In this conversational segment, Molly McPherson and co‑host Greg discuss the public optics of Pima County Sheriff Nano attending a college basketball game while leading the high‑profile Nancy (Savannah) Guthrie investigation. They critique the appearance as damaging to institutional trust, explore how journalists might respond, and reference a recent press conference that revealed leadership cracks. Molly mentions her own keynote on institutional trust and promotes a recent podcast episode featuring former ABC News producer Clayton Sindel that analyzes the press conference. The dialogue also touches on the news cycle, noting how the story’s longevity may be affected by competing events like the Super Bowl and the Olympics, and they reference looming deadlines for coverage. Overall, the conversation underscores concerns that such public appearances erode public confidence in the investigation and highlights media strategies for covering the evolving story.
Chapters
Pima County Sheriff Nano shows up at a basketball game. Good optics, bad optics. Journalist. Greg, what say you?
Not a good optic.
Not a good optic. You're a journalist. If this was in your market and you saw the lead investigator at a college basketball game, what would it make you want to do as a journalist?
Find out why he went. I mean, he's got people under him working, but it's a bad look, right? Yes.
So I made you look it up on Fox and there were definitely some people who said, let the guy have a life. He has every right.
Maybe he needs to relax. He's under such intense pressure. But relax in your backyard.
Relax. Exactly. Relax differently. The optics on that are horrible. Now, I happen to be in Arizona for a keynote and I'm delivering a keynote about trust, institutional trust, and what happens when you lose it. So it doesn't mean that he can't still be a top notch investigator and still go to basketball games. However, you start to lose the public's trust. Can you imagine being Savannah Guthrie if you're sitting there with the family, the world is focused on the super bowl, the Olympics, where she's supposed to be. Then you see the lead investigator of your mom's case.
Bruce told us he's doing everything in.
His power that he's doing. And added to that, they have nothing. They have nothing. So the optics become the crisis. Right. So the math on this is the guy can go to a game, but you're gonna lose the trust. Right?
I agree.
Yeah. And this week I just uploaded two podcasts, video and audio about why the press conferen really kind of revealed what time, what type of leadership is happening around this investigation. I invited a former ABC News correspondent producer Clayton Sindel. We talked about that press conference and some of the little cracks in there. After our conversation. Am I surprised that this is a sheriff who would show up at a basketball game where so many people can see him? Not in the least. So you can check that out on the PR breakdown and then, oh, quickly. What's today? 5:00pm the deadline. Right.
The latest deadline, do we think?
And well, it will probably pass.
It's going to come and go.
Come and. Well said. It will probably come and go. And then the story will keep going on until it fades. Right, News guy, how long is this going to be a story if they don't have any answers?
It'll be a while longer because the Olympics still have a focus on NBC.
