spin strategy

EJ Dionne offers an insight into how the White House courts the commentariat:

Last Thursday afternoon, for example, the White House invited in journalists, mostly opinion writers, to sell them on the substance of the president's big speech on Guantanamo and the treatment of detainees.

Unbeknownst to the writers until afterward, they had been divided into two groups, one more centrist with a sprinkling of moderate conservatives, the other more liberal. (I was in the liberal group.) The president made an unscheduled appearance at each briefing. As is his way, he charmed both groups.    

The idea, as far as I can determine, was to sell the liberal group on those aspects of Obama's plan that are a break from George W. Bush's policies, and to sell the centrist group on the toughness of the president's approach and the fact that it squares with Bush's more moderate moves later in his second term.

This is clever. Although it obviously runs the risk of being too clever. Journalists don't like to feel they're getting played (even though they are always getting played).

Comments

[A Giant Slor]

Except that they're not getting played. They're getting persuaded. Big difference.