How to turn a $500 donation into a major “media buy”
Everyone loves firefighters. Especially me. Volunteer firefighters are my heroes.
But recently the San Diego media hyped a story of San Diego firefighter charity that is rather odd – odd because it’s reported at all as news. The U-T newspaper made it a front page story in the local section. Several TV stations also did a segment on firefighter generosity.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/apr/08/neighbors-firefighters-help-fire-victim/
Not that the story itself wasn’t newsworthy — it was, from a public interest standpoint. Donna Poythress, a woman with little income or assets, had her modest motor home burn up in the driveway of her invalid aunt’s home. The motor home was destroyed and the house suffered some damage as well. Donna lost all her personal possessions. Total damage and loss (including to the aunt’s home) came to about $20,000.
As the U-T reported, neighbors spontaneously provided immediate donations to help Donna out. Such examples of “neighbor helping neighbor” assistance probably should be shared with the public more often.
But the bulk of the U-T story became a tale of generous firefighters. One gets the impression from the headline that the attending firefighters dug deep into their pockets and handed the lady much needed cash. Such was not the case.
The SDFD firefighters’ UNION has a charity fund for helping fire victims. And, based on the amount of this disbursal, it’s not overly generous. It appears the union made a donation from the fund for (drumroll) $5oo for the lady – which was used to buy Donna some personal items to replace some of her losses.
At least the U-T article gave due credit to the neighbors who pitched in on their own. Also mentioned was a business that offered to do some home repairs for free to help.
The Fox5 website write-up dwelt on the union donation. Neighbors’ donations were not mentioned. Ironically, the Fox5 story did not name the business that is repairing the aunt’s home for free – a donation that is worth many times what the firefighters donated. Fortunately the U-T story DID mention the business – Har-Bro Restoration.
But is a $500 donation from a labor union worthy of this level of media coverage? Would ANY other charity or business get such adoring publicity for such a small donation? I think not.
The firefighters’ union rightly figures that making donations to such victims is good policy. And I don’t fault them in the least for such a decision, even though positive publicity doubtless was their goal. Nothing inherently wrong with that.
What bothers me is that the press takes such a minor donation and blows it up into a big story. Stated differently, NO other organization would have gotten such coverage for $500. Nor should they.
More than likely the media got the story from the union’s media outreach efforts — seeking publicity for this token donation. From the Fox5 video, it appears that the firefighters staged a press conference to publicize the gift. Again, we are talking about a $500 gift.
Here’s another wrinkle – the truly generous neighbors gave Donna stuff that they cannot deduct of their income taxes. These were personal gifts – not charitable contributions. But apparently the firefighters ran their contributions through their own controlled charity – used for orchestrated publicity. Hence they got to deduct such contributions for tax purposes – thereby cutting the donation’s cost by up to a third.
Indeed, it’s not clear if the firefighters themselves even made the contributions to the union’s “charity” – it could have been donations from well-meaning souls to the fund, made at the firefighters’ request.
(BTW, the San Diego POA labor union runs [at least used to run] a scandalous charity that provided college scholarships to “deserving kids” – which, it turned out, were limited exclusively to police officers’ children. No media ever reported this story, in spite of my efforts.)
Let me repeat – I do NOT fault the firefighters’ union for attempting to garner positive publicity by making donations. Businesses, celebrities and politicians do this all the time (though politicians do it with OPM – Other People’s Money).
But the media should be a bit more circumspect about such self-serving generosity. Indeed, I suspect they ARE more cautious most of the time — rightly concerned about being “used” by such PR efforts. Perhaps, when it comes to firefighters and their labor union, the customary editorial firewalls (so to speak) don’t provide the usual safeguards.
Comments 3
The public’s image of underpaid, self-sacrificing firefighters is far divorced from reality. They are extremely well paid, have generous pensions that start in their fifties, and do not have a particularly dangerous occupation–compared to roofers, fishermen, farmers, electricians, etc., etc.
No wonder applications to become firefighters far outweigh the rare openings when they occur.
Robert,
When was the last time you risked your life for a total stranger or for that matter, even someone you know? Have you ever ran toward, instead of away from danger?
We have unfortunately become a society very quick to criticize everyone else as underworked, overpaid and unworthy of any respect. Quite sad, actually.
Author
All VERY good points, Robert. Thanks.
In addition, it’s probably the most respected occupation in America. And no one has more time for politics than firefighters.
Remember the teams of blockers trying to drive away potential CPR petition signers? They were overwhelmingly white, fit adult males — mostly firefighters.