Even before he is formally appointed and sworn into office as spokesperson, standing at a podium delivering statements and announcing plans for a new car and new appointments, is it alright for an announced designate to express his own unfiltered opinions about hollow objects to be thrown at critics once in office? Maybe, he just can’t wait to sing, “My Way” in his new karaoke bar.
Perhaps, it’s old-fashioned, some may say traditional, to define the role of a spokesman as an interpreter of what his client has embarked on as policy and to provide context on off-the-cuff remarks pertaining to critics having dubious parentage or partaking of the attributes of soil compost. Sir, is he breaking off relations with them or just being playful?
Sure, the predecessor recently rendered redundant (Was he told beforehand of such a possible alliteration?) has manfully tried to interpret (or misinterpret) particularly strong language as mere rhetorical excess, maybe just a colorful way of expressing opinions which those familiar with his style of verbal sneezing merely shrug off. (Let’s talk to him again in the morning.)
The previous spokesman’s style is soothing and filled with philosophical musings on the meaning of phrases like “father of the nation,” in Latin, pater patriae, that time expounding on tough love that fathers sometimes express with erring children. Did this quasi-apologetic approach, as if explaining and forgiving the tantrums of a brat, somehow grate on the client? Was it coming across as forgiveness being sought for a non-penitent?
Does the style pendulum now swing in the other direction? From mild-mannered pastor to a fire-breathing dragon? If what the client ordered is a scorching representative ready to hit the ground running, well… have no fear: Mr. Nice Guy has left the scene.
Anyway, here are some attributes a regular spokesperson must exhibit.
As an interpreter, the thoughts he expresses in briefings to media and through them the public should not be his own opinions but those of his boss. This role is no different from a translator. What Tolstoy originally wrote in Russian should be preserved and in context when rendered in modern English. The translated novel must preserve the author’s words in another language.
The spokesman may have his own views on certain issues, like the proper approach in dealing with a suspect, but he does not have the luxury of promoting his own world view. He needs to reflect the view of his boss. He cannot speak for himself.
Sometimes, silence and discretion are called for. A spokesman cannot give his own reactions without knowing the views of the one he’s speaking for. He must also understand when a matter is not intended for public consumption like relationships with the staff. (Yes, they’re soul mates.)
Can a spokesman steal the limelight from his principal and call his own press conferences without an agenda from his client? Let’s say he just wants to chill with the media and see his name in the news “above the fold”. Already, he is looking for a younger version of himself, a “mini-me” like in the spy spoof movie, a bit leaner perhaps and more attractive. Does a spokesman need his own spokesman? Does an interpreter need to be reinterpreted?
The primary reason a leader needs a spokesman at all is because he is too busy running a big organization and he needs someone to tell the public what he is doing, or trying to do. He cannot stop and explain how a siege is progressing or what happened to the infra blitz. Now and then the leader himself makes policy speeches, and side comments. The latter sometimes need further interpretation to reveal the deeper meanings behind them.
Then again, maybe the predecessor stuck too closely to this classic job description of spokesman, and this got him in trouble. Still, true to this style, even in his unexplained disappearance from the scene and summary replacement, the predecessor keeps his counsel. After all, he no longer has to explain the boss’s action.
The head of the predecessor’s unit, himself an erstwhile spokesman, when asked what happened to his deputy, simply shrugs his shoulders and speculates on his possible future career. As for the replaced interpreter himself, his silence needs no interpretation.
A. R. Samson is chair and CEO of Touch DDB.
