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March 18, 2012 in City

OLYMPIA Im not going to negotiate in the newsmedia.

Politicians at all levels love to utter that sentence when its to theiradvantage.

But lets get real. If they think it will help their cause, their legislation or their budget, they like nothing better than to negotiate in the media. If they get angry, frustrated, boxed in or closed out, they negotiate in themedia.

Last week, Senate Republicans and their three disaffected Democratic allies didnt just negotiate, they presented, explained and defended their brand-new budget proposal in Olympia. This annoyed some other participants in ongoing closed-door budget negotiations, who were taken by surprise at getting that proposal at the same time as the news media and the rest of thepublic.

Among the most irked was Gov. Chris Gregoire, who has been the chief cat herder of the Legislatures overtime budgeting process. When she took questions from reporters a few hours later, its a wonder the video didnt show steam coming out of her ears. She didnt negotiate, mind you. She did say that one thing Senate Republicans were proposing, charter schools, is DOA and lobbyists who want to see their bills signed better be calling legislators to give them a not-so-gentle push towardcompromising.

But when it came to discussing what options shes proposed for legislative leaders to consider, her answer was emphatic: IM not going to negotiate in themedia.

Protestations about negotiating in the media are a corollary to another theorem of public officialdom: that elected officials must discuss some things behind closed doors so they can speak freely. Makes one wonder what theyre self-censoring from their normal publiccomments.

In truth, everyone negotiates in the news media when its to their advantage and complains about it when its not. Like John Kerrys stance on the war in Iraq, theyre against it until theyre forit.

Here is the original post:
Spin Control: ‘Media’ negotiations are only problem when they don’t work - Sun, 18 Mar 2012 PST