Can you expand on this? If these are all made up lies, then it’s hard to fault him for putting himself in a position to get canceled.
Part of Gaetz's media manager's job is to hire an outsider to test vulnerabilities. "Red Cell" any narrative that could weaponized against him.
Every vulnerability should either be neutralized ( short and long term) or have a prepared counter narrative.
Right now, Kamala Harris' team is either scrubbing or leveraging anything out regarding her husband, Doug Emhoff. Most of it will be through his work via DLA Piper. Four years from now, the attacks will be relentless and her staff will need to get ahead of them.
Ivanka Trump is thinking about running soon for a Congressional seat. I don't think there's enough bleach in the world to scrub out what Kushner did in the White House, but even still, she has to start preparing counter narratives.
It's your fault if you aren't prepared, whether you actually committed a crime or not. Truth matters little in this kind of career, it's perception that kills.
Tom Hagen, in effect, got Sonny Corleone killed. It's one of the quiet things about The Godfather that is often overlooked. The novel covers it a little better, where Hagen is shaking outside of Don Vito Corleone's bedroom, and he's assessing how he should approach him with the tragic news. Should he weep, or should he be stoic? The novel discusses that Hagen compromises, he will follow the indicator that the Don gives him. And give that in return. Hagen blames himself because there was a lull in the war with The Five Families of NY. It appeared that Sonny's strategy of killing everyone and all out violence was hammering the other Families into submission. But it was simply a way to get Sonny, Clemenza and Tessio off guard. The novel discusses that the two caporegimes, Clemenza and Tessio were too old, and lacked the youth and vigor to fight an all out war. But could not be replaced as it would trigger insurrection. Thus Hagen was alone to really protect Sonny from himself. The novel talks about how Hagen, as a German/Irish, was not fully trusted since he wasn't Sicilian. He would never inherit rank in the Corleone Family and would always be treated as an outsider. This sort of galvanizes when Sonny screams at Tom that he is not a "wartime consigliere". Then again when Don Vito consoles Tom when he tells him that he never thought Tom was a bad advisor but that Sonny was a bad Don. This all comes full circle when Michaell tells Tom that he's "out" when the big move to Nevada was planned.
Your media manager in politics is your Tom Hagen. Statistically speaking, a little over half of all incoming campaign dollars spent by any professional politician goes towards advertising.
It's not just standard media optics, it's mounting effective counter attacks.
Things that could have been done, that I've seen done or have done myself in the past
1) Give the media another story, a bigger fish to fry. Trade them something to leave my client alone.
2) Leverage the investigators and media. They have something on my client, what do I have on them? A date rape, drug use, lying under oath, illegitimate child, wayward relative that needed backdoor fixing, and on and on and on.
3) Use the "fatal funnel", this means pushing your target into two choices. The one you want and the one you know they will never take. The illusion of choice is powerful as it fools some people into thinking they have real agency. It takes the bitter sting when you bull doze them. The "fatal funnel" derives from a basic breaching concept.
Gaetz could be guilty or he could be innocent. It matters close to nothing in politics and media optics, as the only currency that has value is if the public at large (Ricky Roma) believes he is guilty (Dave Moss). Or innocent (Shelly Levene).
Dave's farewell speech. •Mar 20, 2010
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWIoppMYwck