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You are here: Home / Columns / Publisher Ng's blog / BLOG: McGinn’s public relations disaster 

BLOG: McGinn’s public relations disaster 

September 1, 2011 By Northwest Asian Weekly

https://i2.wp.com/nwasianweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/30_36/blog_mayor.jpg?resize=500%2C332

City of Seattle meets with local media at city hall — the mayor had just left. (Photo by Rebecca Ip/SCP)

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By Assunta Ng

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn is a smart guy with good intentions. Here is the problem, though. He often acts opposite to what he intends, destroying good will and the relationships he has built.

Take last Tuesday for instance. He invited the ethnic and community media to city hall so that he could build better relations to counter the negative press he has received. Sounds like a doable plan.

About 20 people showed up, a pretty good representation, eager to share with the mayor what was bothering them.

But the mayor had another agenda. He stayed for only 20 minutes, even though the roundtable was scheduled for two hours. A couple of journalists who paid for babysitters to watch their kids so they could attend, found out that the mayor had no time for them.

The reason for his departure was that he had to be home cooking his kids’ dinner. It was about 6:10 p.m. You would think that if it were that urgent, he’d rush out to attend to his fatherly duties.

Not really. He walked slowly to the far side of the room to get an apple from a plate (supposedly prepared for the media), taking a bite on his way out.

Afterward, a journalist said, “He should be fired.” ♦

 

UPDATE:

On Sept. 6, the City of Seattle’s Assistant Communications Director Aaron Pickus wrote: 

I’m writing you today to apologize for my lack of clarity regarding the agenda for our roundtable last month.

The Mayor’s Office designed an event for local, ethnic and emerging media to meet with the Mayor, each other, and the Mayor’s Office communications and outreach teams.  The goal was to get to know each other and learn how to better work together.

In planning and organizing the event we had only scheduled for the Mayor to be at the roundtable for the first 30 minutes to talk about our major initiatives and engage in a Q&A. After that it was supposed to be more logistical, about how to work with the Mayor’s Office Communication and Outreach teams and how we can work better with all of you. We didn’t plan for the Mayor to attend the latter portions. Instead, the last hour of the roundtable was to be run by communication and outreach team members, led by Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith and Communications Director Beth Hester. 

 

UPDATE 2:

Seattle Times Reporter Lynn Thompson wrote her own blog post about this.

Here are Rainier Valley Post’s editor and publisher Amber Campbell’s thoughts.

Here is Publicola’s blurb about it, too.

 

Publisher Assunta Ng can be reached at assunta@nwasianweekly.com.

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Filed Under: Publisher Ng's blog Tagged With: Amber Campbell, Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith, Publisher Assunta Ng, Rainier Valley Post, Seattle Times Reporter Lynn Thompson, UPDATE, blog, communication

Comments

  1. Thia says

    September 6, 2011 at 4:25 pm

    Immigrant communities sood with him when he needed them most, after- he get elected, he acts as if he did not know them. McGinn you hurted us more than you can imagine. But, never again..

  2. Jeff says

    September 5, 2011 at 9:44 pm

    Couldn’t agree more with you, Van.

    McGinn has been the worst mayor ever – and I have lived here for over 50 years. A complete and utter disaster.

  3. Josh says

    September 1, 2011 at 2:54 pm

    Please don’t let this guy get elected again. He should have never become mayor. Please Seattle, recognize you made a mistake and do not let it happen with this man again.

  4. Van says

    September 1, 2011 at 2:47 pm

    The anonymous journalist is right, he should be fired. Too bad the legal threshold for recall is too high. McGinn is an arrogant, myopic ideologue who uses the progressive good intentions of people to advance his narrow agenda. From killing good jobs to pushing regressive taxes targeting people who use their cars he’s disaster for the common people. I can’t wait for 2013.

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