Press Corps Can’t Assume Role as Governor’s Flacks

California’s last governor thought it was the Legislature’s job to implement his vision. Now we have a governor who believes it’s the news media’s role to help sell his agenda.

This is a first: a governor who perceives Capitol reporters as his personal publicists.

It makes me -- and, I suspect, most reporters -- squirm when an elected official thanks “the press” for helping make his career and asks for continued favors. Even if it is gracious and well meaning.

We typically see ourselves as independent conveyors of public information, as watchdogs of government and politics. A politician may well be helped -- or hurt -- by what we write, but that’s not why we write it. We write to inform -- also perhaps to pontificate or provoke, if we’re a columnist or a commentator, but not just to promote a pol.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday spoke to the Sacramento Press Club -- a mix of Capitol reporters, retired journalists, PR consultants and state information officers -- and had some of us squirming.

He was a smash hit -- charming, funny, articulate and knowledgeable. It has been a long time -- not since Ronald Reagan and Jerry Brown -- since any governor has been as captivating. And none has been as entertaining.

But Schwarzenegger also seemed to be naive about the news media’s role in democracy. Maybe it’s because he didn’t grow up in America. More likely, it’s because he has spent most of his adult life being covered by the Hollywood trade media, a different breed. And in his brief political career, he has been fawned over by talk radio and entertainment TV.

It sounds like he’s trying to mix us all together. But we won’t blend.

“I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the press,” he began Tuesday, entertaining the luncheon crowd while making a point.

“When I first came over here, who the hell knew who Arnold ‘Schwarzenschnitzel’ was, right?.... But because of the press helping me with publicizing the sport of bodybuilding ... because of the great publicity that I got ... [it] really helped me get into the movie business....

“It was not the acting, obviously.”

The audience roared.

“You see how everyone laughs when I say something funny, huh? You like that? ....I told everyone if they don’t laugh, I’m going to have them, as punishment, see my movie ‘Hercules in New York’ 13 times....

“When I built my movie career, it was the press that really helped me. That doesn’t mean I always got great reviews.... I got horrible reviews many times.... That’s OK, because people should express their opinion. If they don’t like those kinds of movies with heads falling, flying through the air and the blood squirting all over, that’s not everyone’s taste.

“But I mean ... I got a lot of publicity, and that helped me really to become the highest paid entertainer in the world.... It was really the press that has helped me to get to the place where I am today.”

The governor could have stopped there and kept the squirming to a minimum. But he continued, and some of us began shifting uncomfortably:

“This again was also true through the campaign. If it was for Proposition 49 [after-school programs] or if it was for the gubernatorial race, it was again you that helped me so much.... So I want to thank all of you for this great job.”

He must have forgotten about some of those campaign stories.

“And here’s a big applause to all of you.”

Schwarzenegger and the PR folks applauded while reporters dabbed at their dessert, those who hadn’t lost their appetites.

Torturing the topic, the governor concluded his appearance with this farewell: “It was fun for me. And let’s all work together. And please, continue selling my projects and selling my philosophy and various different things we’re trying to get out there.”

In one way, it’s refreshing. This is one politician who isn’t paranoid about the press, who doesn’t think reporters stay up late concocting trick questions. A Republican who doesn’t believe we’re members of some secret-cell left-wing conspiracy. He’s upbeat.

“Most politicians are convinced the press is out to get them,” says consultant Dan Schnur, a former spokesman for several Republican pols.

“I’ve always wanted to take one of my candidates to an opponent’s press conference so he could see firsthand the other side.”

George Gorton, a longtime Schwarzenegger strategist, says the governor “doesn’t see the press as having an adversarial relationship. He sees people of goodwill, good intentions, working toward a common goal. Like he sees Republicans and Democrats. Call that naive. Or call it Arnold Schwarzenegger having a bigger vision than we do.”

Margita Thompson, the governor’s press secretary, says: “He’s not Pollyannaish about the news media. But he has an optimistic nature. The man is used to winning everyone over. Why would he look at the news media any differently?...

“The governor has a lot of people off balance. The news media is off balance too.”

Not really. We understand our role, even if the governor doesn’t. It wasn’t the Legislature’s job to implement Gray Davis’ vision, and it isn’t the press corps’ to sell Arnold Schwarzenegger’s.

We will provide him a forum and he can try to sell it himself. The odds are he will.