The The so-called “news conference” by Mary Easley’s attorney to announce she would not leave her NC State job ignored rules of political communication.

The attorney, Marvin Schiller, spoke of Mary Easley in the third person as she stood silently by his side with a frozen smile.

Rule one: If you have to use an attorney, get one who looks credible and acts respectable.

Rule two: If you want to minimize the perception you got your job through political pull, don’t present documents that reinforce your political contacts.

The spectacle of a public official holding a news conference via a mouthpiece only adds fuel to the controversy surrounding her $170,000 job at the university.

Both NC State President James Oblinger and University of North Carolina President Erskine Bowles have called on Easley to step down. That would save the university from having to pay off Easley’s five-year contract. But it is obvious, given the chaos the drama is causing at NC State, that it is not a question of whether she will step down, but when and how.

Mary Easley’s husband, former Gov. Mike Easley, is embroiled in a controversy over unreported travel and gifts while he served as governor. Mary herself is embroiled in a controversy over how she got her job and a huge raise last summer. Both NC State’s provost and chair of the Board of Trustees have resigned amid the controversy.

Can’t this woman speak for herself? Apparently not, given the sad performance at Thursday’s news conference. It was lawyer talk. Schiller deflected questions about details of how she got the job and raise by falling back on the fact she has a contract that should be honored. While it might have been an adequate legal presentation, it failed miserably as a media relations/public relations/political communication performance.

Of course, there is the possibility the “news” conference was really a sham and that she is sending a message that she wants to negotiate a way out of the contract–to her financial benefit, of course.

Either way, her public image and standing at the university likely will continue to deteriorate at an even faster pace as a result of the performance Thursday. In fact, a quick poll by the N&O showed 92 percent of respondents said she should resign. Posted by Leroy Towns

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Ethics, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.