEA allows that behavior to go unchallenged, then all teachers’ contracts and their entire collective bargaining process are in jeopardy.
The Times surely sucks, but it’s hard to feel too much sympathy for PR professionals of any sort. Perhaps if communications pros would reimagine their profession as being about communicating clearly, directly, and honestly instead of being about “cultivating” and “spinning” reporters, we’d all be better off. That would basically make them writers & advocates rather than, well, liars. Huh.
Two Issues:
1. Labor Contract: Doesn’t the current contract between the SEA and the Seattle School District expire at the end of the current 2008-09 school year? While the current contract may (or may not) call for 182 days of teacher pay, there is nothing wrong with the district proposing 181 days of pay for next year if the contract will have expired by then.
2. State Law Due Process: I assume state law requires that teacher contracts be renewed from year to year, regardless of whether there is a union or union contract, unless there is justifiable cause not to do so. If the district had not given these notices out, they would have been required to renew with 182 day contracts to all their teachers. In order to cut one day of pay, which the state is no longer funding, these notices were necessary.
re: Richard Pope’s point #2
I suspect you’re right that some sort of pro forma notification, full of boilerplate legalese, was probably necessary. But it surely could have been done less clumsily.
Maybe with an accompanying letter from the SEA, explaining that it’s merely crossing and dotting legal Ts and Is. Maybe with a jointly-constructed FAQ on the reasons behind it.
The details of the contract are beside the point. The union’s response was no more outrageous than the district’s letter, yet the Times makes them out ridiculous, embarrassing assholes… and then blames them for their own bad PR!
Welcome to the Kangaroo Court of Public Opinion.
I FUCKING LOVE to watch democrat fantasy land implode and they just keep piling on the taxes. You couldn’t write a dumber movie.
The district apparently sent copies of the letter by both regular and certified mail to every teacher at a cost of 5.95 per teacher.
I cannot understand how Joni Balter got a column. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t find her to be an engaging writer at all.
There is always a demand for news and commentary. The PI failed because it did not put out a good product, even though there were some things I liked about it. The Times is not very good either, which is why they too are bleeding.
The fact that they transition to PR jobs instead of another writing job is telling. Are you going to plunk down $.75 to read the words of someone who sees themself as a PR specialist? I am not likely to a CD done by an ad jingle guy, nor will I to buy a newspaper written by a bunch of Alex Fryers and Casey Corrs.
Just found out that former PI columnist Tom Shapley is now working as DSHS PR person. Robert Mak, David Postman, Alex Fryer, Ed Penhale, David Ammons, Dan Sytman, all former journalists and media guys now in gov’t PR jobs. There are others too.
Ed Penhale, were he still alive, would be interested in the last post. Postman also would be interested, since he works for Paul Allen. I’m also perplexed how the post about Joni and the Seattle School District morphed into a thing about PR and former reporters. I didn’t catch the connection really.
Yeah so there are so many ex-reporters now in PR jobs that I cannot keep up. Paul Allen is basically a public/private partnership specialist now, is he not?
That is the model for the Seahawks, Blazers, & Vulcan. So PR for Allen may as well be PR for a gov’t agency, or quasi-gov’t if you like.
David Ammons, do you really think readers can trust local media to be the watchdog over gov’t when their next gig is likely to be PR work for a gov’t agency?
PS For the connection, see the paragraph about Alex Fryer in the OP.
re 13, the “watchdog” function of media is carried out with varying degrees of success. in some communities, they’re part of the ruling class. in other cases, they’re fearless. there are tons of examples where MSM miss big stories or accept the government-establishment line too readily. and there are tons of examples of great journalism that really serves the commonweal — sex abuse in the church, conflicts of interest, etc., etc. I suspect some reporters line up jobs from amongst their sources, as is natural anytime you have networking. but i personally don’t know of any examples of reporters pulling their punches to please their prospective employer. At any rate, what’s the alternative to the “loyal opposition” of the media serving as a counterbalance to the government-establishment? can and will the blogger community have the time and money to put in the seat time in Olympia and City Hall and the County Courthouse and everywhere that decisions are being made? I guess we’ll all find out. To sum up, I still think my old profession of journalism is foundational to all of the amazing possibilities of the Internet, citizen journalism and all the other platforms that I find very exciting. I can only wonder what the info and info sharing will look like in 10 years — hell, in 10 months! I sincerely hope we arrive at a new and better place that still serves the common good.
Isn’t zdp 189 the scientific name for the organism found in fecal matter?
To ask such a question, it appears that The Health Department has not yet discovered google.com, which does not surprise me.
David Ammons, thank you for your kind reply. I do agree that there is not much alternative for a watchdog other than the press. The avg. Joe just doesn’t have time nor incentive to attend hearings etc. I sure don’t.
The only possibility for a watchdog I can offer is groups like the NRA and ACLU. The NRA, love ’em or hate ’em has been extremely effective at what they do in the last 20 years.