SpongeDob SquarePants Continues

Some may accuse Colorado Pols of paying a bit too much attention to the James Dobson/SpongeBob SquarePants story.  Yet, on a Saturday when the story is still alive (thanks to Dobson and the Focus on the Family staff, see below), this whole situation is a great example of how politicians can get themselves into PR messes. And, since it involves a Colorado guy, on we go with some political PR dos and don'ts for our friends in Colorado Springs.

DO take a step back.  One of the first rules in political PR is that when the official or candidate says something stupid, or does something to divert attention from the true message, it's time to take a step back.  We're not saying this is the case where you've got a crisis on your hands - like the candidate getting arrested. Then it's time to go into full-blown crisis mode.  We're talking about actions that knock a campaign or effort off its message mark and focus media and public attention elsewhere.  That's exactly what happened to Dobson this week when he went from being the voice of the evangelical wing of the GOP who's going to hold Bush accountable this term to the person who thinks SpongeBob SquarePants is gay.

DO let the story die.  This is a one day story at best.  There's football championships this weekend, a big snowstorm hitting the Midwest and east coast, and Tom Tancredo's dazzling burst onto the New Hampshire landscape for the media and public to think about (well, maybe not the last one).   

How does a story die....?

DON'T try to explain yourself.  If you keep your mouth shut and don't try and explain yourself, the story dies.  But, like any politician following his natural instincts, Dobson went out on Friday and tried to explain themselves.  For a good example, check out the Colorado Springs Gazette's coverage today, which is being mirrored elsewhere in the country.  When the politician wants to explain himself in this type of a situation, it's the staff's job to help a politician rein in those natural instincts.  Trying to explain "what I really meant" only gives the media something new to write off, and, presto, the story continues.

DON'T give an opponent free media.  Seriously, who among our two readers even knew that Nile Rodgers was producing a video starring cartoon characters that would help teach tolerance to kids?  Was the New York Times newsroom buzzing over this creative update to "We Are Family" and preparing to break the news to a waiting world, only to be trumped by James Dobson?  Of course not.  This effort was way under the radar.  Now, thanks to James Dobson, Nile Rodgers is writing in the Times about his project, talking to Katie Couric about it and it's all over the news and the talk of late-night TV. 

If Dobson is going to be taken seriously as a player in politics in this country, he needs to get some people around him with a little more sense of how the game is played.  Meanwhile, to most Americans who even know who he is, they'll know him as the guy who thinks SpongeBob is gay.  And, while Dobson's base may forgive him, don't think the White House is somewhat happy that one of the more public voices trying to force their hand on certain issues is now a laughingstock.

Comments

[RichieD]

He sure shot himself in the foot...

[Amelia]

See very thoughtful piece by David Neiwert at Orcinus. He says Dobson was misquoted--what he really said is that there should be no tolerance for tolerance -- a message shared by haters of all stripes, not just the anti-gays.

It sounds from your post that you are sympatico with Dobson's ideology and are cringing because your guy might have put his foot in his mouth. Too bad you feel that way.

[Alva Adams]

You're reading into something that just isn't there. Dobson's message, in a nutshell, was that children should not learn to be tolerant of homosexual lifestyles. That's discrimination, and it's wrong. Read the rest of the posts on this before you cast judgment, because we approach things here from a politically tactical standpoint, and our point is that SpongeDob minimized himself and his message by going after a cartoon character. Whether he is right or wrong, it was the wrong way to go about it.

[James Peabody]

Holy cow, use SpongeDob to make a point about how the political PR game is played and get called anti-tolerant? Too bad that's the state of discourse on the political process nowdays. It's as if all sides nowdays have taken on President Bush's words, used in another context, "You're either with us or against us."

Don't make assumptions that because Colorado Pols writes up SpongeDob or Allard's gay marriage ban or the statehouse Democrats efforts to modify TABOR that we automatically agree or disagree with a certain position. While some may find this cynical, the issues don't matter that much to what we're writing on. The political process does. And, in the political process, what matters is winning and losing.

As one very expert Colorado politician once told us over lunch: "Issues don't mean a thing in an election. It's about winning."

If you're looking for commentary on the issues themselves, there's plenty of great websites out there (check out our links for ones devoted to Colorado). If you want commentary on the horse-race, here's your place.

[Amelia]

Sorry, but I agree with Joe who posted a comment after an earlier entry on the same subject. This is not silly stuff about attacking a cartoon character. Intolerance and hate is the core of Dr. Dobson's message. Your post does not seem to take that seriously.

Here's a grotesquely overblown analogy, purposefully so, in order to illustrate the point: What if Mr. Nazi Politico inadvertantly revealed the existence of heretofore secret concentration camps? Would you publish an itemized list of how to limit the political damage, referring kindly to those camps as boy scout sleep-aways, rather than what they really are? Or would you feel compelled to make some comment about the horror revealed?

How can you profess to be neutral about hate? Hating gays--or "children should not learn to be tolerant of the gay lifestyle" as you so delicately put it, is no different from hating blacks, hating Mexicans, hating Jews, etc. Part of the reason for the success of the Christian hate movement is that they disguise what they are really about with nice words like morals and values. Here was a time when it was fairly clear what they were really about--as I understand it Dr. Dobson said so. He didn't say the cartoon character was gay--he said we should not tolerate diversity. That's hate.

Dr. Dobson and his fellow travelers have lots of money, access to the White House and are politically savvy. They don't need lessons in power politics. But we do need that be exposed for the haters that they are.

By the way, really like your blog.