Optics and the Photo Op

Well, maybe not photo op, but certainly when you talk to the press, it's amazing how even the most media savvy will forget that reporters will catch the slightest details, and often these won't even be related to what you actually say.

Take the CAWs Buzz, for instance (at which point half of the room says, "PLEASE!" Ahem.). A gem in the Toronto Star caught my eye. The headline? "U.S.-style cuts a non-starter, Hargrove says." Good line, for Buzz, although I'm not sure the U.S. has a lock on cutting, and I certainly don't agree with his optimism that the Big 3 aren't going to able to (or even willing to, if I read Hargrove's quote right) do "deep concession bargaining" in Canada.

But the great thing was the key quote's framing within the article. Here it is:

"'There isn't any need to be bargaining backwards here,' Hargrove said at a union golf tournament." (Emphasis, natch, is mine.)

Lemme get this straight. Over a hundred thousand Canadian manufacturing workers have lost their jobs in the CAW-monikered manufacturing crisis, directly and indirectly affecting huge swaths of his membership. And where does he get interviewed on the impact of all this on Big 3 bargaining?

Don't get me wrong. Just 'cause I'm not a fan of golf doesn't mean anybody can't or shouldn't do it, union or no. But really: the genteel sport of rich, white (largely) WASPs (mostly) everywhere? And YOU'RE fighting for the working man? At a time when a lot of the working men and women paying your salary are actually struggling?

Somebody needs a new handler.