A Look (Not Too Far) Back

If you missed yesterday afternoon's press conference (you can see it, and other press conferences at the FATV website. Kudos to them. They don't have power in their offices, and they're still grinding it out), you might want to check it out. If you have time.

I say that, because it was long. I don't know what happened -- I think after a week of hearing people complain, the collective reporters in the city had enough -- but Wong answered questions for 45 minutes. There were no real heated exchanges, no point where I can point to fireworks, no heroic journalists outwardly fighting for the people (and I'm not trying to create one), but it was a grind as she kept the wall up, and we kept banging away. There's only so many ways you can ask "How much does Unitil suck," but I think we collectively came up with about 17. I give the reporters there credit (and yeah, I was one, but whatever) for sort of deciding now was the time to push, and I guess she gets credit for not cracking.

My point? Only go back and read this post from last month. As people make a "Wong/Unitil" connection (yes, that's you Wally -- and others), check this post out. I can't think of a better way right now to describe what's going on. She all but said yesterday "I'm going to stay on message. Here's the message. I'm not going off it." There was an undercurrent of "I'll deal with Unitil later" in some cases, but she's not coughing up the magic quote the reporters are all but begging for, residents are frustrated for not hearing, and Steve DiNatale and Kevin Starr delivered on Saturday.

I guess I bring all this up because I'm guessing most people end up not watching the raw video, but reading the stories on line and in the papers, and they obviously don't see it all happening. The discipline and on-message style of Wong was frustrating to me last month, and I think it's frustrating everyone right now. But it certainly isn't new. I'm not trying to support Wong or anything else here (that means you, Lori), but I'm trying to help explain what's going on in the city right now, and how Wong is dealing with it publicly. I think yesterday's press conference and last month's post are pretty indicative of what's up.