Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was the political equivalent of Iron Man — until he wasn’t. The most assailed cabinet official in recent memory was also the most bulletproof; it seemed like nothing could deter Pruitt (and the president who supports him still) from pursuing his cause.
As news of his surprise resignation is absorbed (one day after Pruitt attended the White House’s Independence Day festivities), his downfall speaks volumes about where we are with media and messaging today, and the power of the personal and visual to break through the clutter, beyond written words and damaging narratives.
In the end, Pruitt was able to withstand having a junior staffer find him an apartment in her free time; asking the same staffer to inquire about a used mattress from the Trump hotel in D.C.; having Secret Service agents look into procuring Ritz-Carlton moisturizer; installing a soundproof booth in his EPA office; having the most expensive security detail in EPA history; securing a $50 per night steal-of-a-deal for his room in an energy lobbyist’s residence on Capitol Hill; seeking courtside seats at college basketball games; and a list of decisions and policy moves friendly to the energy industry.
At the end of the day, Pruitt just wasn’t able to withstand the optics of a mother, carrying her young son, calmly approaching him in a restaurant to raise some of these issues with him — and then posting the video of their exchange on Facebook.
To a casual web surfer, the video would have been boring, if even a tad long by web standards. Some videographers demand that an attention-grabbing moment occur within the first six seconds. Here, there was no drama, no screaming, no professional touches to the video. But that was its entire appeal — think of it like the “Blair Witch Project” of online viral videos, whose power was conveyed mostly through its unusually amateur and earnest style. In a world of slick memes, GIFs, and media trained protesters, that sets it apart. (Note to millennials: The “Blair Witch Project” was a sleeper hit nearly 20 years ago that broke through because it pioneered the amateurish, handcam, found footage genre we continue to see in theaters to this day.)
By confronting Pruitt in such a matter-of-fact, unrehearsed fashion, the woman — inadvertently, it seems — made her words heard around the country. She talked about her son wanting clean air and water. She talked about the complaints against him. And by doing so without demonstrating the vitriol of the protesters who interrupted Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s dinner two weeks ago, she allowed her message to reach those on both the Right and Left who’ve had qualms with Pruitt’s work.
Many people have thought to themselves, “What would I do if I bumped into X on the street?” This video seemed to transform that common mindset into a real-life scenario. And, in doing so, it personalized the concerns that millions had developed when it came to Pruitt, but in a way that lifted it off the page and brought it home. (Almost literally — the conversational tone used in the video was something heard in households everyday.)
When I map out messages and campaigns, I always stress that stories and powerful narratives are rarely about the “what” in this age of information overload. Everything is a “what.” How you break through is with the “who.” As in, who could see their lives benefit from such a change or innovation, or who could have a great story to tell from a change in policy or new product? That’s what resonates — when people see themselves in a story. Think about when you’re tracking your Twitter feed. It’s pixels and pixels and words upon words, but more often than not, it’s the image or the GIF that grabs you.
In much the same way, it was this video that very likely changed the calculus for the president and for Pruitt. Over the past year, the allegations and negative stories and decisions from Pruitt were either defended or allowed to pass through the media’s rapid metabolism. But there was less to call #FakeNews here, and more for average viewers to identify with.
Two caveats: Yes, Pruitt continued to face new charges of impropriety in trying to pull strings to get his wife a job with a $200,000 salary. Yes, it’s obvious this video was leveraged and amplified to the hilt by the same crowd that had been critical of Pruitt from his earliest days in office, and that this promotion was fueled by a large opposition coalition on the Left. One can’t breathe air and deny this. But that actually strengthens my overall point — the Left has been trying to take down Pruitt for months. What was it about this one incident that moved the needle?
We’ve got 1,000 channels, and nothing’s on. News flits past us at the rate of a headline-a-minute on Twitter feeds. Netflix is drowning us in content. But sometimes, all it takes to cut through the attention economy is a shareable, quotable, tweetable, explain-it-on-a-bumper-sticker, calm everyman or everywoman’s voice, conveying a clear point of view.
Matthew Felling (@matthewfelling) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a former print/TV/radio journalist, media critic, and U.S. Senate communications director, now serving as a public affairs and crisis consultant with Burson-Marsteller in Washington.
