The Exception to the Rule 8

Running Head: THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULE

Exception to the rule: How Should President Bush Improve His Image

Tenesha Keyes

McMurry University

McM Station Box 1338

Abilene, TX 79697

Exception to the rule: How Should President Bush Improve His Image

The largest national forest in the United States is the Tongass National Forest. This beautiful forest is located in the southeastern panhandle of Alaska and covers almost 17 million acres. It is home to many animals such as grizzly bears and bald eagles. Tongass is also used for fishing, camping and hunting, but not for much longer. The Bush administration on December 23, 2003 exempted Tongass from the Roadless Rule Act. It was issued by the Clinton administration and it prevented road building and commercial logging from any 58.5 million acres of U.S forest Service inventoried roadless land (Kauffman 2003). In January of 2004 the forest service opened up 300,000 acres for logging (Jenkins2004). This logging will seriously effect the wild life population in Tongass as well as the hunting and fishing that is done there. “ Last summer, the administration settled a lawsuit brought by the state of Alaska challenging the Roadless Rule Act by promising to exempt Alaska’s two national forests: Tongass and Chugach. Alaska charged the Roadless Rule Act was too restrictive, causing economic hardship for the fledgling timber industry in the state, and violated several other federal laws, most notably the 1980 Alaska national Interest Conservation Act(Berman 2004).” Now that gives the Idea that the Bush administration buckles under pressure. The image they are projecting is a cowardly one it looks like administration is afraid to stand up to the state and the timber companies and give the people what they want. Now the administrations image is in big trouble. The American people are very angered by this decision. This can be seen as a sign of weakness and a country does not want a weak leader and with election time coming up this may play more of a role than the administration thinks. “According to the report from the Fish and Wildlife Service, hunter and angler are a formidable force not only in what they spend, but also in the political power they wield. More than 34 million Americans over age 16 fish annually and 13 million hunt (Wilkinson2003). Those are large number of the population and thay are not going to appreciate their good hunting and fishing being taken away. “Many analysts think most of these people are Republican and supportive of President Bush. But now, a growing vocal minority is taking a stand on concerns they have- from weakening water protection standards in fishable waterways, to proposals to drill for oil in what have been off-limit areas. These people want a clean and healthy environment not only for hunters and anglers, but for all Americans- and they believe Bush is straying far from this principle (Wilkinson 2003). Bush needs to do some serious image restoration if he hopes to win the 2004 election.

Theory

Now the President needs to start working on improving his image. As we all know image plays a big role in how people see use and if we are portraying a negative image then why is some one going to want to vote for you. Now there are several different methods the president can use to improve his image and they are all in Benoits image restoration theory. Benoits image restoration strategies include Denial, Evasion of Responsibility, Reducing Offensiveness of Event, Corrective Action, and Mortification. These different strategies can help President Bush regain a positive image.

One of the first strategies is denial, and it is broken into two categories. The first is simple denial, which means you say I did not do this and that is the end of it. Then there is blame shifting, by doing this the accused is drawing the negative attention away from themselves and onto another party therefore looking innocent. Now this is not the best course of action because everyone already knows that Bush committed the offense and would be known as a liar and that is not going to help his image.

The second strategy is evasion of responsibility and this is broken into four parts. First there is provocation which suggests that the guilty party’s actions are in response to another’s wrong doing and their reaction was due to the previous offense. Then there is defeasibility, where the accused says they did not know about the wrong doing and in doing this they reduce the negative affect on their image. Also another way to approach this is to say that it was an accident, people will probably be a little more understanding if they believe that it was not intentional. Finally there is good intention, now if the public believes that the company or person had good intentions they aren’t seen as negatively. Then they will come out looking almost innocent. Only one of these options would work well with this crisis and that is good intention. This will be Bush’s best card to play, if he comes out and explains his position, the public will understand and his good image will be restored.

The third strategy Benoit uses is to reduce offensiveness and he lists six ways to do this. First the accused can use bolstering. In doing this the accused talks about all the positive things they have done to draw attention away from the negative thing they have done. Next there is minimization, by doing this the accused can make the audience believe that the wrongful act is not as bad as it seems. Another thing that can be used is differentiation by doing this the accused is comparing there act to a more offensive act that has been committed and therefore their negative act seems less offensive. Also the accused can use transcendence which points out the positive affects of the act and justifies it to the public. Now the accused can also attack it’s accuser to put them selves in a more positive light, but make sure the attack is creditable. Finally there is compensation where accused reimburse the people affected by the act and by doing this the public will see them in a better light. The two that will help in our crisis are minimization and transcendence. If bush talked about how only a small part of Tongass would be cut down it might not seem as bad. He could also discuss the fact that cutting down these trees are opening up more jobs for people who could have been out of work. That will definitely win over people

The fourth strategy is corrective action and this has been found to be very affective. In doing this you fix the problem and state it will never happen again. Now you do not have to accept the blame for this, but you will fix it regardless and the public will be satisfied. Finally the last strategy is mortification. Now this is an out right apology. You state you sorry and you committed an offense and you hope the public will respond positively in return. Now neither corrective action nor mortification would help in the president’s situation. I feel that by reducing the offensiveness Bush stands a better chance of improving his image.

Method

The President has really hurt his image by supporting the exemption of Tongass. He has made himself look like a tree hater. Many probably feel this is also about money though there is no proof of that. Although he did settle the lawsuit by giving in to state, the best way to turn things around for him is to explain why the administration decided to do this. He needs to show that this was done in the best interests of the people and he need to stress the fact that this is only a small portion of a large forest. The way to do this is to use reduce the offensiveness in Benoits theory of image restoration.

Now one form of reducing the offense is called transcendence, this points out the positive effects of the crisis and justifies it to the public. Now one of the reasons the state was fighting the Roadless Rule Act was because the logging industry is going under and due to the preservation of so many forests people are losing their jobs and it is hurting many communities. “The logging industry now provides just 650 jobs in south east Alaska, a shadow of the 5’000 jobs supported 10 years ago. Its demise has been a major drag on the area’s economy. The Forest Service noted in its announcements the 32 communities within Tongass depend on the forest for subsistence and their social and economic health, and that most of them lack road and utility connections. It said applying the Roadless Rule Act to the forest would cost a total of 900 jobs in the area (Jenkin 2004). This would be very important information for the public to know that they are providing jobs and roads and utility to people who need them. That takes away Bushs cowardly image and turns him into the big hero. Also Tongass is a 17 million acre forest now they opened up 300 thousand acres for logging now that leaves16,700,000 million acres left untouched. Now that is still a considerable amount left. Bush can push the fact that 300 thousand acres gave 900 American people jobs and utility and that is going to boost his image greatly.

The people need to hear Bush stand up and defend him self, he needs to call a press conference and come out openly and back his decision. He also needs to make the public believe that he is behind this for all the right reason,. He could alsostart doing some environmental public relations. He should go out and plant trees and important public events. Go to environmental rallies and speak on the importance of our environment. He should show the public to know that he supports environmental growth and back it up. This should be a very successful way to deal with the problem. This will get people to look at this crisis in a different light and take away from the severity of the crisis.

APA Bibliography

Kauffman, J. (2003). Clinton’s ‘Roadless Rule’ reinstated, http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp

Wilkinson, T. (2003,). Why some gun owners are unhappy with Bush