For those of you who may have missed it, last week Megyn Kelly, who is essentially Bill O'Reilly in training, claimed that Santa Claus is white. Well, sure, the representations that the majority of Americans see on a daily basis during the holiday season depict him that way. But that wasn't what she was trying to convey. She said that Santa Claus is white, only white and can pretty much only ever be white.
Oh, boy. Okay. Where to begin? In an argument that nobody tried to start with her - or anyone who claims to defend against the crusade against Christmas (looking at you Bill O'Reilly) - she felt the need to make some fairly questionable comments on many, many levels.
Looking aside the fact that Santa Claus is, well, not a real person (sorry kids!) and therefore can be whatever race, gender, sexual orientation you want him to be, why is this even an issue? Why are we trying to pick fights over whether or not guy who dresses in an all red suit, uses magic reindeer to fly his sleigh to deliver presents to every child in the world and somehow manage to fit down a chimney is white, black, hispanic, asian? He's probably not even a real human being if he can manage to do all of those things!
Naturally, the national media jumped on this in a heartbeat and derided her for her comments. I mean, they really let her have it. And why not? Public figures such as herself should be mocked for saying things like "Santa Claus is white, get over it" (note: not a actually a direct quote, I'm summarizing here).
So what does Megyn do after all the criticism? She tries to turn it right back around and claim that it was all satire.
Goddamnit, people, you cannot simply play the "satire" card when you screw up and are looking for an easy way to deflect judgement. That's not how it works. The way individuals throw around the word satire is reminiscent of Alanis Morissette's use of irony - it just doesn't make sense.
Certainly, the strategy makes sense only from the perspective that it gives her an opportunity to turn the situation around on her attackers and attempt to make her the sympathetic figure. But if anyone ACTUALLY believes that this is satire, you're probably going to tell me the name of the clown college you got your degree from so I can let others know to avoid it.
So here is a note to all those public figures that make inappropriate and baiting statements: just because you have a loyal band of followers who will back you up doesn't mean that the rest of the public can't see right through your bullshit.
Very rarely in times of crisis comms is it best to try and turn it around on your attackers. Deflecting the blame to another party is dangerous at best; but spinning it 180 degrees back to those who rejected the initial comments adds further fuel to the fire. And typically people aren't going to just go along with it. When you look to blame another party, you better have a strong platform to stand on or your character and reputation will continue to serve as a punching bag for those whom you upset.
All I know is that I would hate to be part of Fox's PR department if it means dealing with fire drills like this every week.
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