Well, maybe no conspiracy. But I have a new theory about what’s wrong with this country. It doesn’t appear you can get any coffee in Washington until about 5:30 a.m. And I don’t think anyone starts working until 9 or 10. Good grief. And we’re worried about global competitiveness. My only hope is the Starbucks across the street from where I’m staying. Yeah. It’s come to that.
I’m here this week for the annual meeting of Corporate Voices for Working Families and for a breakfast we are holding Wednesday to honor members of Congress for their leadership roles in advocating legislation that benefits working families. The flight from Cleveland yesterday was uneventful, following the now expected strip search going through security. I wonder though what they mean by “in the event of an unexpected water landing?” Would one ever be expected between Cleveland and Washington? I’m starting to worry when people tell me things like that.
And after nearly a decade in the academy I’m starting to get back into the business buzzword game. I was talking with a guy at Kodak Friday about brief talking points we were writing. He said he had a lot on his plate. Wanted to know if I had “the bandwidth” to do it. And he asked me that not once but several times. Ugh. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll tee it up as a point of entry at one of our panel presentations today.
What got we thinking about buzzwords — words without meaning to most people — was an article I read yesterday by a writer who is precise, colorful and specific: William Safire. He also knows the rules and when to break them. He wrote an op-ed in The New York Time Sunday, “ The Maverick Ticket.” The point. Safire, a former Nixon speechwriter and NYT pundit, took a look at the speechs given at the conventions by Obama, McCain, Palin and Biden.
Give it a read. It’s great. Both from the standpoint of how Safire views the speeches. And from the standpoint of how to write a commentary in general. Here’s a sample:
Then the St. Paul convention was hit by Hurricane Sarah and her admirable family. The cliché is that — faced by part of a party long troubled by McCain’s different drumming — the governor of Alaska was able to “energize the base” of social conservatives. The more salient fact is that her skillful speech and joyful demeanor was even more impressive than Obama’s introduction to the Democratic Party four years ago. The establishment-shaking candidate was a happy warrior in the glare of major-league scrutiny. Most of the huge, uncommitted audience at home enjoyed this strong woman’s national audition; the first test of McCain’s gamble paid off.
Though her “lipstick” ad lib got the laugh (and may have offended pit-bull fanciers), she forcefully delivered a Sorensenesque line that crystallized the choice this year’s voters face: “There are those who use change to promote their careers. And then, there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.”
And Safire knows something about bashing the Washington media elites. Remember, he worked with Tricky Dick and Spiro Agnew. So he has some perspective.
As one whose only claim to coinage fame is in Spiro Agnew’s 1970 nattering nabobs of negativism, I have an attack dog in that fight (though not a maligned pit bull).
Well, it’s almost 5:30 a.m. Wonder if I have the bandwidth to make it across the street to Starbucks. I’d like to hit the streets before the Washington media elite roll out of bed.
Categories: Uncategorized
It’s really been a great summer for running here in Northeast Ohio. Especially if you hit the concrete at 5 a.m. every morning. I don’t recall a day when it has rained that early; and until this morning, almost no wind, just a light breeze. I’ll probably see some rain this weekend though. I’m heading to Washington along with Hurricane Hanna. Oh well.
Next week should be interesting. I’ll be at the annual meeting of Corporate Voices for Working Families — listening to presentations by some heavy hitters in education, government and business. We’re going to have representatives from the Obama and McCain campaigns give us a look at the fall elections. And Tony Wagner, who has written several books on the crisis in public school education, will be one of the keynote presenters. Wagner heads the Change Leadership Group, part of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
But I’m really excited about a communications panel that I am organizing for the meeting. The topic: Merging the Paths of Old and New Media. Joining me on the panel are:
Paull Young, senior account executive, Converseon in New York City. I expect Paull is known to several readers of this blog; we have mutual friends Kait Swanson, Abby Laner and Luke Armour. I’ve never met Paull. But we have been talking now for about a year via blog posts, e-mail and Twitter.
Sacha Chua, a Web 2.0 consultant and developer with IBM in Canada. I wrote previously about the work Sacha is doing to enhance internal communications with a very diverse workforce at IBM and elsewhere. She really gets it.
