Green and Cheap
Gov. Linda Lingle’s annual State of the State speech is usually a time to show off her administration and flood the public with glossy brochures. In past years she has sent out full-color, spiral bound booklets with details of her initiatives and plans.
But this year, with the budget deficit mounting, Lingle dropped the high gloss. Instead reporters were handed a card with the web address of her speech: www.hawaii.gov/gov.
Taking a page from President Barack Obama’s successful campaign utilizing text messages, Lingle flooded the local news media cell phones with text message updates. One television reporter complained to Lingle that reporters were getting charged for all the text messages. It was a complaint that Lingle easily knocked out of the ball park, telling the reporter that the news media complains when they don’t get enough information and is now complaining that they have too much information.
