PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

I worked as a media and public relations executive during a time when there was an important and telling phrase:

Don’t argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel.

As you consider the words in this admonition, it fits more in the days when printing newspapers was still the order of the day and the Internet, if it existed, was only in its infancy. One reason I remember this old saw is that I am old enough to do so.

But, the message behind the admonition was worth heeding in the old days, just as it is worth heeding today.

When I served as a media spokesman for government or private interests, I tried to avoid becoming part of the story. I didn’t want the process of dealing with the media to outweigh the basic messages I was conveying. And, surely, I didn’t want to argue with reporters or editors because, to get back to the old saw, they could “buy ink by the barrel.”

Consider the difference today, especially in respect to the Trump Administration (even if that word, which conveys a sense of order and discipline, might not apply to the Trump presidency.)

Trump chooses to rail against the media and, thus, becomes part of the story or even the story itself.

Consider this excerpt from a column by Karl Rove that appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

“On his 100th day in office, he (Trump) brought a huge crowd in Harrisburg, Pa., to its feet by attacking CNN and MSNBC for ‘fake news and charging that ‘the totally failing New York Times’ was run by ‘incompetent, dishonest people.’

“That same night, members of the White House Correspondents’ Association, in gowns and tuxedos, applauded at their annual dinner as the organization’s president rebuked Mr. Trump. ‘We are not ‘fake news,’ ‘ Jeff Mason of Reuters proclaimed. ‘We are not failing news organizations.’

“How wise was it for Mr. Trump to open his Pennsylvania speech by assaulting the media? Axios reported that West Wing officials ‘conceived of a split-screen effect’ for the event, with ‘Trump in full-blown nationalist populist mode, connecting viscerally with ‘forgotten’ Rust Belt Americans, while the other side of the picture showed elite Washington reporters dining in elegance.

“But spending his first 11 minutes attacking the press prevented Mr. Trump from focusing on what he’s doing to create jobs and fatten paychecks. Which do Mr. Trump’s ‘forgotten Americans’ care about more—his attacks on the press, or their own prosperity? Trashing the Times may keep his core supporters energized, but it does almost nothing to expand his appeal.”

Or, consider Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, who makes a habit of taking on the media, thus diminishing messages about the Trump Administration (there’s that word again!). Washington Post reporter Erik Wemple, has taken to publishing a daily “Spicer Report,” which quotes Spicer as a way of mocking his performance.

Here’s Wemple’s most recent summary:

“Many briefings with White House press secretary Sean Spicer seem like watershed moments. Like the first one, where he lectured the media about its reporting on inaugural crowds; like the one where he bolted as reporters yelled, ‘SEAN!!!!!’; like the one where he messed up his Holocaust history; like the one where he instructed reporter April Ryan how to carry herself during the Q-and-A session; like the one where he struggled to defend a tweet by his boss, which covers just about the rest of the sessions.”

Back to Rove. He makes a good point. Rather than avoid arguing with the media because it buys ink by the barrel, Trump did the opposite. He went after the media with both barrels and, thus, became “the story,” rather than being able to focus on his efforts to create jobs and boost the economy.

Rove, who has experience in the White House with President George Bush, called this a missed opportunity for Trump.

But, then again, Trump appears to deal in missed opportunities, especially when it comes to enabling a JOBS message to set at least part of the nation’s political agenda.