Donald Rumsfeld, Media Superstar


September 6, 2002


BOB GARFIELD: We're back with On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And I'm Brooke Gladstone. In this media-saturated age, effective leaders don't use media to convey their power -- their use of media is power. Norman Schwarzkopf's bombs were not nearly as precision-guided as his disarming appearances in the Gulf War press room, and standing on the shoulders of that military giant comes Donald Rumsfeld. OTM's producer at large Mike Pesca has more.

MIKE PESCA: Remember Donald Rumsfeld before 9/11? He was portrayed as some sort of phantom of the Pentagon -- lurking the halls since the last days of the Ford administration. In August 2001 the on-line magazine Slate predicted his ouster and initiated a Rumsfeld Death Watch based on rumors that his reforms were going nowhere. The Chicago Tribune reported that Rumsfeld's to do memos were derided as "snowflakes" behind his back, and UPI actually described hi with the phrase "publicity-shy." But the minute he opened his mouth he sounded as polished as a longtime syndicated talk show host.

DONALD RUMSFELD: You know, it's perfectly possible for anyone to stand up and say "Henny Penny, the sky is falling. Isn't this terrible what's happening?" And have someone else say "Gee! I view with alarm the possibility that the sky is falling!" And then it gets repeated! And then [LAUGHTER] it's some breathless commentator repeats it again! And then it goes on for 3 days! Now-- does that make it so? No!

MIKE PESCA: Rumsfeld's performance immediately following 9/11 and in daily press conferences for the first few months afterwards won him the respect of many who never before thought that a Pentagon briefing could be a rollicking good time. Fans were born overnight. Fans like Kim Fustier.

KIM FUSTIER: He tells the truth. That's the most important thing. He's blunt; he's straightforward; and he's also very funny.

MIKE PESCA: Fustier is not your stereotypical defense wonk. She just turned 20 on Monday, and most surprising to the visitors of the internet site she erected to honor Rumsfeld, she's French.

KIM FUSTIER: Actually I've never even seen a single press briefing by a French cabinet member on French television. We've never had a, like a celebrity politician, like a star, a TV star -we, we've never had that.

MIKE PESCA: Much like the French Revolution itself, Fustier's fervor had its roots in America where millions of anxious citizens in the wake of the terrorist attacks were drawn to the well spoken secretary with the Jack Palance-ian complexion; the Eastwood-esque squint, and to complete the cowboy trifecta, the swagger of a John Wayne.

DONALD RUMSFELD: You will receive only honest, direct answers from me, and they'll either be that I know and I'll answer you or I don't know or I know and I won't answer you.

REPORTER: Do you [...?...]? [BOTH SPEAK AT ONCE]

DONALD RUMSFELD: And, and that'll be it.

MIKE PESCA: The public's infatuation with Rumsfeld even extended to the press corps. Take Mike Lynaugh who relishes the briefings as a chance to capture Rumsfeld's reactions through his telephoto lens.

MIKE LYNAUGH: I'll zoom in on his face, and I'll watch real closely to see if he does react -- to see if he gives a little, you know, what are you talking about thing or if the eyebrow-- might come up a little bit -- but it's fun looking for little-- subtleties like that.

MIKE PESCA: Lynaugh's vocation is photography, but his avocation is Rumsfeld. He's the moderator of the Yahoo Rumsfeld Chat Group which had over a thousand messages last month -- many of them like this one.

MAN: "What some people see as wit, others see as sarcasm. Some see a man who's a natural and inspiring leader. Others see an autocratic control freak. Those things are traits of mere mortals -- like Bush, Cheney, Powell and Condie Rice. The last three people are brilliant, but only Rummy is a genius. I don't think it's an understatement to say when we aren't sure about a value or a decision in life -- we can't go wrong by asking ourselves what would Donald Rumsfeld do?"

MIKE PESCA: What Rumsfeld does in a press conference is disarm would be interrogators with a series of pre-emptive strikes. For instance, he'll dismiss a question about the condition of the detainees at Guantanamo by portraying the very question as part of a "Blame America" sentiment.

