Having consolidated political power in Louisiana, Huey “The
Kingfish” Long moved the seat of government from New Orleans to Baton Rouge,
where there were fewer boozy night spots or opportunities for sexual
hanky-panky, and herded all Louisiana’s
political animals into a brand new, free standing art deco building, the better
to keep an eye on his political competitors. Autocrats can never be too
careful; enemies are everywhere. It pays to pay attention.
A populist progressive, Mr. Long also kept the newspapers
humming. He was a political bad-boy who had a rich sense of humor and a
photographic memory, operating in a state, somewhat like Connecticut, in which
Democrats ruled nearly all the political roosts. “Keep your friends close, but
enemies closer,” a lesson Michael Corleone claimed in The Godfather he had
learned from Don Vito Corleone.
Governor Dannel Malloy may be the only Irish politician in
Connecticut history whose sense of humor is stillborn. He can be mean; humorist
columnist and radio talk show maven Colin McEnroe has dubbed him “the porcupine.”
He can be courageous; early in his first administration, Mr. Malloy took on
powerful teachers unions on behalf of urban students condemned to mark time in
underperforming public schools until they graduated with what amounts to fraudulent
diplomas. He can be politically agile; promising several times not to raise
taxes to cover yet another deficit caused by overspending initiated by the
General Assembly’s Democratic hegemon, he raised taxes yet again in his second
term. Mr. Malloy’s second tax increase was the second largest in state history,
following close on the heels of his first tax increase, the largest in state
history. When the political fairies graced Malloy in his crib with political
virtues – not the same as ethical virtues – the humor fairy stayed at home.
Mr. Long was popular and charismatic. Mr. Malloy is unpopular, his
approval rating hovering around 23 percent. He is plodding, politically
manipulative, as befits a four term Mayor of Stamford, overly protective and an
administrative bully.
And that is why Mr. Malloy has instructed press liaisons in
Connecticut’s ever expanding state agencies to be on the look-out for disruptive
reporters. Some citizens may wonder why state agencies should be out-rigged with
media flack-catchers. Mr. Long was able to get along without them and held frequent
news conferences at his political headquarters, a lavish hotel in disreputable New
Orleans where wit flowed like wine, cigar smoke scented the air and all the press
boys had a rip-roaring time.
In mid-July, Courant investigative reporter Jon Lender tells us, Mr. Malloy’s top flack-catcher, Press Officer Devon Puglia, sent along to “about 25
executive-branch agencies' public information officers (PIOs)” a directive “to
send a daily email to the governor's office that lists all questions they
received from news reporters and what responses they gave them.”
Mr. Long made no attempt to control a press that he had eating
out of the palm of his hand. Not so Mr. Malloy.
"He's definitely looking to bash us in this column,"
public information officer for the state Department of Public Health Maura
Downes wrote in a July 13 email to the governor's office; the offender was Greenwich
Times newspaper columnist Bob Horton. Ms. Downes was only following orders. She added that Mr. Horton was “like the Jonathan Pelto of
Greenwich,” not high praise. Mr. Malloy’s educational policies are Mr. Pelto’s bete noir.
Mr. Malloy’s critics, more numerous now than they were at the
beginning of his first gubernatorial win, wonder whether the communications
officers in state agencies are being “politicized.” Mr. Lender notes that “the Malloy administration
has begun replacing some veteran communications officers at state agencies with
politically active Democrats — after the Democrat-controlled General Assembly quietly removed
those posts from the state's merit system, and made them into direct political
appointments.” As Mr. Malloy’s poll numbers dip, his beleaguered administration appears
to be circling its wagons to prevent assaults from an awakened media corp. Proactive
stories are being fed to the media, and administrative eyes on agency
communications directors will have a chilling effect on transparent and honest communication.
If the political ship is leaking, dangerous cracks can always
be filled with wads of propaganda – a temporary, not a permanent solution, to persistent
problems. When transparency is the problem – always the case when sinking administrations
become opaque -- the permanent solution to the problem cannot be media
manipulation.
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