An alleged expert in training police officials to handle the media can’t even agree with a police department client on who prepared a flyer for a training session he will offer.
The flyer has aggressive and offensive language for the media, such as “gorilla” and “animals.” Given that Rick Rosenthal is advertising his services to the St. Louis County Police Department, which just managed a police action where an officer in riot gear was filmed calling protestors (most of them black) “animals,” the flyer required some explaining after online activist Shaun King tweeted a link to it.
The American called Rosenthal, a former Chicago news anchor who lives in Chicagoland. He threatened to hang up on the media call before being asked one question, then would only say he was an “employee” of the department and St. Louis County Police was responsible for the flyer and any questions about it.
His client, the County Police, said the flyer was in fact Rosenthal’s work and is nearly identical to all of the flyers for his previous seminars. Of course, that begs the question why the County Police at this sensitive time would hire a consultant who uses this insulting language and post it publicly to the County website.
Once the online activist lit up Twitter with this poor judgment, County Police prepared an apology.
“The St. Louis County Police Department recognizes the sensitive nature of this flyer in the wake of Michael Brown’s death, and the events that transpired in Ferguson. Being that the flyer was sent by our Police Academy, we apologize for anyone hurt by the wording of the flyer,” they said in statement.
“We believe Mr. Rosenthal’s use of the terms ‘900 pound gorilla’ and ‘feeding the animals’ were mentioning police departments from across the nation dealing with the media and meant no racial harm. In all of Mr. Rosenthal’s previous classes, he has given attendees a book, copyrighted in 1999, titled, ‘Feeding the Animals,’ which refers to police departments giving the media information.”
What the County Police is saying here is: it’s okay, our vendor is not insulting black people, only reporters and editors (some of them, coincidentally, black people).
The County is paying for media training from a consultant who insults new media reporters, such as bloggers, as well as traditional media.
“Don’t swat every mosquito,” Rosenthal advises in one lecture, speaking of bloggers. “Mosquitos R Us. “[Bloggers] can annoy you, like a mosquito in a camping tent but they can’t really do you much harm if the facts are on your side and you argue them forcefully with the mainstream media. You need to know what bloggers are saying, but you can’t swat every mosquito.”
The flyer remained on the site all weekend but had been removed as of Monday night.