live_tv
Livestream Starting Soon
00
Hours
:
00
Minutes
:
00
Seconds
Up next in 10
Jon Roland explains how public decisions are made, based on connections. With Lela Pittenger. Austin Constitution Meetup Jan. 25, 2010.
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
so you need no no wait till you've got
0:04
all your supporters lined up you need to
0:07
introduced up early and get start
0:09
getting the public debate going on it
0:13
okay so when you say the public debate
0:16
both about this piece of legislation and
0:18
the others you would like to propose I
0:20
guess a lot of people feel like they're
0:22
up against what they would call a
0:24
liberal media that maybe doesn't want
0:27
this conversation to be carried to care
0:30
to occur that maybe wants to focus on
0:33
the legislation that they prefer so how
0:37
do you get the debate going if you work
0:39
against a media system that isn't
0:42
interested in the values that you hold
0:45
well first of all we're no longer
0:47
dependent on the mainstream media as we
0:50
weren't once were we have the internet
0:51
now we also have a foreign press I found
0:58
that I used to be able to get coverage
1:00
in the mainstream media in this country
1:03
by first getting the Foreign Press to
1:06
cover it and then it became news for our
1:08
domestic media however I've also learned
1:13
something else what the mainstream media
1:17
mostly do is to recycle press releases
1:22
every day they get a mountain of press
1:25
releases that go through them pick out
1:28
the ones the pâté think would make good
1:31
news articles make a few minor changes
1:34
and those become the news articles yes
1:38
who writes most of the press releases
1:41
week one we can complain all we bought
1:44
one about the liberal media but the
1:46
simple fact is that conservatives and
1:50
libertarians are not putting out as many
1:52
press releases as our opponents are I
1:56
have been to newspaper our car offices
1:59
and TV TV offices and other media I have
2:04
looked at the press releases that some
2:09
of the reports actually invited me to go
2:12
they're stacked of press releases to see
2:14
if I can find anything interesting and
2:17
they are overwhelmingly loaded by our
2:22
opponents we have to match our opponents
2:28
in the production of press releases
2:31
that's become easier to do that there
2:34
are now web-based services you prepare a
2:39
press release and it will send them out
2:41
to everybody every congressman or
2:44
senator and every state legislature or
2:47
every magazine newspaper radio station
2:51
TV station you know maple it'll make
2:54
sure they all get them you know you've
2:56
gotta pay a little bit of money for that
2:58
it's worth it alright trying to produce
3:01
your own press releases now and making
3:04
sure they get to to you know their
3:07
targets and get read you know it hardly
3:11
pays any more to do that yourself and I
3:16
have done it plenty of that I used to
3:19
regularly produce press releases you
3:21
know print them out on a copying machine
3:23
and carry them from news bureau to music
3:26
euro news Destiny's desk and that's
3:30
still a good idea because when you hand
3:33
deliver them you can also engage them in
3:35
conversation and it there really is more
3:40
likely to get their attention if you
3:42
hand it to them in person and talk to
3:45
them a little bit about it at the time
3:47
but of course that's not very practical
3:50
for you know to do very much up you have
3:57
to choose your targets for that it also
4:01
helps that you know the press release
4:05
needs can't be a treatise it has to be
4:09
written just like a news article so they
4:12
can just drop it in to their medium with
4:16
a minimum changes now they want to
4:18
parley
4:19
want to change something they don't feel
4:22
there another job let's they've changed
4:24
a little bit you want to give them
4:28
something to change that's unimportant
4:33
so that they don't change something
4:35
important and screw it up they will tend
4:39
to do that so give them a few little
4:42
tidbits that they can just scratch out
4:45
satisfy themselves that they've done
4:47
their job and publish the rest and make
4:50
sure they get a press release almost
4:53
every day on every different subject one
4:57
after another after another after
4:58
another and it doesn't hurt to meet them
5:02
socially take a reporter out to do you
5:07
know to lunch some day you get to know
5:10
them personally by now where they hang
5:12
out the bars or restaurants that the
5:16
clubs whatever whatever turns them on
5:19
you be there because though after a
5:24
while you become a crony you talking
5:30
about their kids their pets their you
5:33
know their you know their school reunion
5:36
whatever interests them if they let them
5:42
do a lot of the talking and then they'll
5:44
listen to you and you want to do some
5:46
talking it's just basic socializing
5:49
basic connection building the world runs
5:53
on connections the great talent in
5:57
needed to get ahead in this country in
6:00
this world is and long has been making
6:03
connections I spent a couple of years in
6:07
Washington hobnobbing with the movers
6:10
and shakers who couldn't let control our
6:14
lives sort of they are not our best and
6:19
brightest I'm sorry but they're not
6:23
they're not Darth Vader's they're not
6:26
sinister guys with evil
6:29
entrance they're mostly people like you
6:33
grew up with probably see students they
6:38
might be reasonably diligent students at
6:41
least they were once if when the
6:44
elevated to a certain degree you know
6:47
certain stature they no longer have to
6:50
do the diligent will stuff they just
6:54
delegated to other people so this is
6:57
kind of floating on top of a bunch of
6:59
other people that do all the hard work
7:02
they have to rely on people to make
7:06
recommendations to them which but facing
7:09
are just you know deciding which of
7:11
several recommendations today they
7:14
mostly don't know that much they do not
7:16
have a grasp of complex systems they
7:20
didn't have other clueless about
7:21
unintended consequences and yet these
7:26
are the people who essentially make the
7:29
decisions that affect our lives they
7:36
tend to even be sort of suspicious of
7:38
really talented people when i was in
7:41
washington DC i was often call upon as i
7:46
said earlier to do staff work but i was
7:51
also looked upon with suspicion because
7:53
as an unpaid volunteer they didn't
7:58
really control me and they were very
8:03
suspicious of very intelligent very
8:06
well-educated people that they couldn't
8:09
control there is a fundamental problem
8:17
having a political and a legal system
8:21
run by people who are being home for
8:24
mediocre and we've got that there one
8:28
key talent is the billet II to make
8:30
connections you wonder why ceos make the
8:36
big bucks in these major corporations it
8:39
is not
8:40
because they're great managers most of
8:43
them are lousy managers is mostly
8:47
because they can make a call to Wall
8:50
Street and somebody will take their call
8:54
to take his call because they know it
8:58
and he knows that so it's connections
9:03
and that's unfortunate because it's the
9:08
talent for making connections that stuff
9:10
does not necessarily correlate with the
9:13
ability to make high-quality decisions
9:15
about complex problems or to even
9:21
recognize good advice when it comes to
9:25
them from people who do understand these
9:27
complex systems the great financial
9:34
debacle that we've seen was foreseen and
9:40
weren't about by people who knew what
9:43
they understood the problem and
9:47
understood what was going to come down
9:50
they weren't listen to now some of them
9:54
are being listened to so after it's a
9:56
little bit late but even the day they're
10:03
getting less and less heed for their
10:08
warnings they're still issuing warnings
10:11
I mean the fact that the problem is not
10:13
solved yet we could still have a total
10:17
account click collapse of the economy we
10:20
have at best bought us a little bit of
10:22
time the underlying problems are still
10:25
operating and we very very well see a
10:29
total collapse of the economy within a
10:31
year or two
#Government
#News
#Politics
#Social Issues & Advocacy
#Social Sciences
#Campaigns & Elections
#Media Critics & Watchdogs
#Communications & Media Studies