Say, Mr. Vice President, can we talk about the middle class?

Posted on | February 4, 2010 | Comments Off

Middle_Class-0037

(Photo from WhiteHouse.gov)

I protest!

Okay, there, that’s done.

I just finished reading an interesting column by E.J. Dionne Jr. about a conversation he had with Vice President Biden and the thought occurred to me:

If you work for the Washington Post or the New York Times, you can sit down and have a conversation with the Vice President, even if you are writing an opinion column rather than a news story.

If you are a little independent, niche publication, written and published by an equally independent individual with minimal political connections, you don’t get to talk to the Vice President — no matter how important or groundbreaking your story might be.

Of course, I realize that this works in the same way that big business often works. There are only so many hours in the day and there are only so many news outlets that our friend Mr. Biden can talk to. The most efficient use of his limited time would be to have him talk to the folks with the largest audiences.

On the other hand, that communications strategy does the consumers of news and information a disservice, because I am going to ask Vice President Biden questions that nobody from either the New York Times or the Washington Post will ask him.

It’s all about perspective. I’ve mentioned that before.

Only I won’t get to ask those questions (because I’m not important enough), which means that the people who occupy this space with me (maybe hundreds, maybe millions, tough to say) will never find out the answer to those questions, either.

And doesn’t that just suck?

This is the sort of thing that happens when there is a certain amount of conflict between the stuff you want to talk to the American people about and the stuff we might want to talk to you about.

When you work in the White House (especially when you have the Number One or Number Two job in the White House), you get to control your message as much as you want.

But … and this is the bit about Web 2.0 that everybody in muckety-muck land seems to have trouble grasping … when you work to control your message like that, it makes you less authentic.

And that’s when people stop listening.


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