Communication Tips, Free of Charge

Secretary Kawamura:

You often say that your agency has done a poor job communicating with the public about the LBAM eradication program. Here are two tips from a communications professional, free of charge:

1. Listen to the people who disagree with you, especially when they have MD and PhD after their names, although others have valuable insights and ideas, too. You might actually learn something that will benefit everyone.

For example, has anyone on your staff gone to New Zealand to corroborate Harder’s and Rosendale’s findings, speaking to the same experts they spoke to, or did you simply dismiss their report out of hand, perhaps so you would not jeopardize $75 million a year from USDA, which I’m sure is helpful during times of budget cuts?

2. Tell the truth. You seem to think you are clever enough to deceive millions of people, and this has steadily eroded the public’s trust in you, the CDFA, and the Agriculture industry as a whole. Most people know spin and a lack of transparency from a mile away.

Taken together, your unwillingness to deeply consider different viewpoints and your misleading statements and half-truths, are the only two things you need to correct in order to have better communications. You don’t need to hire a PR agency for $500,000. You don’t need more staff. You don’t need a new communication strategy. You just need to have enough respect for people to listen and tell the truth. It’s really pretty simple – or apparently not.

If you’d like, you can start right now by admitting that the ridiculous spin you put on yesterday’s announcement – the “scientific breakthrough” – was not the true reason for changing your strategy. Congressman Sam Farr said as much in his press release, which I’ve attached.

Then, if you are man enough to take a second step, you can admit that the “no link” spin you continue to put on the hundreds of illnesses people suffered isn’t true either, and that it doesn’t even accurately reflect the conclusions of OEHHA’s report, which said the state couldn’t be certain.

Then, if you really care about the person you become, you can admit that there is strong reason to believe, with the new studies related to the microparticles in the Checkmate sprays, that the CDFA’s actions likely caused the hundreds if not thousands of illnesses, and apologize to the people you hurt, including the parents of the one-year-old boy you almost killed, and the nine-year-old Santa Cruz girl who barely survived (have you even read their parents’ reports?).

You will never have the public’s trust, and therefore never have effective communications, until you follow these simple guidelines.

Of course, you will likely ignore this message, too, or put an inaccurate spin on it.

Mike Lynberg

Printed with Mike’s permission

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