The long and winding road of the presidential campaign season is littered
with photo ops as every candidate seeks to enhance her or his "image." If
this deceptive practice gets under your skin, you can thank a man named
Edward Bernays‹the father of American public relations‹and his early work
with President Calvin Coolidge.
Coolidge became the 30th American president when Warren G. Harding died in
1923 and was elected in his own right one year later. An effective public
speaker, Coolidge was economical with his words in private and soon earned
the nickname "Silent Cal."
"The words of a President have an enormous weight," Coolidge said, "and
ought not to be used indiscriminately." Bernays saw things a little
differently. To him, Silent Cal was "practically inarticulate, and no
movement of any kind agitated his deadpan face." When asked to help liven up
the president¹s image and demonstrate his "warm, sympathetic personality,"
Bernays hit upon the concept of a "photo op." He invited Vaudeville stars to
the White House because "stage people symbolize warmth, extroversion, and
Bohemian camaraderie." Al Jolson, Ed Wynn, The Dolly Sisters, and others
arrived for a pancake breakfast‹and there were plenty of cameras present.
The next day¹s newspaper headlines included: "Actor Eats Cake with the
Coolidges," "Guests Crack Dignified Jokes, Sing Song and Pledge To Support
Coolidge,"and "President Nearly Laughs."
Fast-forward to 2002 when President Bush spoke near Mount Rushmore. As
reported by the New York Times, "the White House positioned the best
platform for television crews off to one side, not head on as other White
Houses have done, so that the cameras caught Mr. Bush in profile, his face
perfectly aligned with the four presidents carved in stone."
"We pay particular attention to not only what the president says but what
the American people see," White House communications director Dan Bartlett
explained. "Americans are leading busy lives, and sometimes they don't have
the opportunity to read a story or listen to an entire broadcast. But if
they can have an instant understanding of what the president is talking
about by seeing 60 seconds of television, you accomplish your goals as
communicators."
As Dubya eloquently explained, "See, in my line of work you got to keep
repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to
kind of catapult the propaganda."
As they say, deception is reality.
Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net
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