The PR/media crisis control strategy that Barack Obama employed Tuesday may have been too late. The strength of this speech might have quelled some of the continuous media loop that began on ABC’s Good Morning America just last Thursday if he had acted faster. Addressing the obvious problem of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright story on Thursday night in this same way might have been contained the media firestorm.
The problem of Wright has been around since he announced his candidacy, and according to Politico.com, Obama’s opponents have constantly pushed reporters to write about him. The tragedy of it is that the video made the story all too real, enough so that red state loyalists bombarded reporters and editors for constant coverage.
Of course one can take a wait and see attitude as the story continues to unfold Tuesday night on Nightline and the Wednesday morning shows. However, the true calamity of this PR/media crisis was reported online by the Boston Globe Tuesday afternoon. With chilling foreboding, it illustrates that we are far from conquering the racial divide.
The Globe reports that in a little-noticed poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports that 56 percent of all voters surveyed, and 44 percent of Democrats, said that Wright’s comments made them less likely to support Obama, while 29 percent of Blacks said the remarks made them more likely to vote for Obama.
Sadly, that survey defines the PR power of this Media Coverage.
Let us know your thoughts on this survey.
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