That old line about all publicity being good publicity? It never did make much sense. And last week certainly showed why.
Newark was the buzz around the state, around the country — perhaps even around the world — as two huge stories made the news cycle: The continuing troubles at Newark Liberty International Airport and the arrest of Mayor Ras Baraka.
“The issues surrounding the airport are not helpful to Newark or even New Jersey,” said Karen Kessler, the head of Kessler PR and a global expert when it comes to crisis communication and messaging.
“This only encourages an image of Newark of the past.”
Here’s the shame of it: Neither news story brought shame upon the city — or even was the fault of the city or, in the case of the mayor, Baraka himself.
First, Newark Liberty.
Twice the airport lost the radar its understaffed and overworked air traffic controllers need to keep everyone safe. It wasn’t out for long — 90 seconds it was reported — but there’s no time period when this is OK. (And these were the second and third outages in the past two weeks.)
The disruptions come on the heels of daily flight delays that seemingly are stretching to 3-4 hours, due to a number of issues, including outdated technology, staffing issues and runway repair work — neither of which are the fault of the airline or its main user, United Airlines.
United, in fact, voluntarily dropped 35 flights in an effort to help ease the congestion, but even the airline said things won’t be back to normal for some time.
Kessler said the big mess was part of a big miss — which she blames on the federal government.
“The airport has been upgraded, and Terminal A is terrific — but the government seems to have forgotten that only go so far if you can’t feel safe flying,” she said.
Speaking of safety.
Folks may have started to wonder if it’s safe to be anywhere in Newark at all, after reports came out that Baraka was arrested Friday afternoon — in a large show of force — after he visited an ICE facility in town.
We’re not here to judge if Baraka was trespassing or failed to follow an order — or even if the decision to have him arrested was an effort to make a point rather than de-escalate the situation. Both sides are producing evidence to support their cause, which is keeping the story in the news.
We just know the mayor getting arrested is never a good thing — for a lot of entities.
One political analyst, who did not want to be named, said more than the city took a hit on this one.
“The mayor’s arrest is new territory for both sides,” the person said. “Trump’s support is strong on the immigration issue, but is arresting a sitting mayor going too far?”
Then there’s this: Some feel the arrest of Baraka may have been good for his campaign to win the Democratic nomination for governor.
NJ Advance Media, in fact, said this weekend that the arrest pushed Baraka to the front of the field, mainly due to him grabbing free publicity in a crowded field that’s not generating much news coverage.
The arrest, after all, did keep Baraka in the headlines all weekend – and did help him land a prime-time spot on CNN, where he gave his side of the story to Kaitlin Collins.
That’s nice, but it was a forum for Baraka to talk about all the good he has done for the city and his plans for the state.
Of course, some will say this is an example of any press is good press. Our political analyst isn’t so sure. And he hopes Baraka was not hoping to be arrested (and there’s no reason to believe he did).
“The mayor’s protest appeals to the Democrats progressive base but do suburban Democrats think getting arrested is going too far?” the analyst asked and then answered.
“If I were advising his campaign I would have stopped short of provoking an arrest. National polls show even most Republicans want the rule of law upheld. Protesting the lack of due process for those being held would have been good enough for me.”
Of course, that wouldn’t have made the news.
