The Buck Should Stop There
By Oh Young-jin
Assistant Managing Editor
A couple of days ago, I happened to read an article in a newspaper. It instantly piqued my interest because it read like it was written by spin doctors at the top of their game.
The article was about the failure by the Korean Embassy in Washington to deal properly with the U.S. decision to call Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo ``Liancourt Rocks'' and designate its status as being disputed.
What caught my attention was a kicker to the main headline, which said, ``President Lee Enraged After Receiving Briefing.''
For a fleeting second, I imagined an exasperated Lee hitting the desk with the palms of his hands, his chief of staff standing next to him with his hands folded in front.
Then, I wondered if presidential spin masters were involved so I decided to do some more investigating on the article.
On a closer examination, there were a couple of interesting aberrations that did not exactly follow journalism standards.
The part about Lee's enragement appeared within quotation marks but without attribution. In the next paragraph, the article claimed Lee received a briefing from his chief of staff and was quoted as saying, ``Try and restore it (the Dokdo in name and designation).''
This quote was sourced by ``core staff'' of Cheong Wa Dae. The core staff can allude to a spokesman or other senior secretaries without naming them and is often used through an agreement with the Cheong Wa Dae press corps, when the presidential office doesn't want to sound too official about quotes it gives reporters.
This considered, it can be assumed that the presidential office wanted to let the public know of Lee's feelings of indignation about the diplomatic fiasco with some reservations.
From a public relations' standpoint, the benefits of this method are obvious. First of all, this article puts Lee in the same corner as the public, seething with anger over Japan's territorial claim and Korean diplomats' bungled handling of it, steering Lee away from public wrath and giving him room to deal with those officials found to be held responsible later.
But one risk overlooked by the President's PR men is that this approach may make President Lee look less presidential at a time when he can ill afford to do so. During the ``beef riots,'' critics from both sides of the ideological spectrum accused Lee of failing to show decisive leadership and leaving the country adrift without direction. This criticism was given more weight, when Lee's supporters blamed the previous administration for the beef deal with the United States. This helped reinforce impressions that Lee was clueless over how to deal with demonstrations against his decision to resume U.S. beef imports. He neither dealt sternly with them nor accepted their demand for a renegotiated deal, a clear case of absentee leadership.
For President Lee and his spin-doctors, the top priority is to make him look presidential. In order to achieve this, the first thing he has to do is show the public that he is ready to take responsibility when things go wrong. Lee must also bite the bullet and hold himself accountable for things that he thinks he is not responsible for. A leader is no longer a leader when he or she stops leading and the power of leadership often lies with a willingness to take the fall.
Perhaps, Harry Truman, the 33rd U.S. President, encapsulated the essence of this leadership best, when he said, ``It's easy for the Monday morning quarterback to say what the coach should have done after the game is over. But when the decision is up to you, on my desk, I have a motto which says, `The buck stops here' ― the decision has to be made.''