PRovoke: Biden Beats Putin as Worst World Leader Communicator
The global PR trade press has spoken.
Or at least one of them has.
PR trade publication PRovoke Media – living up to its name – has awarded the booby prize to U.S. President Joe Biden as the “worst communicator among the world’s leaders,” beating out prior perennial favorite, Vladimir Putin.
Let that sink in. I mean, really let it sink in.
Perhaps former President Obama would like to rethink that Presidential Medal of Freedom honor he bestowed on Biden in 2017. After all, Mr. Obama has proven time and again in other situations that what Obama may giveth, Obama may taketh away. And no one knows the value of good comms as essential to perceptions of good leadership like Mr. Obama.
But I digress.
Either way, whodathunk that any such recipient of that esteemed Medal would later become the U.S. President outranking Putin on any “worst” list, as judged by any industry, particularly the vastly left-leaning public relations industry, which is all about those vaunted qualities such as honor, transparency, truth, trust, civility, the Fourth Estate, etc., etc.
Yet here we are.
As reported in PRovoke (see link here):
“On the list of the worst communicators among the world’s leaders, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin – maybe surprisingly – received hardly any votes, after being in undisputed first place last year. Instead, US president Joe Biden – ahead of stepping down as Democrat nominee – was far and away the leader judged as the worst communicator in recent months, although this seems to be with some regret; as one of our influencers noted, he is the “biggest disappointment”. (My bold added, for emphasis.)
“Some regret?”
Um, yeah.
As a U.S. citizen myself — who, among other Americans, has endured a daily media diet for years now of viewing Mr. Biden’s non-stop gaffe machine playing out in front of the world, including the United States’ most dangerous enemies — I can say it is indeed more than just “regrettable” that this person still occupying the Oval Office is not fit to be there medically and thus places our national security (and that of other ally nations) at risk every single day by reason of his self-serving choices of personal “legacy” over country.
There. I said it.
Beyond regrettable, it’s arguably also criminal… as in, tantamount to fraud.
Saying you’re fit as a fiddle to sit as a head of state — when you are not — is fraudulent. Period-end-of-story.
As for political calculations, if President Biden and his inner circle weren’t so caught up around the axle of his own ego, he could resign the presidency so that his colleague, the Madame Vice President, could run for President now as the sitting President – a posture of far greater political strength than the one she now holds.
But no. Biden cannot be bothered to do that.
Not unless his handlers are planning an October Surprise, which, at this point, would only be a surprise for very naïve and non-discerning people.
I appreciate the fact that PRovoke has now revealed to the world that global PR leaders roundly view President Biden as an outright communications disaster. Facts are facts.
Too, I know how difficult it was for PRovoke to publish that particular fact – as evidenced by the concurrent fact that this breaking news only managed to appear in Paragraph 14 (!) of said PRovoke news article, “Influence 100: Best & Worst Communicators, Brand Reputations & Most Admired Agency 2024.”
But let’s also get real here.
This man – President Biden – has only been wandering around all of Christendom for years now, claiming to whomever is foolish enough to listen to him that he is medically fit for service when clearly he is not, by any stretch of the imagination, nor has he been in a very, very long time, á la, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”
What’s worse, Biden dispatched his minions within the DNC and across every level of his vast cable news talking-head surrogacy, to engage in his competency-level cover-up, parroting his prescribed untruthful talking points and false claims to the U.S. electorate. This, too, has been going on for a very, very long time.
In case anyone in the PR industry is ignorant to this fact: the volume and degree of evident PR ethics code violations in disservice to the public good would set the Internet on fire, were anyone actually to acknowledge and catalog them.
The whole thing has been one, big, fat, American joke. And sadly for Americans, the joke is on America.
Those culpable certainly include Biden’s jacked-up PR apparatus. So while we’re on the topic of “worst communicators,” let’s talk about that.
