Tim Pawlenty announced that he had formed an exploratory committee a few weeks ago with a Youtube video. Last night, he announced in an interview with Piers Morgan on CNN, without any reservations, that he was running for president. Great!
Well his staff didn't feel that way....As soon as Pawlenty made that statement, his staff scrambled to fix that mistake. Most people would view this as strange and ridiculous, for we all know that he's running for president.
So why did his staff get so excited over this mistake? Because in a media saturated world, announcing that you are running for president is supposed to garner a lot more attention than what Pawlenty was met with last night. The whole point of announcing the formation of an exploratory committee and then later actually running for president (outside of the legal implications, which don't apply in his case because under Federal Election Commission rules Pawlenty is already legally a presidential candidate) is to get media attention not once, but twice. Each announcement is another opportunity to show yourself off.
So Pawlenty blew this one big time and his staff has been scrambling to fix his mistake so in a few days or a week or so he can announce it all over again on Youtube or Facebook. Check out this article and see the rest of the story for yourself. Can you pick up on the reporter's apparent bias towards the end?
The reporter should be slightly biased. Reporters are being used as pawns in the much-hyped presidential election press cycle. They are tasked with attending a candidate's events and reporting it to the nation, in essence, functioning as bullhorns for the candidates.
ReplyDeletePawlenty's "mistake" may be just that but it may be another way to garner media attention. Firstly, by speaking on CNN, he is communicating to another demographic who may not check his facebook page to see his "official" announcement. Secondly, he is garnering more press attention because of his "mistake" further projecting his name as a presidential candidate which incidentally, is the purpose of making a public announcement. The press is playing along and giving him free publicity.