Watching Jason Spencer transition from Chron reporter/editor, to HISD spokesman could be fun. Recall his complaint about former HISD PR chief Terry Abbott:
I’d never been involved in covering a school district with a “press secretary” until I came to work in Houston. Most other school districts use “public information officers.” There’s a difference. Public information officers serve as a clearinghouse for information. Their job is to get pertinent information to the media in a timely fashion and set up interviews. Press secretaries try to orchestrate media coverage to make their school districts look as good as possible.
Yesterday the Houston Press’ Hair Balls blog pointed out the new direction Spencer is taking HISD’s PR department:
“It was part of our media strategy in the release of the report, and we decided that it would be in everyone’s best interest for the report to go out for some reporter to have some time to analyze the report before it was released and to do a thorough examination of it, and we felt the Chronicle, because it has the largest reach, far and away the largest reach, in the city and because they have a reporter who’s dedicated to covering education full time, that they would be the best ones to do it,” he said.
This is regarding the report about HISD’s magnet schools. Apparently, the Chron’s Ericka Mellon got the report and had a story written before any other local media outlet. Heck, according to Hair Balls, Mellon was briefed on the report by Spencer hours before HISD principals were!
So, is that considered getting pertinent information to the media, or orchestrating media coverage for his new employer?
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: I have a fundamental problem with the way Jason Spencer — who seems determined to bring that inept touch he demonstrated at the Chron over the years to HISD — handled this important bit of public information. My problem is that this isn’t Jason Spencer’s information to hand out selectively like a little Happy Meal prize to a favorite pupil (namely, the one he thinks will write the most friendly story). It’s not Terry Grier’s information. It’s our information — purchased by the taxpayers and owned by the citizens.
Mr. Grier — or perhaps the HISD Board if Grier isn’t up to the task — needs to issue some detailed guidelines for Mr. Spencer, whose inexperience in his new job really made his employer look bad (which he then compounded by defending the bad move). The last thing HISD needs is more debacles like this one involving important public information.