And John Wolf, senior director of public relations at Marriott. John’s background is in broadcast journalism, but now he is implementing a variety of new communications activities involving social media and different approaches to news media relations. And Marriott is one of the company’s where the CEO does blog — regularly and very well. Bill Marriott doesn’t know how to use a computer. So an assistant takes his handwritten posts and formats them. You can follow the blog on Twitter.
It’s a new communications world folks. And that’s what we will be talking about. How to merge old and new media into a communications strategy that gets results.
I’ll be writing about the communications panel and the meeting next week. And I’ll try not to get into any trouble with the Washington media elite. Yeah, the unfair and uncivil coverage of Sarah Palin still bugs me.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: social media
Well, I haven’t been up that late since New Year’s Eve (probably mid-80s). But there I was just a few hours ago watching Sarah Palin on TV. Glad I did because I think she scored a lot of points both with the convention delegates and the American people.
And I’m interested in this for several reasons. Here’s one. Palin is a political outsider. She’s not embraced by the “inside-the-Beltway” media crowd — who basically have gotten just about everything else about this election wrong starting with dismissing Obama in Iowa. I wrote about that yesterday.
And I guess Palin had some of the same thoughts. Here’s from her speech last night, as reported in The Washington Post this morning:
“I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion — I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country.”
It’s not a good strategy to run an election against the news media. Spiro Agnew tried that — and, well that didn’t turn out so well.
So now we’ll see if Palin and McCain can control the message.
Wonder where the Obama Girl has been during all of this?
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Sarah Palin
September 3, 2008 · 1 Comment
Stick with me for a minute with the title. It will work. But first — I was thinking while running this morning that I really want to start writing more about education and some of the other issues I’m working on now with Corporate Voices for Working Families in Washington. Yet I’m still fried about the pathetic media coverage involving Sarah Palin and her daughter.
OK. I’m going to get over it. And I’m not even planning to vote for her. But the news coverage these past few days says something about the significant changes that have reshaped journalism in the country. It also says something about the “inside-the-Beltway” mentality that really does exist. And not just from the standpoint of the news media. But how legislators and advocacy people (of which I’m one) and groups work to shape public policy.
I’m not convinced that those who spend all their lives living and working inside-the -Beltway really are in step with what’s going on throughout this country. I felt that way when I first started working with government relations people and organizations in Washington in the early 1980s. I feel the same way today.
Here’s an interesting story in the Wall Street Journal (online) this morning, “ The Beltway Boys.” The quick take:
Even as the Obama camp ponders how best to handle John McCain’s veep pick of Sarah Palin, the high priests and priestesses of the media have marked her as an apostate. The Beltway class is in full-throated rebellion against a nondomesticated conservative who might pose a threat to their coronation of Barack Obama and the return of Camelot-on-the-Potomac.
OK. I’m over it. And now I get to try to make the headline work.
Next week I’m going to be in Washington for the Corporate Voices’ annual meeting and for an event we are hosting to honor members of Congress for their support of legislation and polices that help to improve the lives of working families. I’ll share some of the information and talks from the meeting — which features experts in education, public policy and legislation and corporate social responsibility.
But what I am really looking forward to is the addition of Allison Tomei to the staff of Corporate Voices for Working Families. Allison is a recent PRKent grad — and she will be coordinating communications and government relations. One of her first duties. Possibly helping to manage the national news media if Joe Biden shows up for breakfast next week.
Allison’s relocating to Washington from her home in Pittsburgh. That’s good. It extends the reach of PR Kent “inside-the-Beltway.” It also extends the reach of the Steeler Nation.
Hey, we have to do everything we can to get this country back on track.
Categories: Kent State University
Tagged: PRKent
There’s something that just doesn’t sit right with me about the coverage of the pregnancy of Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter. Clearly we are moving quickly toward a more personal — call it tabloid — form of journalism in this country. And I don’t see anything wrong with that. The “he said/she said” form of objective reporting is broken and represents a losing business model. But I hope we are not also losing the standards of good taste and ethical conduct.
Plenty has been written and broadcast about this story. I won’t rehash the details. Palin and the McCain campaign disclosed yesterday that the governor’s teenage daughter is pregnant and plans to marry the father and have the baby. Oh, boy. That hit the airwaves with about the same force as Gustav moving through the Gulf Coast — and the story got legs after posts on the Daily Kos, a liberal blog.
