“You think that you’re too cool for school, but I have a newsflash for you Walter Cronkite … you aren’t.” – Derek Zoolander “We get it, dude. You’re the PAO.
“You think that you’re too cool for school, but I have a newsflash for you Walter Cronkite … you aren’t.” – Derek Zoolander “We get it, dude. You’re the PAO.
The other day, someone called me a liar behind my back. This in itself was a lie, or perhaps an ego-driven attempt to save face. Maybe it was something else.
You can’t ask a reporter to hold a story if you’re not willing to have a conversation about context. You can’t put your commander on camera if you’re not going
I’m not usually one to advocate for more command information. PAOs spend too much time creating content to talk to ourselves, rather than plugging into the mission and talking about
We’ve made it. A journalist asked a question. The journalist has enough interest in our topic that he or she e-mailed us. Once you respond they are likely going to
Commanders have mission statements. Staff professionals apply skills and tools to their commander’s mission statement. Several years ago, the nine-person Public Affairs team to which I was the deputy sat
When you have a bias for inaction, you can talk yourself out of doing anything. Do you hear, or participate, in these conversations? “We don’t need to write PAG for
As kids, if we were going to be out of place, we needed a hall pass or permission slip — something to validate and explain our actions. “I am in
GoodmorningSir. I’manempoweredbadge-wearingmemberofyourorganization. I’mnowgoingtoreadyousomewordsfromapieceofpaper. ThisisabriefIwastoldtogivethismorning. ThisscriptwasreviewedseveraltimesbyvariousstaffleaderssoIamnotgoingtodeviatefromit. Blahblahblahblahblahblahblah. IonlywrotelikethirtyperentofthecontentI’mbriefingrightnow. Theyremovedsomeofthemostimportantinformationfrommyscriptbecauseweweren’tsureiftheG2hadseenthatinformationyet, oriftheyagreedwithmyassessment. Wedon’twantyoutoknowtwoprofessionalstaffelementscouldpotentiallyhavedifferentperspectivesonacomplicatedtopic. Blahblahblahblahblahblah. Thisscriptwasapproved24hoursagosomostoftheinformationisoutofdate. Blahblahblahblah. Areyoulistening? It’shardtotellbecauseIdon’twanttotakemyeyesofmyscript. Blahblah. MaybeI’llsneakonepeek. Itlookslikeyou’rejusttalkingtotheCommandSergeantMajoratthefronttablewhileI’mbriefing. Maybethat’sforthebest. NowIcanjustgetthroughthisfasterandhopefullyyouwon’thaveanyquestions. Mysupervisorsdidn’ttellmewhattodoifyouaskanyquestionsorwanttohaveadiscussion. Thatisn’tinmyscript. Thiscould’vebeenane-mail. Blahblahblah. Pendingyourquestions. (Photo by Pfc. Andrew Valenza,
‘”Well, Sir, the Public Affairs Office is short-staffed right now so I don’t think we’ll be able to support that request.” Gross. Nobody wants to work with the Public Affairs