A Life Lesson From Jen Psaki

Ms. Psaki schooled Fox News and left us a lesson

By now we are all aware of how Jen Psaki slam-dunked Peter Doocy of Fox News regarding MLB and voting rights in Georgia. It was a beautiful moment we attribute to the quick intellect of Ms. Psaki but there is so much more here, including a life lesson for all of us.

Let’s unpack this.

Peter Doocy starts by bringing a knife to a gunfight.

“Is the White House concerned that Major League Baseball is moving their All-Star Game to Colorado where voting regulations are very similar to Georgia?”

Typical leading question where a statement is wrapped in a question. He has stated as fact that “voting regulations are very similar to Georgia” and then wrapped that in a question about “concern”. Any yes or no answer will be to his advantage. “Yes, the White House is concerned about MLB doing this in light of the fact you present” or “No, the White House is not concerned about MLB doing this in light of the fact you present” is a lose/lose proposition.

Nobody puts Psaki in the corner. She immediately addresses the core of his statement by dissembling the fiction.

“Well, let me just refute the first point you made. First, let me say on Colorado, Colorado allows you to you register on Election Day. Colorado has voting by mail where they send to 100% of people in the state who are eligible, applications to vote by mail; 94% of people in Colorado voted by mail in the 2020 election. They also allow for a range of materials to provide, even if they vote on Election Day, for the limited number of people who vote on Election Day.”

Wow. How did she pull five facts with two specific numbers about voting rights in one of 50 states? Did she memorize the entirety of the Encyclopedia Americana along with the last 10 years of the Washington Post? — Nope. Ms. Psaki did her homework.

She knew who would be in the room and what their biases would be. Running the White House press conference is more than just Q & A, the motivation of every reporter in the room needs to be taken into account, regardless of publication. Ms. Psaki had connected Mr. Doocy to the Fox News agenda and the story of “similar voting rights” that was being spun, whether the source was Fox News, OAN, or Twitter.

The volume of information also speaks to her management skills. She does not have the time to read every story that might come up as the basis for a question but with communication and collaboration, her team can pull together the most likely possibilities and have dry powder waiting.

After thoroughly debunking the core of Mr. Doocy’s statement she finishes him by completing the other side of the equality statement regarding Georgia.

“I think it’s important to remember the context here: The Georgia legislation is built on a lie. There was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Georgia’s top Republican election officials have acknowledged that repeatedly in interviews.”

Boom. She not only calls the statement a lie, but she also pins it to the mat with references. She goes on to frame the whole of Mr. Doocy’s argument as being counter to the will of the people and democracy.

What there was, however, was record-setting turnout, especially by voters of color. Instead what we’re seeing here for politicians who didn’t like the outcome is they’re not changing their policies to win more votes, they’re changing the rules to exclude more voters, and we certainly see the circumstances as different.

All solid rhetoric but here comes the capper. A statement that both answers the wrapper question about White House concerns but also dismisses the entire issue as one of being a private sector issue and not in scope for the White House at all — essentially ruling the question moot.

“Ultimately, though, it’s up to Major League Baseball to determine where they’re holding their All-Star Game.”

She smashed the false equivalence while never once resorting to any fallacy of her own, as so as many of her predecessors have (ad-hominem, appeal to authority, hasty generalization, etc.)

The schooling of Doocy provides many lessons:

1. Know your audience. Get a thorough understanding of your goals and objectives before engaging with stakeholders or customers.
2. Do your research. Take the time to know your product, service, and sector from every angle including those of your adversary or competitor.
3. Collaborate with your team. Go fast, go alone. Go far, go together. It’s always going to be the long game that pays off.
4. Listen carefully to the question asked. There is more than just the question, read into it, break it down, diagram it if have time.
5. Address the core of a question, not the leading part. No way to lose an audience faster than answering a question instead of what is the central concern. This goes for reassuring a friendly question as well as confronting a hostile one.
6. Use the rules of rhetoric. There is a huge list of fallacies but the most common ones will allow you to be persuasive and avoid foolishness. Let this be more entertaining than daunting, there are many fun resources to learn this from, like this page or this YouTube video.
7. Cite your sources. This gives you a solid foundation to stand on as you are supported by verifiable, well-regarded, and possibly audited facts.
8. Know your limits. If the question is not of your scope or domain, there is no reason to provide an answer, or if you do be careful to state your position as a personal opinion or observation.

I for one, will be following sansei Psaki like a newly hatched duckling.