For her part, the White House press secretary cannot begin practically any sentence during a press briefing without uttering the false and meaningless words “We have been clear…,” when clearly, the only thing “clear” is the clarity of her politicized spin routines on most subjects – the President’s obviously declining health among them, but also other critical issues like America’s porous southern border and the obvious antisemitism problems on university campuses and even widely speculated within the Democratic party itself.
To that latter point, don’t take my word for it. I give you CNN’s Van Jones:
You can quantify how many times KJP claims falsely to be “clear” by doing a search of how many times she uses the phrase “We have been clear” or some reasonable facsimile in each of her press briefings, full transcripts of which are located here.
Since July 30, she used this phrasing some 30 times in only three press conferences.
Sound excessive?
The problem here, of course, is that by parroting “We have been clear,” KJP gaslights the White House Press Corps and the American public, that it is they who are somehow mentally deficient by not divining what on earth is going on with the President, his behaviors, his debate performance, his policy-making, his meandering confused along daises and up to aircraft that is not Air Force One, etc., etc., etc.
What is “clear”? How about that KJP needs a fresh script and maybe a dollop of truth on her side?
As one member of the White House Press Corps recently admonished, quite rightly, “If it was ‘clear,’ I wouldn’t be asking the question.”
While we’re on the topic of some media looking the other way, we should revisit PR industry partisan fawning and heroine-worship immediately laid at the feet of the Biden White House Comms Team, when it was announced in November 2020 that Biden was appointing a — <Gasp!… fall forward on to fainting couch> ALL FEMALE communications team.
Not to let any wholly implied partisan endorsement go unrealized, PRSA did its part by gushing over this alleged watershed moment:
Alas! Enter sad-trombone, stage left.
Only months later, in February 2021 and less than one month after Biden’s inauguration, it was only begrudgingly covered in news media that some dude – one T.J. Ducklo (you can’t make this up), who apparently was “deputy press secretary” on the ALL female (?) Biden comms team — was documented berating and harassing a female journalist.
Aside from the obvious disinformation of the White House sneaking in a guy with a bullying temperament on what falsely was reported as an all-female comms team, the Biden White House’s power-drunk Ducklo took it upon himself to say, as per media reports – to a journalist – “I will destroy you.”
Don’t take my word for it. I give you NBC News:
Ducklo initially was only reprimanded with a glancing one-week suspension without pay, in spite of President Biden’s earlier false assurances that he would fire “on the spot” anyone on his staff engaging in this type of creepy behavior.
Ultimately, Ducklo was allowed Biden’s PR grace of a face-saving resignation for his outrageous misconduct (dudes looking out for dudes!), under public pressure that Ducklo be sacked.
Initially, Team Biden (including the much-ballyhooed then-White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki) was hoping everyone might choose to overlook both her deputy’s infraction and its egregiousness, in that classically back-stabbing “women looking out for other women” way that women like Psaki & Team apparently embrace with gusto when it’s convenient for them and their careers.
Interestingly, Ducklo ended up, tail between his legs, in my home state of Tennessee doing comms for the Nashville Mayor — who apparently was A-OK with Ducklo’s way of doing things and his media record of threatening someone in a highly disturbing manner.
It was announced just last year that Ducklo was RE-HIRED back on Biden’s comms team for 2024 — so let that stupidity sink in, too.
Again, you can’t make this up!
Oh well.
Maybe this explains a little bit more about Biden’s secret sauce of corrupt and inept comms, which have been going on — “Weekend at Bernie’s” style — at Pennsylvania Avenue and beyond, ever since.
So my larger point is this:
While I appreciate it when news media finally ante up with some facts about just how incompetent and untruthful the current U.S. presidential administration has been (and not just criticisms about that other guy running for President… you know, the one who was shot several weeks ago), it sure would be nice if media at large – including PR trade media – could be more consistent in covering these kinds of truths with equal criticisms to both sides of the aisle and not just one.
