Ep 216 Media Crisis Over the $10,000 Barber in France August 3, 2016

The president of France caught paying his hairstylist €10,000amonth from tax money.

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Folks, let me say right up front, I am not an expert on French politics, French media culture. I have conducted media trainings in Paris and I've been to Paris and France many times, but I'm by no means an expert. But this story just jumped out to me as a classic case of a real crisis for a politician and in need of some careful choreography if the politician is to escape political death. Now, it's Francois Holland. He's the President of France, and it turns out he has been paying a hairstylist €10,000, a little more than $10,000 US dollars a month to keep his hair groomed. Now, if he was paying his sommelier $10,000 a month to keep him stocked with fine wines, I suspect the people of France wouldn't have a problem with that. Wine is very much part of their culture. They respect wine. They have a huge amount of respect for and love for wine. Something like that might destroy a politician's career in the United States or other countries. I don't think spending that much on wine in a place like France would hurt. But on his hair, now, the interest. So it's a shockingly high number. But what I didn't know, which is a little bit shocking, is that's how much money the typical minister is paid for full time employment in the French government. And that's less, substantially less than what a US Minister is paid for an equivalent position in the Cabinet, for example. So the story of tax. And by the way, he's a socialist. So ostensibly someone who is there to care for the little guy, the average man, the average woman. They're raising their economic status to spend that much on an incredible perk. Now here's the other thing, that the guy's hair isn't much better than mine. Now, a lot of you are listening on itunes. You have no idea what I look like. You don't care. Those of you watching on YouTube or Facebook video, as you can see, not a lot to be impressed with on top of my head, but I certainly don't spend $10,000 a month on my hair. I essentially spend zero. But you didn't come here to listen to my hair care tips. The scandal, though, the issue is not just spending $10,000 a month, but billing it to taxpayers. Famously, Bill Clinton got into a lot of trouble when he was president because he allegedly had the celebrity hairstylist Kristoff give him a haircut that cost $300. Well, $300 sounds like a tip for the president of France's hairstyle. $300 sounds like almost an insult. He wouldn't bend down on the ground to pick it up. So standards can change, times can change, and what is considered a scandal in any one culture can change. But I have a hard time imagining how this president is going to get over this, because people can relate to that. Everybody, with few exceptions, has to cut their hair. Certainly at some point in their life, they had to cut their hair. And one of the big rules with politics, media communication, is that smaller numbers, smaller things that people can visualize are much more powerful than large things. If, for example, the president of France or any country had been caught giving a billion dollars of a subsidy to an oil company or an oil industry that's such a large number, chances are that wouldn't hurt. Politically. People can't visualize billions of dollars. It's abstract, but people can visualize. Well, when I go to my hairdresser or my barber, I have to pull my wallet out or pull my purse out, and I have to take out X number of dollars or euros. They can visualize. And that's typically what causes a lot more rage in people and makes them upset. So how does he get out of this jam if it does in fact, escalate? Now, as I record this podcast and this TV show, the scandal erupted maybe a week ago. I'm recording this in late July of 2016. So it's always risky making predictions when you might not be hearing this until 2018, and the scandal's either long forgotten or he was run out of office. I can't tell you what will happen either way, but what I can suggest are some basic tips. If the crisis does escalate, I think the president needs to apologize, have a press conference, formally apologize, reimburse the taxpayers out of his own pocket, publicly state that he made a lapse of judgment, and tell people he's going to redouble his efforts to scrutinize every expenditure of public funds, and that he asks that he realizes he's wrong and asks people to forgive him. And then there's the thing politicians especially don't like to do. Take every single question from the reporters, the most hostile media outlet, the nastiest media outlets, the ones from the opposing political parties, hold a press conference and answer every single question, even if it takes 10 hours. That is my advice for what the president of France should do to essentially lance this boil to make this crisis diffuse. Otherwise there's a chance the pressure builds and builds and builds, gets worse and worse and can create long term political disaster for them. Sometimes you have to nip this in the bud. One of the best examples of this from an American politician. Give you in a moment.

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A couple of decades ago, Senator John McCain of Arizona was caught in a scandal known as the Keating Five, where members of Congress, John McCain being one of them, met with Charles Keating, gave him all sorts of special breaks and help influence with his savings and loan. And the bottom line is it cost taxpayers billions of dollars and it was a clear cut case of essentially corruption. John McCain weathered the storm. You rarely hear people talk about it. When he ran for president in 2008, nobody even talked about it because he did such a great job of getting it all out in the open. Back when the issue happened, he said he was sorry. He said he was wrong. He did essentially an apology tour. He took every single question a reporter had on the topic again and again and again. Some reporters said, I'm tired of talking about it. It got to the point where it seemed as though McCain was chasing reporters out to the parking to keep talking about this issue. He essentially talked it out. If you talk something out, especially if you've apologized, you've said you've done something wrong, you've made amends. What you do is you rob people of the opportunity for new news hooks to keep talking about it. They seem classless, they seem mean spirited. They continue, continue to talk about it. So John McCain, I think even today, decades later, is sort of a prime example of the right way to handle a crisis in the media. If you are a politician, what do you think? And certainly if we don't have a huge audience in France. But any of you who are listening in France, I'd love to hear your opinion on this, please send a tweet J. Walker on Twitter. You can always send me an email. Tjediatrainingworldwide.com Are you bothered by this? Is this a media crisis or is this just a bunch of nonsense? I just have a very difficult time fathoming how voters, especially the supporters of a socialist president, wouldn't be wildly offended and angry to the point of blood coming out of their eyes, hearing that their tax dollars had been spent on a hairstylist for the president. Especially when this is a very, very ordinary middle aged man without a lot of hair, certainly not beautiful, gorgeous locks. Although I'm not sure that would make a difference. I don't think a woman could survive a political crisis like this in office putting a tab like that to the taxpayers. But we'll see New Female Head of Government Prime Minister in England as I record in Great Britain, as I record this, maybe one in the United States soon as well. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. As always, may all of your presentations in life be a huge success.

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