In public relations, inflammatory rhetoric conveys a very displeasing aesthetic. Even worse, when someone’s statements have no motivation other than crass political maneuvering, their integrity goes out the door.
Case in point: Democrat Karen Hyer, who’s challenging Republican Congressman Jason Chaffretz, has attacked her opponent’s recent House vote against further funding for the war in Afghanistan. But, instead of criticizing a flip-flop position or claiming that Chaffretz’s vote is inconsistent with his articulated political principles, Hyer pathetically resorts to the tired and stupid Republican talking point so loosely thrown around the past decade – that if a politician votes against funding a wartime effort, that somehow means the politician hates the military and wants American soldiers to be killed.
Karen Hyer’s specific criticism of Chaffretz was that his vote was “irresponsible” and that Chaffretz does not “support our men and women in uniform who are currently in harm’s way.”
Hyer has it backwards. What is “irresponsible” is attacking your opponent on two false premises by (1) pandering to the basest instinct of American voters, and (2) misrepresenting his position, as he opposes funding a war that he believes is not achieving its goals. How Hyer twists that into not “supporting” the troops is anyone’s guess, and one that prospective voters in her district should consider when casting their ballots.
Now, here’s a DC PR firm secret about Washington politics: Congressional candidates rarely speak off the cuff. They tend to get fed their marching orders and talking points by the top levels of their respective political party. Hyer’s position is, sadly, entirely consistent with the Democratic National Committee’s own batch of hot air that sounds eerily like Republican bluster from years earlier.
Politics is of course a contact sport, and those involved should push their arguments and positions aggressively – such is the nature of effective and game-changing debate, the very fuel of democracy. But, lying to the press, and the voting public, is as silly as it gets. Such shameless rhetoric almost always incubates in the press shop or operation, so it’s likely that the blame can be fairly directed at unethical publicists.
The PR industry should always work hard to distance itself, and our practice, from taking cheap shots, and show clients examples like Karen Hyer to understand why hitting below the belt is the wrong thing to do.
