Therefore, I've gotten pretty good at pretending I'm from some cooler, big city - especially since I apparently have a permanent, cheer-repelling 'stink-face' - if I take into consideration the first impression of every person who's ever met me.
But lately, I've been all proud of my nerdy, hick-heritage. Now, when I meet people from Wisconsin, I'm like, "You're from Wisconsin?! REPRESENT! Do you like cows??! I totally love cows! And isn't cheese, like, the greatest!? And couldn't you just watch the opening credits from "That 70's Show" all day long?? God, our homestate is the best, right?!"
I know. It's shameful. I honestly don't know what's gotten into me. All of a sudden I've become this disgustingly staunch advocate of midwestern culture.
Anyhow, this little guilt-ridden rant does in fact relate to our guest speaker today, who was, if it hasn't already been made painfully obvious, from Wisconsin. And I guess I wouldn't really have thought that much about it, except for the fact that he works as a spokesman/communications director/press secretary - a job that he emphasized (more than once) absolutely requires humor.
"Humor penetrates", Mr Ron Bonjean said. It relaxes people and allows you to then have an honest conversation. "So many people take themselves too seriously", he continued, which was so so SO refreshing to hear someone here say. I'd started to think that "seminar" was synonymous with "brag fest" - because, honestly, how many fabulous things can you say about yourself in that shamefully I-should-be-humble-but-let's-be-honest-I'm-pretty-great manner.
I should say that all the speakers have been really interesting, and I totally understand why they'd want to brag about their accomplishments - especially since that's kind of why we have them come to speak for us. But even so, it's refreshing to see a little bit of self-awareness.
Anyhow - I seriously could type for like 5 pages about all the cool stuff Ron Bonjean told us today. He was spokesman for the Senate Majority Leader, Trent Lott, and communications director for the House Speaker, Dennis Hastert. He's this cheery, smiley, and really affable guy - but hearing his resume you'd never have guessed it. Ron's been through some serious crises, including, though definitely not limited to, Trent Lott's stepping down from his post due to a racist comment, 9/11 and all that came with it, the anthrax crisis, and the Mark Foley page scandal.
He talked a lot about how, as a pr man, he pitches stories to reporters so that he can have a significant input in how it plays out/ is portrayed. ("An objective reporter can be influenced from various forces, and you want to be one of those forces.") I thought there was just a slight ethical dilemma here, considering that obviously he's not going to pitch a full story to the reporters, complete with sufficient opposing viewpoints. He insisted, however, that he always presents both sides, even if he admittedly leaves out some of the opposing details. He emphasized that a good journalist will get other sources besides him, so he doesn't have to do their job for them - he's just one source of many.
My personal issue with this arises from the fact that he also talked about how nowadays, so much less energy goes into investigative reporting than used to, so some of these reporters do actually just rely on him for their stories. That, I think, is scary.
He covered how it's important to figure out how to best avoid feeding a scandal's fire - how to best stifle it. Usually, he says, it's an apology (as long as you avoid pandering). Isn't that funny? Mom was right (again) - just saying sorry really does work.
The greatest part about the whole speech was when he told us that really, they're all buddies in Washington. A reporter may write a bad story about him, and he may get angry, but in the end, they'll all go out for drinks and be like "hey man, that was a crazy story, yea?" - and all's good. They go to each others' weddings and hang out on the weekends and at the end of the day (for most people, that is, congressman being the exception, he made sure to note) it's just a job and you can't take yourself so seriously.
Disappointingly, he added, recently some people in Washington are actually pretty angry at one another. All this partisan stuff is splitting up the capital city - but not him, he ensures, cause he's a "funny guy".
And I'd like to think it's because he's from Wisconsin.
Bloody hell, yes. I'm starting to learn, in talking to a bunch of non-Wisconsinites, that we actually have a reputation for being nice and accommodating.
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