And please don’t claim to be “nonpartisan” when the online record “clearly” (to borrow KJP’s go-to) documents the categorical opposite.
For example, did PRSA ever correct its own record or even issue a public admonishment of then-Deputy WH Press Secretary Ducklo: the random dude on the comms team?
Absolutely not.
PRSA in January 2017 couldn’t wait to skewer publicly the pollster Kellyanne Conway for her errant “alternative facts” comment. But a male White House Deputy Press Secretary threatening a female member of the news media?… Free Pass!
For the record, in Q1 2021 when the Ducklo scandal erupted, then-PRSA Chair Michelle Olson was far too busy getting rid of me out of PRSA for my having asked too many financial questions not to her liking about PRSA’s own discrepancies.
She didn’t give a duck about Ducklo and the horrendous example he set for the PR industry. She certainly didn’t want egg on her face for already having made it clear that PRSA would pimp out its brand for under-the-radar partisan boosts to her own liking, contrived as they were.
For its part, did PRovoke even cover the Ducklo scandal back in February 2021… at all?
The answer is “clear”: Nope.
When I keyword-searched “T.J. Ducklo” or “Ducklo” on PRovoke’s website, all that came up was this personnel announcement from back in 2013. If PRovoke did indeed cover the story, then where is it?
For comparison, I searched competitor publication PRWeek’s archive, and when the T.J. Ducklo saga occurred, Frank Washkuch was all over it. Interesting how different publications make different news judgments.
The Ducklo White House comms scandal was no small matter in Biden World or the smaller PR World.
The Ducklo scandal served as one of the more significant PR industry cases-in-point of power abuse — and sexist gender abuse — that could have been handed over to a discerning PR trade journalist on a silver platter for editorial treatment and analysis.
Yet PRovoke was certainly not alone in somehow managing to run out of digital ink to cover the story as they should have (in my view), or, otherwise thinking a story like this was simply no big deal, even amid PRovoke’s concurrent reporting about rife sexism and harassment problems in the PR industry at large (which I respect and appreciate).
If this garbage behavior is coming out of The White House, shouldn’t the industry know about it, regardless of who the POTUS is?
The very pro-Biden O’Dwyer’s PR Report didn’t cover the story at all, according to its search archive. PRNews covered a story about the female journalist Ducklo had dated and her career fallout, including a reported record of her own anti-Asian tweets from years back (again, can’t make this up!).
In light of past history, I must — in due fairness — nonetheless acknowledge PRovoke’s including in its coverage this atom bomb of an industry rebuke against Biden, even if the publication opted to bury the lead 14 paragraphs under and issue no social media call-out of this new-found industry revelation that Biden is a comms train wreck.
For the record, I think PRovoke carries important stories for the public relations industry to know about, and its conferences and industry data provide significant resources to help the industry be better. Colleagues can subscribe, here.
That said, if we’re going to be a stronger industry, then it makes sense to treat due criticism of world leaders, Fortune 500 brands, and PR industry power brokers alongside their comms teams with a no-playing-favorites evenhandedness.
No one has the power to do that, more than good journalists, including the PR trade press. Ignoring or vastly downplaying obvious stories of merit and consequence isn’t the answer.
Perhaps in the future, PR trade media press rebukes of comms and management execs for ethics-embattled American companies like Boeing and Wells Fargo might also someday include vastly overdue rebukes of PRSA, which has lost millions in dues-paying member dollars while paid staff and national board leadership have given verifiably false, misleading, and legally noncompliant financial reporting to its Assembly governance delegation for years now.
And let’s not forget PRSA’s penchant for retaliation. As I can personally attest from threats I’ve received, it’s full-on “I will destroy you!” — Ducklo-style — with a touch of Wells Fargo “mafia”:
Mary Beth West, APR, FPRCA, is the founder of The #PRethics Community on LinkedIn — free and open for anyone interested in PR ethics to join. She’s had a some 30-year career in PR management and leadership.