DONALD RUMSFELD: A thread I find from time to time, the implication is that America is what's wrong with the world, and in fact, it's not.

MIKE PESCA: He handled a question about the Northern Alliance's treatment of prisoners the same way.

DONALD RUMSFELD: There, there's no question but that if someone looked down from Mars on the United States for the last 3 days, they would conclude that America is what's wrong with the world. America is not what's wrong with the world.

MIKE PESCA: Another of Rumsfeld's tools is his avoidance of phrases like "collateral damage." Even though he often uses bluntness of tone as a substitute for clarity, his distaste for euphemism when talking about war is appreciated by most of the press.

DONALD RUMSFELD: When there's a war and people are shooting and, and, and-- things - things happen and there's no question that there are people getting killed! I don't doubt that for a minute!

MIKE PESCA: He leavens the bombast with old-fashioned words which have been dubbed "Rummy-Speak."

DONALD RUMSFELD: Darn good. You bet! Gee!

MIKE PESCA: But the rhetorical device that connects most with the public is his use of humor. [LAUGHTER]

DONALD RUMSFELD: Did I use the word "frenzy?" [GROUP REPLIES "YES."]

MAN: Applied it to the president as well!

MAN: Caught on tape.

MAN: [...?...] to the president repeated [...?...]. [LAUGHTER]

DONALD RUMSFELD: Now let me have an agonizing re-appraisal here for a m-- [LAUGHTER]

MIKE PESCA: In fact, the joking has gotten to the point where NPR's Pentagon correspondent Tom Gjelten and his colleagues have resorted to asymmetrical warfare in order to combat the Defense Department's primary evasion tactic.

TOM GJELTEN: I mean we've actually said, you know, "Don't laugh at his jokes! Don't laugh at his jokes!" Because, you know, it's just going to give him an excuse not to answer the questions.

MIKE PESCA: CBS's Dave Martin who's covered the Pentagon for 20 years has found another strategy.

DAVE MARTIN: Something I started doing when Bill Cohen was secretary of defense; I just -- I don't go to the briefings. I just sort of decided I was tired of being used as a prop for sound bites, and-- it hasn't hurt me that I can tell.

MIKE PESCA: The reason it hasn't hurt, and Martin says that none of the big stories he's reported this year have relied on a press briefing, is that Rumsfeld's quotes sound great, but they don't always explain what's going on in the war. Tom Gjelten.

TOM GJELTEN: When I was becoming a radio reporter, you know, one of the rules that I was always taught is to, you know, go first for the good tape, because-- in the business of broadcast you always want to catch people's attention. But then you have to kind of take a second listen, and you realize that he's not saying anything or he's not answering the question or he's not providing the information that he really is being asked to provide, and so you have to think well, wait a minute -- should I use that or not?

MIKE PESCA: The key to Rumsfeld's success is that his briefings aren't significantly more informative; they're just more entertaining. The very same criticism has been lodged against the media. And with the majority of Americans dependent on TV news, 24 hour cable channels desperate for programming and ratings-driven newscasts dependent on strong sound bites, the Rumsfeld briefing must rank right up there among the most successful operations the Pentagon has mounted to date. For On the Media, I'm Mike Pesca.

DONALD RUMSFELD: Who's making these reports?

WOMAN: From the ground -- witnesses from the ground. [BOTH SPEAK AT ONCE]

DONALD RUMSFELD: Who? Who?

WOMAN: To the reporters-- [SEVERAL SPEAK AT ONCE]

MAN: UN -- UN officials [...?...].

DONALD RUMSFELD: UN officials.

WOMAN: Are reporting that they are [...?...]. [BOTH SPEAK AT ONCE]

DONALD RUMSFELD: I don't think there are any UN officials in there. [MUSIC UP AND UNDER] I think there may be tricky [...?...]. [MUSIC]