David Dinkins and New York City Politics: Race, Images, and the Media

5. RACIAL EVENTS, DIPLOMACY, AND DINKINS’ IMAGE

C H A P T E R F I V E RACIAL EVENTS, DIPLOMACY, AND DINKINS’ IMAGE S ince the 1970s survey researchers have been tracking the impact of the election of a black mayor on trust in city government. Some scholars believe such elections would decrease white trust in city government, while others believe it is blacks who undergo an opinion change. The question is whether the trust in city government is related to a more generalized reservation about government. Opinion polls consistently show deep levels of cynicism regarding politicians in general and a lack of trust in the government among Americans.1 If the public shows a lack of trust and respect for an elected official, it is difficult for him or her to govern. As early as six months into Dinkins’ term, the New York Times/WCBS polls showed that blacks gave higher approval of Dinkins’ performance in the office than whites, 77 percent to 46 percent.2 The same poll illustrated that both blacks and whites were pessimistic about the economy. After nine months in office, a Gallup poll conducted by Newsday found that 38 percent of respondents approved of Dinkins’ performance, and 43 percent did not.3 This poll suggested that Dinkins began losing support soon after taking office. Abney and Hutcheson’s early 1980s study of Atlanta’s first black mayor, Maynard Jackson, highlighted the importance of building trust through performance. They concluded, [T]he election of a black mayor does not appear to have precipitated a decline in trust among whites, but seems to have forestalled such 104 DAVID DINKINS AND NEW YORK CITY POLITICS a decline among blacks. Additionally, the leadership image projected by Atlanta’s first black mayor seems to have decreased perceptions of preferential treatment among both blacks and whites. Yet perceptions of the personal characteristics of public officials are consistently more closely associated with trust in government than are perceptions of government policy. These findings, then, support the view that leaders may be significant agents of opinion change simply as a result of the images they project.4 In each case, the office of mayor works best when the incumbent is trusted and when his or her constituency believes he or she is governing in the public’s best interest. Mayors are expected to be accountable and trustworthy, and those who are deemed untrustworthy find it difficult to lead their city.5 This does not mean that a mayor must be beyond reproach. This chapter examines the critical role the media plays in the social construction of mayoral trust and mayoral accountability. Robert Bies defines a social account as “a verbal strategy employed by a person to minimize the apparent severity of the predicament or convince the audience that the wrongful act is not a fair representation of what the actor is ‘really like’ as a person.”6 In periods of diminishing public images, social accounting is critical to image repairing. To govern effectively, one must explain oneself effectively. Mayors face a variety of image-threatening decisions, some of which may temporarily upset their image and others that may permanently undermine it. In order to prevent the latter, mayors seek to impose their interpretations on events. Successful mayors fashion “constituency-specific” messages to propitiate acceptance of their interpretations of events. This requires rhetorical skills that will resonate with the audience’s views about their political reality. Accordingly, a mayor must understand the fears and aspirations of his/her constituents. A mayor must also understand and meet their needs, therefore communication is essential. In other words, the audience members must be able to translate some of their personal reality into the mayor’s characterization of events. A questioning and otherwise critical media can complicate the communication process between a mayor and his or her constituencies . A nonsupportive media can obscure or skew a Racial Events, Diplomacy, and Dinkins’ Image 105 mayor’s messages. Indeed, Jeffrey Pressman has argued, media support is a precondition for mayoral leadership.7 Providing the public with information about mayors and city politics accords reporters a considerable opportunity to dominate the discourse. According to Robert Stalling, “by selecting events to report, by interviewing and quoting experts who interpret those events, and by assembling and distributing news products, news organizations create an important component of public discourse referred to as media discourse.”8 As...