One week ago, Americans woke up to a jarring reality.
Our country was at war with Iran, announced via a video by the President of the United States, distributed on a social media platform owned by the President of the United States. It has begged many questions and in the week since, as those questions have mounted without many answers.
Regardless of what you think about the war (Surprise! Self-identified Republicans are all for it, while Democrats and independents aren’t), if you feel informed about what’s going on, you probably aren’t being honest. That’s because, unlike what we have seen in the past, there is no real public information campaign happening and only a cursory attempt at propaganda.
Those of us of a certain age can’t help thinking back 35 years. Yes, it was a different era in nearly every regard. But when the U.S. went to war in Iraq, the nation was able to come together around information, whether it was accurate or not. The daily briefings by General Norman Schwarzkopf were a clear, consistent update to the people about what was happening that would otherwise have been invisible. The Defense Department’s spokesman, Pete Williams, memorably stood behind a lectern and answered journalist questions in front of a national audience regualrly. Even decades later, during the early days of “Gulf War Two,” the military embedded journalists with troops, so we could get even a glimpse of what was going on.
Now, even the most voracious consumers of news are having a hard time piecing all of the disparate sources together. Meanwhile, the Secretary of Defense (that’s still the name of the Department, per Congress) wants to talk tough to a room filled with hand-picked non-journalists asking him questions, while leading news organizations aren’t in the room, and a President who calls individuals reporters and anchors on the phone and answers questions differently for each of them, with no cohesive rationale or storyline.
This isn’t about approval ratings. This is about basic societal information needs. As we write often on here, in times of crisis, audiences crave leadership. They need facts, reassurance, concern for people and expectations managed. We, as a country, aren’t getting any of that now. That, inevitably, will learn to confusion, frustration and mistrust. We have to hope it won’t lead to panic.
When the President tells a Fox News correspondent at a news event about, of all things, college sports, when he tries to ask about the war: “Can I be honest? It’s just — I have a lot of respect for you, you’ve always been very nice to me — what a stupid question that is to be asking at this time,” how is the audience supposed to think about what’s happening in Iran? Or when asked about Iran retaliation, he tells a Time magazine reporter “I guess… But yeah, you know, we expect some things. Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die,” what is the country supposed to think about what’s next?
A week in, this war is creating a new information gap in this country that underscores how PR really matters and may reveal what happens when it is neglected.