Controlling the message

"The Bush administration has perfected the art of tightly controlling information. And it has paid no price for its disciplined, on-message, my-way-or-the-highway approach. The press might want to get used to it--this may be the template for future presidencies," Lori Robertson wrote in the March/April 2005 American Journalism Review.

"This White House has gone beyond mastering damage control to making pre-emptive strikes that distort unfavorable information or keep it hidden from public view."—Editorial, Roanoke Times, August 9, 2003.

The Technique

Controlling the message can be accomplished through various means, including setting the agenda: "telling the truth and answering questions before they were asked, prepared statements and designated subject matter experts as spokespersons, and getting key messages out early to gain the media's trust."

The "public relations professional is in charge of controlling the message," according to Ingrid Cummings of Rubicon Communications. "It is critical to develop a set of key message points: simple declarations of fact relevant to the fact pattern. Once they have developed key message points, professionals practice them and keep delivering them succinctly and repeatedly in response to media inquiries."

1). Posting: You will not post any material that is knowingly false, misleading, or inaccurate.

Dunn served as a junior aide in the Carter administration before joining Sen. John Glenn's failed presidential bid in 1984 and also working for Bill Bradley, then a New Jersey senator. She took a leave of absence from her firm to help Bradley in his 2000 primary challenge against Al Gore, for whom Squier Knapp Dunn also worked. And then with her party out of power in the Bush years, Senate Democratic leaders Tom Daschle and Evan Bayh called on her expertise.

Dunn specializes in rescue missions. Gina Glantz, who managed Bradley's presidential campaign and is now a visiting fellow at Harvard's Institute of Politics, said she remembered that when the former basketball star and candidate suffered an irregular heartbeat that sent him to the hospital, Dunn took control of the situation. She developed the damage-control message and armed senior campaign staffers with a list of influential reporters to call.