Media takes potshots at Hagel event

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By DON WALTON / Lincoln Journal Star

Ouch.

Sen. Chuck Hagel attracted considerable media attention in the wake of his Monday news conference announcing he’ll delay a decision on his 2008 political plans.

Attention generally is a good thing for political figures —except when a considerable chunk of the feedback is negative.

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Senator Chuck Hagel speaks during a press conference on the University of Nebraska-Omaha campus Monday morning. (William Lauer)

Senator Chuck Hagel speaks during a press conference on the University of Nebraska-Omaha campus Monday morning. (William Lauer)

“The dramatic moment arrives for Chuck Hagel,” wrote The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz. 

And then Hagel “punts, ducks, dodges the issue,” Kurtz wrote. 

“Why pump that up into a big television moment?”

Ah, there’s the rub.

The bulk of Tuesday’s media criticism was aimed at the way in which Hagel chose to deliver the message rather than his decision to  delay determination of his 2008 course of action.

Hagel had scheduled a news conference in Omaha “regarding his future plans,” and the media showed up en masse.  Most of the national media anticipated a decision on whether he would pursue the presidency or opt for re-election to the Senate in 2008.

“A big announcement,” trumpeted Jon Stewart in a parody re-enactment on The Daily Show on Comedy Central Monday night. 

Preceded by clips of cable and network TV hype, Hagel made his announcement: “I am here today to announce that my family and I will make a decision on my political future later this year.”

Cut to Stewart, staring blankly into the camera.

Jay Leno was not as gentle on the Tonight Show on NBC: “This is the kind of bold, decisive leadership this country needs.”

Even the London Times got into the act: “A damp-squid declaration,” it declared on its Web site.

Why not just a news release or, as Kurtz suggested, a breakfast or conference call with reporters if that was all Hagel had to announce?

“We did think about other ways to do it,” said Hagel spokesman Mike Buttry, “but Senator Hagel thought this was the right way.

“He wanted to stand up and be accountable, and give members of the media an opportunity to question him and be able to answer their questions.”

Despite considerable media concentration on the method rather than the message, Buttry said the reaction Hagel has received is positive.

“He’s extremely grateful for the overwhelming support he’s received since he made his announcement,” Buttry said.

A new Hagel-for-Senate Web site sprouted in concert with the announcement that Hagel will step up campaign fundraising through his Senate re-election committee and his Sandhills PAC.

The site features a new TV commercial in which Hagel calls for “American leadership working with our allies.”

The Web site highlights videos of Hagel in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and at a Jewish Council of Public Affairs meeting speaking about the war in Iraq and U.S. foreign policy.

Hagel was asked Tuesday about media coverage of his news conference during a Nebraska Republican Party fund-raising breakfast in Washington.

Former Rep. Hal Daub posed the question, and Hagel pointed to a column by E.J. Dionne in The Washington Post and a story in The New York Times as examples of national media coverage that “got the point.”

Dionne’s column included this observation: “Republicans, usually not a band of rebels, still pray that Bush can succeed in Iraq. Thus Hagel waits, hyping a non-announcement to say he’s around if the world and the party move his way.”

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.