The Selling of the President - Joe McGinniss
Rating: 8/10
Overview:
This book has been published in 1968 and the media ecosystem has definitely evolved, it is interesting to notice how it has evolved. Politicians used to act and behave differently in TV because it felt like they were being invited in our homes. Now, politics invades our hoses through different many different screens and using several different tones.
Highlights:
Page 24:
"The success of any TV performer depends on his achieving a low-pressure style of presentation," McLuhan has written. The harder a man tries, the better he must hide it. Television demands gentle wit, irony, understatement: the qualities of Eugene McCarthy. The TV politician cannot make a speech; he must engage in intimate conversation. He must never press. He should suggest, not state; request, not demand. Nonchalance is the key word. Carefully studied nonchalance.
Page 24:
The performer must talk to one person at a time. He is brought into the living room. He is a guest. It is improper for him to shout.
Page 28:
A tip for television: instead of those wooden performances beloved by políticians, instead of a glamorboy technique, instead of safety, be bold. Why not have live press conferences as your campaign on television? People will see you daring all, asking and answering questions from reporters, and not simply answering phony "questions" made up by your staff.
This would be dynamic; It would be daring.
Instead of the medium using you, you would be using the medium. Go on "live" and risk all.
It is the only way to convince people of the truth: that you are beyond rhetoric, that you can face reality, unlike your opponents, who will rely on public relations.
Page 35:
Eighty percent of George Bush's campaign budget went to advertising. Fifty-nine percent of this went to television. Newspapers got 3 percent.