John McDonough, the so-called genius of message control and marketing, defined today’s Patrick Kane and Chicago Blackhawks press conference with two soundbites.
“I can assure you I am anything but tone deaf,” he said in response to a reporter who asked the best question of the day. McDonough actually didn’t have any response to this journalist, who showed strong reporting by getting to the point of this brutally painful exercise.
McDonough’s other soundbite failure, was made extremely out of context: “we’re very bad celebrators,” the Blackhawks President said. He spent most of his time at the microphone reading scripted gobbledy-gook, an assorted array of buzzwords, corporatespeak, leadership cliches and other mindless propaganda.
For some reason John McDonough felt that this was the time to rattle off Blackhawks team accolades.
#Blackhawk's John McDonough listing teams' accolades. Whose listening to that right now? Doesn't seem to matter *today*
— Megan Mawicke (@MeganMawicke) September 17, 2015
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/644602241362587648
McDonough did nothing but offer a session-opening victory lap, and his answer as to whether he is tone-deaf is exactly what a tone-deaf person would say. That’s especially alarming given that John McDonough is a marketing and branding guys. Perhaps the art of manipulation and the mastery of propaganda is an ability that he has now lost.
Today, he was the very epitome of tone-deafness. When he said that he wasn’t tone-deaf, it was like Richard Nixon stating “I am not a crook” during Watergate.
Nobody wants to hear about the Blackhawks success when one of its biggest ever failures is ongoing. John McDonough thought he could keep changing the topic to something that makes him look more favorable, but no one was interested in listening.
Nor should they be. This isn’t a case of “liking the taste of sausage but not wanting to know/see how it’s made,” this sausage that’s spoiled, gone rancid and yet you John McDonough are continuing to stock it on the shelves. It’s like McDonough has become a real life sports version of Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men.”
He’s provided us with a dynasty and he is shocked that we dare to question the manner in which he provides it.
Damn right we do. All John McDonough and the Blackhawks had to accomplish today was tell us why Patrick Kane is taking part in training camp in spite the ongoing rape investigation.
Just tell us one good reason why. Give your side of the story.
Total failure in this regard; on all fronts.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 the Zone.
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