Thursday, April 30, 2009
Candidate Gibbons Closes the Door
On Tuesday night, April 28, District Attorney General Bill Gibbons was a beneficiary of a fundraiser at the posh Crescent Club in East Memphis from which members of the media were barred.
Posted by Jackson Baker on Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 9:43 AM
On Wednesday, scant hours later, gubernatorial candidate Gibbons was the center of local attention at a widely publicized press conference at which he and other law-enforcement officials announced the indictments of eight employees of the Shelby County clerk’s office.
The contrast between a closed-door campaign event and a ballyhooed official act was dramatic enough. What made it doubly so, to the point of genuine irony, was that Gibbons has been emphasizing the just-folks aspect of an impoverished upbringing in rural Arkansas in his campaign. At every opportunity, he has been telling that up-from-nothing Horatio Alger tale, implicitly drawing a contrast between himself and the presumably more elitist circumstances of a major Republican primary opponent, Knoxville mayor and oil-empire heir Bill Haslam,
Yet a further irony is that Gibbons’ normal relation to the media is that of a pleasant, cooperative, and accessible figure. To be sure, he is famously close-mouthed abut the details of any ongoing investigation — no doubt appropriately so — but he is otherwise gregarious and transparent, even to the point of opening up a recent planning session involving his chief campaign cadres.
After his press conference Wednesday, Gibbons was asked his reasons for excluding the media from his Crescent Club fundraiser. The cloistered aspect of the event was a departure for Gibbons, a frequent candidate himself over the years and someone who has organized and hosted many such affairs for candidates he has supported.
After a spell of adopting the wry bantering tone which he sometimes employs to avoid direct answers, Gibbons finally said it had not been his decision to cordon the fundraiser off from media.
He was asked: Whose then? “I suppose it was David or Josh,” he said, referring to campaign chair David Kustoff, the former local GOP chairman and U.S. Attorney, and Josh Thomas, the newly hired campaign manager and former aide to U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander. It was Thomas who either undertook — or was assigned — the duty of interceding between the event and arriving media representatives so as to turn them away.
These days most campaign fundraisers for most candidates are open to the media in some form, and informal ground rules are in effect for their coverage. Since such events are not technically public and attendant media are, in effect, being extended a courtesy, reportage is studiously non-invasive and normally restricted to the most bland particulars — the size of the turnout, general information about the attendees, and — should the host or the candidate care to release it — totals raised.
The candidate’s remarks to the crowd of donors may also be reported — but normally not in the exacting way that remarks on the campaign stump might be. In most cases the candidate merely repeats the campaign’s standard boilerplate. As for the nature of the attendees, there are rarely any genuine surprises — especially since many on hand will be, like the media members themselves, non-paying courtesy guests — and, should there be unexpected donors of note, their identities will eventually be made known anyhow, one way or another.
In short, there is nothing in the very nature of a campaign fundraiser that explicitly requires sequestration. And the decision to impose it becomes a matter of semiotics — in Gibbons’ case, a possible sign of a shift in strategy away from transparency. As such, it bears watching.
Comments (15)
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Well, there's a hint to what kind of Governor he'd be.... No transparency, and then when he's called out for it, he blames a subordinate.
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B, I can't let you climb above me on the comment ladder just by piling on.
JB, nice scold. Have to wonder if this is the Josh aide to Alexander dude's first try at campaign managing.
Say Google Reader hipped me to the Flyer's new subscribe to comments to this post feed, otherwise hidden behind the orange RSS icon.
In closing, I'd like to say, Jackson, if you're going to keep using that erudite word "semiotics," you ought to link it to a definition.
Mute, you of all erudite people require a definition?? Or is it merely that you think the rest of our uncommonly up-to-snuff readers do? OK, semiotics is the science of signs, normally employed to unravel the actual meaning behind seemingly random or incidental images, sounds, statements, modes of conduct, etc., etc. Put the word into Google, and you'll get a raft of other, perhaps better definitions.
hmmmm....kinda like "ergo". ;-) I have no problem with challenging readers but your use of semiotics was an ironically poor choice if your objective was to unravel the actual meaning. You created the "thing" that required unravelling. I bet you grinned when you typed that word. The best writers have their words read not researched...ergo...a bit overwritten....a common malady in the Flyer.
Is "ergo" a stretch for you, TT? Well, I can believe it. You know, the point is to use the term that describes what you're talking about, whether it's simple (like B.S.; I'm sure you know THAT one) or more specialized, like "semiotics." Mute's just fakin', he knows what it means. You? I dunno, man. And don't you have to be one of the Best Readers to know who the Best Writers are? So you're not the best judge of that, my friend.
re JB: a little sensitive aren't we? I know what the word means as well...that was the problem...In my opinion it was a poor word choice for this audience and just a bit pretentious. Obviously you disagree. I don't know how one judges Best Readers...but I know a Best Writer when I see...er...read one. You're not on the list...sorry dude. Get over it my friend. ;-)
Actually, TT, you don't. But thanks for the writing lesson, anyhow. I would say: Stick to a subject you know something about...But I can't imagine what that might be.
re JB: Actually I do....Gee what is it with your juvenile reaction to criticism? Grow up hot rod. I provide a critique of your work. You provide a critique of me....don't you feel just a bit silly reacting that way?
TT, you still there? You know, I cried my eyes out and was inconsolable when you first hitch-hiked on Mute (missing his point, but that's neither here nor there) and proceeded to read me off the list of Classic Authors.
And then I realized (light bulb! epiphany!) I am in the presence of a master and should be humble enough to learn from him. (Which is why I thanked you for the writing lesson.)
I mean, at first I didn't see through the subtlety of your disguise -- your brilliant pretense of being a lonely man (or woman) clearly without companionship except for the occasional public meeting, unable to make connections to fellow human beings except through addressing them via carping anonymity, unable even to follow the thread of the posts you respond to, hence insisting on endless ad hominem back-and-forths.
And the very moniker -- "thought thinker" -- indicating that you're one whose life is engtirely within the fantasies (sorry, "thoughts") of your own home-bound cranium. Brilliant!
But then it dawned on me. This is a true guru, only affecting to be such a deprived person, repressive of self and others. I am more than willing to be instructed, O Master. At first, I was disappointed that you could not stay on the original subject of this thread, candidate Bill Gibbons. But then I realized (a) that would be a first for you; and (b) you had honored me by addressing me personally.
I am so thrilled that I'll be happy to meet with you publicly or private to learn more. Failing that, I'd be curious to have a list of your own publications so I could study by example. (I recognize your barely literate confused comments on this and other web sites as part of the aforemehtioned disguise.) And, finally, I'd be pleased to have a list of the Classic Authors whom you would have me follow.
Believe me, I'm grateful.
On the other hand, if you prefer merely to demonstrate your acumen by actually addressing the subject of the article, that might suffice.
Thanks, TT -- this time for keeping me sane. Now, do you have reasoned thoughts to share about candidate Gibbons or his fundraiser?
I'm just not that much into BG. Would you say he had a record of being tough on crime/criminals, or would you say he likes to talk about being tough on . . . .
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