As promised, I trolled through the web to get a sense of how the latest Detroit mayoral scandal is playing out in social media circles, trying my best to remain unbiased. Yet as I crunched the numbers, I came across the following head scratcher from Dan Webb, attorney for Kwame Kilpatrick:
…I told the mayor we’re not going to try this case in the press. I’ve never done that during my career. I truly believe the system works. The system works best when jurors are allowed to come into a courtroom without being blitzed with publicity for months ahead of time. I assume and hope the prosecutor will feel the same way. Therefore I’m responding today and maybe for the next day or so to these charges and then you’re not gonna hear from me again because I don’t intend to get up and try this case in the press. I also asked the mayor—I basically instructed him I guess as his lawyer—that he should do the same thing. This case should be tried in a courtroom in front of a jury and should not be tried in the press and therefore I’ve asked him not to respond specifically on a day-to-day basis to questions from the press about the case because we’ll do our speaking in court.
Mr. Webb’s statement was undoubtedly followed by knee-slapping guffaws of roaring laughter from every newsroom, PR agency and blogging outpost in town. Simply examining the past five days of online conversation alone…
…we see that blogs tracked by Technorati show spikes in conversations about “detroit”, “kwame+kilpatrick” and “mayor+scandal” (metrics for “kym+worthy” and “christine+beatty” show similar results).
So, the blogs have spoken, but what about social networks? Myspace has three separate profiles for Detroit’s youngest mayor, though I sincerely doubt any of them are legit (one with an active blog has nearly 400 friends). Mayor Kilpatrick’s Facebook profile is real (we’ll see whether he accepts my friend invite) and boasts over 200 friends, 16 of which are new ones in the last day alone. And, while I mentioned in my previous post that the mayor’s personal presence in the blogosphere is sorely overdue, he at least gets the social networking scene to a small degree:
I’m not going to resign, I will have justice, & I’m ready to end this.—Mar. 24 @ 4:59pm
Whether Webb’s PR moratorium extends to Kilpatrick’s status updates on Facebook remains to be seen. Speaking of which, it’s been over 36 hours since news of the indictment broke, and the City of Detroit’s web site is still mum on the scandal.
The search engines are far from silent, however. Google Trends reveals the following popular keyword searches for March 24:
- katie joel
- christine beatty
- anarchic hand syndrome
- kym worthy
- jim morris
- jay barker
- detroit mayor
- kwame kilpatrick
- crayola factory
- xm sirius merger
Rounding out the top 100: wxyz (35); wdiv (36); kim worthy (42); channel 7 detroit (44); wxyz.com (45); wxyz detroit (55); fox 2 detroit (58); clickondetroit.com (72); carlita kilpatrick (82); wwj (83); click on detroit (86); wdiv detroit (90).
Are people sharing videos? Yep. Trading bookmarks? You bet. Podcasting? The radio star ain’t dead yet.
Editors are blogging. Reporters are blogging. Readers are blogging. Not across the entire Detroit media spectrum, mind you—some sites are woefully stuck in Web 1.0, and I won’t name names. But just one glance at the dialogue within one major daily from earlier this evening shows the man on the street is very much online:
Most Recommended:
- Around town, indictments evoke cheers and sadness (532)
- Detroit ministers pledge support for Kilpatrick (165)
- Kilpatrick, Beatty to be arraigned soon (133)
- Worthy: Resignation alone not enough (129)
- For good of city, resign (114)
Most Commented:
- American Axle said to move work to Mexico (526)
- Terrelle Pryor chooses Buckeyes over Michigan (491)
- Kilpatrick vows to stay put after City Council asks for resignation (479)
- Axle talks hit major block (474)
- 6% jobless claims rise is linked to Axle strike (405)
Latest Forum Posts:
- Reaction to Worthy’s decision
- Redesign feedback
- Kwame-Gate
The above reflects a small sample of the partial coverage from just one local outlet. Never mind the rest of the region, cable outlets and across the pond.
Oh, and a certain mugshot is, well…you get the idea.
With all due respect to Mr. Webb, who as chair of a prominent litigation practice must know a thing or two about trial law, this case was already tried in the media, along with countless online conversations held by some fairly influential folk here and abroad. Contrary to wishful thinking aloud, this is very much a press battle, and so much more than that.
Not all is lost for the Mayor and his esteemed counsel, however. At the very least, they could start blogging back.
It’s unbelievable that learned people would believe not talking to the mainstream media means the case won’t be tried in the court of public opinion. I’m always amused by those who think they can snub the press and somehow gain an advantage. If the pen is mightier than the sword, imagine what a printing press can do to you!
The only way for Detroit and Michigan to get past this is to do it honestly and truthfully, as John Bailey points out in his blog.
As one of my old coworkers used to say, “You never want to battle people who buy ink by the barrel.”
Given the mayor’s penchant for “newsworthy” rhetoric (see State of City address), it’s probably best he keeps quiet. However, his attorney’s stonewalling of the media is shortsighted.
People have opinions. And now they have open mediums to express them (blogs, podcasts, social networking, etc.). It will be an awfully one-sided conversation if the mayor’s position is silence.