May 2010 Good News Report
Creating media coverage for the Society isn’t too terribly difficult, but creating positive coverage is rather elusive. For instance, our co-sponsoring the Conservative Political Action Conference 2010 generated nearly 200 media hits (totaling more than 15 million circulation) and nearly 400 postings on Twitter, one of the giant social networking sites popular today.
Not bad for only posting a news release at JBS.org and at our Twitter account. However, an overwhelming amount of it was negative. You can view a number of them by Googling “John Birch Society” and “CPAC.”
In my own humble experiences of nearly 15 years in PR, I’ve noticed that depending on what you are representing, if there is anything political to it, you are bound to experience hurdles put in front of you by journalists. For instance, if you are promoting a group, product, or service dealing with firearms, you know there are traps lying in wait for you from certain biased media outlets. They attach certain characterizations to firearms and firearms owners depending on which side of the political aisle the journalist is on. Contrast that with promoting something politically neutral, such as construction materials, pottery, or scrapbooking. Relate that back to JBS.
The organization has certain characterizations attached to it that come screaming out at you in the coverage, again depending on which side of the aisle the media outlet aligns itself with. Even if the media outlet touts that they provide balanced coverage, closer scrutiny usually reveals otherwise.
We certainly would like to get past all of the smears, misinformation, and bad press and focus on the more important issues of limited government, more responsibility, and protecting individual liberties. The JBS feels that this winning combination will foster the environment that will result in greater prosperity for the American people and, with God’s help, a better world. Plus you as good members of the Society deserve so much more credit than what is being printed in the media.
Most journalists whom we have come into contact with within the last few years would rather focus more on what our detractors have to say about us. This is unfortunate because that causes us to cast a wary eye on journalists who call on us, wondering if their intentions are as pure as they claim them to be.
Given the charged political nature Congress has created, we can expect more negative press as the media ramp up their coverage of the Tea Parties and continue to embrace deceptive “hate group watchdogs” like the Southern Poverty Law Center as legitimate sources.
Of course, there are many other media outlets that appreciate the detailed reporting and educational materials JBS puts out on a daily basis. One of these is Point of View Radio Talk Show. We recently were invited on and William Jasper, Senior Editor of The New American, joined them and their callers during the final hour of the day discussing the census, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and global warming. Host Kerby Anderson said on-air that, given the range of topics the show was covering in a short time, Bill Jasper was one of the few people they knew who could handle all of the topics.
You can listen to this interview on the Internet by going to www.PointofView.net and clicking on the podcast page and downloading the show for April 6, 2010. We thank them for the opportunity.
