Merrie Spaeth’s Bimbo Newsletter
A few months ago, I did a little song and dance at the Missouri Chamber of Commerce’s Legislative Action Seminar here in St. Louis. Before the event, the Chamber’s Michael Grote suggested I stick around after my talk to hear the lunch speaker.
Well dadgummit, when Mike Grote makes a suggestion I take heed, and boy am I glad I did — Merrie Spaeth was the guest speaker, and she was phenomenal.
Merrie puts together what she calls the “Bimbo Awards”, named in honor of Jessica Hahn’s infamous “I am not a bimbo” quote. Every month, Merrie documents how public figures — many of them elected officials — choose words which put themselves, or their organizations, in a negative light.
Merrie’s monthly newsletter is the perfect (free) gift for anyone whose responsibilities include interacting with the media.
If you browse the newsletter archives, you’ll notice a recurrent theme: The biggest “bimbos” have fallen into the trap of denying the reporter’s negative words and themes instead of affirming their own positive ones. Reporters know what kinds of things they want — or, at the very least, expect — you to say before they even pick up the phone. It’s your choice whether or not their particular angle will frame the dominant narrative.
Even top-tier candidates fall into the trap. Just the other day, Barack Obama told the AP: “The fact that I’m raising obscene amounts of money for this presidential race doesn’t make me a hypocrite.” Which two words of that sentence will you be most likely to remember? Think he’d like to get that one back?
This month’s Bimbo Newsletter is here. Spoiler alert: The winning quote is, “I don’t have sex with my monkey.” Nice.
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