By Dennis Culloton, President & CEO
There was word in a small item this morning that the newspaper USA Today is cutting some newsroom employees.
I’ve written before that I am worried about the news business. I am a news junkie, number one, and number two, if you get paid to help your clients tell their story, it helps if there are actual outlets to which one’s story can be told other than trying to retweet the accounts of various Kardashians.
It seems President Obama may not be so sanguine. He’s had a tough summer–Syria, ISIS, the Ukraine and Ferguson, MO, just to name a few crises–and he may be looking forward to the day when he flips the keys to the White House to his successor. According to Wall Street Journal columnist Dan Henninger, in a recent campaign speech, the president spent some time criticizing social media, the legacy news media and Congress for exaggerating the turmoil around the world and the feeling of discontent that many Americans feel about the direction of our country. I’ve been there and done that in working with government and business executives with frayed nerves who lash out at the messenger. I’ve probably been guilty of this myself. It shows a lack of focus and discipline for your message and your agenda, but it is a byproduct of fatigue.
Interestingly, the bad poll numbers can offer some solace to the president and highlight the short shelf life of the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it Washington politcal battles. “Obamacare,” the president’s signature health care reform initiative, now represents only a small percentage of voter discontent. As the Washington Post notes, it might fire up the president’s strident opponents on the far right, but most voters have moved on to other worries.