The State Newspaper has finally posted its story on Gov. Nikki Haley’s daughter getting a job in the State House gift shop, one week after the governor’s visceral, public reaction to the newspaper’s questions shifted the story’s focus from nepotism to censorship.
After Gov. Haley lambasted The State’s “bias” for daring to ask questions about 14-year-old Rena Haley’s job, which is supervised by a Haley appointee, news of the governor’s blistering comments began traveling across the state and nation like wildfire. Aided by the Free Times’ Corey Hutchins as well as bloggers like Will Folks, Ashley Miller, Brad Warthen and yours truly, the story reached hundreds of thousands of people before The State printed a single word of it.
It’s the latest proof of an online theory called the Streisand Effect, which holds that trying to suppress an unfavorable story is generally the absolute best way to make sure as many people read it as possible. It’s named after entertainer Barbra Streisand, who once tried to sue a photographer for including a picture of her California mansion in a collection of more than 12,000 photos of the coastline. While the image had only been downloaded six times (including twice by Streisand’s lawyers) before the lawsuit was filed, the publicity surrounding the celebrity’s overreaction drove nearly half a million people to the photographer’s website in the first month alone.
Similarly, the efforts to quash The State’s story (a Haley spokesman says the governor called the newspaper herself) turned what would have been a relatively ho-hum story about a 14-year-old’s summer job into something of a media frenzy — with overtones of censorship. While the governor’s accusations that The State violated her daughter’s privacy may find some sympathy among a political base which already distrusts the “Lamestream Media,” actual experts tend to agree that the newspaper’s questions were perfectly valid:
Charles Bierbauer, dean of the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies at the University of South Carolina, said the newspaper’s inquiry was “absolutely appropriate” in the context of gauging the manner in which the governor conducts herself in office.
“When job creation is a core issue in the governor’s office, creating one job for her 14-year-old daughter is something that at least warrants a question,” he said. “It’s one of those things that just doesn’t look right.”
Even though the governor’s office claimed that questions about her daughter’s summer job would threaten the girl’s safety, they were more than happy to answer the Charleston Post & Courier’s questions once The State’s story ran:
Haley spokesman Rob Godfrey said Haley’s daughter, Rena, usually works 20-25 hours per week and is paid $8 an hour, the same as all entry-level workers at the gift shop, which is run by the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. The hours of other gift shop workers were not trimmed to accommodate Rena’s position, he said.
Agency spokesman Marion Edmonds confirmed those facts and said Rena Haley is among seven to 12 workers in the gift shop. She primarily cleans and stocks shelves. Edmonds acknowledged that the position was not advertised, but he said that’s standard for seasonal workers, because the jobs need to be filled quickly.
It’s worth repeating that we genuinely couldn’t care less whether Rena Haley works in the State House gift shop, provided that she got the job legitimately and that other employees’ hours weren’t cut to accommodate her. We’re far more concerned with the 9.4% of South Carolinians who don’t have any kind of job, summer or otherwise.
Still, Gov. Haley’s ham-fisted attempt to quash The State’s story — combined with her disastrous vetoes earlier this month of funding for the arts and rape crisis centers — makes you wonder whether the governor should create a job for a new political adviser…
Haley is just pissed that she got caught getting her daughter a job – with the state at that. I do hope Haley realizes that the taxpayers pay her daughter’s salary and the salary of the additional SLED agents that Haley has demanded be posted outside the gift shop. I wonder how much in tax dollars this whole deal is costing tax payers.
I don’t want Nikki Haley to ever claim to be a conservative again. She has gotten her daughter a state job, she has gotten her husband a cushy state job and she has gotten her chief of staff’s wife a cushy part time job that pays$50,0000. Bet there are a lot of people that would like a cushy part time job for $50,000.
NOT a Conservative.
I think she really is a conservative, always looking out for themselves, and their friends.
From the beginning she has placed her family and friends in positions, removing those who already did a good job. Like the lady who was a major donor for USC. People should have realized right then what her real agenda was/is.
The State House Gift Shop does not utilize seasonal workers. If it did, it would hire them for its busiest time of the year, which is January thru June (when the legislature is in session). Given that this shop doesn’t really need all of the permanent P/T employees it already has, there are only two conclusions to be drawn per the impact of hiring another staffer: (1) hours of permanent P/T employees were cut, or (2) the shop is inefficiently over-staffed for the summer.
“The job needs to be filled quickly?” says Marion Edmonds.
Why does it need to be filled quickly?
If you know you are going to hire “seasonal employees” for the summer, why don’t you begin advertising the upcoming job openings in, say, March? That gives all those kids and college students out there at least an equal opportunity(!) to apply for it.
My problem is certainly not with this young lady. My problem is with the adults (beginning with the governor and extending downward through her spokesperson and through the ranks of PRT) who, in their attempt to explain this matter away, have twisted themselves into pretzels. Why not just be straight with the public about what we all know to be the truth of this thing? It would be better for them because, as it is, we all just start laughing every time they try to spin it a different way.