Howard Kurtz has an excellent story about this in The Washington Post today, “ A Blogger, a Baby, a Cry of Concern.” Here’s from the story:
It is hardly unusual for a teenage girl to become pregnant, and unless she is Jamie Lynn Spears, who sold her baby pictures to OK! magazine, the news value is minimal. But some media commentators say Palin is fair game, not just because she is running for national office but because she is a self-described “hockey mom” who told the nation that her eldest son is headed to Iraq.
“Once she’s brought her children in as selling points, unfortunately the bad comes in with the good,” says Lisa Bloom, a Court TV anchor. “She’s integrating her mom quality as a key part of her résumé. We didn’t do that in the press; she did that.”
Give me a break. I believe the story about Palin and her daughter is news. But it doesn’t warrant the firestorm it created — especially with the talking-head pundits on TV. Slice and dice Sarah Palin’s record and views on abortion, family values, whatever, all you want. But this is essentially a family matter involving a teenage girl (and boy) who is not a public figure. If we start holding candidates responsible for the actions of their children, we won’t elect anyone in this country.
Barack Obama had it right when he said during a news conference yesterday that families are off limits. Period.
And yet CNN went right from that report to a reporter in Alaska who talked for several minutes about — well, you know. Sarah Palin’s daughter. Good grief.
Then this morning I catch up on the musings highlighted on The Huffington Post. Yep. Sarah Palin’s daughter front and center. And get this. The Huffington pundits have a photo and story about the teenage boy, soon to be married and a father, apparently. And Huffington took the info from his MySpace page.
Objectivity — no, not really.
Good taste — no.
Ethical conduct — no.
And journalists used to look down on public relations people. Hehehe.
Categories: ethics
Tagged: Sarah Palin
Uhh, would we have felt better if John McCain had picked another old white man to stand next to him? Nah. C’mon. Give Sarah Palin a break. If nothing else, she’s a runner.
http://prontherun.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/s-mccainsquayle-large.jpg I’ll admit that her resume is a little thin. But when did being underqualified stop us from electing someone to political office, federal, state or local? Good grief. We elected George W. twice — for president.
And I’ll admit that I’m almost certain to support and vote for Obama/Biden. I think this country is on the wrong path. We’re running in the wrong direction. And we need change — fast.
Yet in a way that last notion — change — intrigues me about McCain’s selection of Palin. She’s certainly someone outside the Beltway. Good for her. And would McCain have been better off picking someone else. Let’s see.
Mitt Romney — OMG. I don’t think even McCain liked him.
Tim Pawlenty — Yawn.
Tom Ridge — You can only have one candidate from Pennsylvania. It’s Biden.
Joe Lieberman — Good luck. Would McCain have received any votes from Republican conservatives?
So it comes down to this. McCain, a Beltway insider, is going to run as a maverick — someone who will change things. And standing next to him, instead of Mitt, Tim, Tom or Joe, is Sarah. Let’s see what the public perception is of her in the next week or so.
As best I can tell at 5 a.m. Saturday morning, here’s the prevailing view about Sarah Palin right now, expressed by Linda Bergthold, writing in the The Huffington Post, “ The VP Choice that Lost the Presidency for McCain.”
We’ll see. Helping to create — or change — the public’s perception is one reason why so many PR people are gainfully employed throughout this great country.
And who knows. If the early view of Palin changes and she gets to move inside the Beltway, maybe she’ll invite me for a run during one of my trips to D.C.
Hey. I ran the Marine Corps Marathon 20 some years ago. I still know my way around the nation’s capital.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Sarah Palin
Well, this should be interesting. Tropical Storm Gustav is heading toward the Gulf Coast — expected to reach land as a hurricane at about the same time GOP delegates are slamming into Minneapolis-St. Paul. With any luck the Republicans will do the most damage. But that is if the convention is held at all.
Republican officials, according to stories in The Washington Post, USA Today and other outlets, are considering delaying the convention. Given the debacle that helped define the Bush administration three years ago post-Katrina, I’m sure John McCain and others don’t want to be seen yucking it up in Minneapolis if people are treading water along the Gulf Coast, particularly in New Orleans.
I hope this doesn’t happen. I can’t imagine New Orleans rebounding from another big hit from a hurricane. But the situation does provide some lessons in public relations and crisis management. It also now provides a nightmare for event planners.
Here’s from The Washington Post article, “ GOP Considers Delaying Convention“:
For Bush and Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Gustav threatens to provide an untimely reminder of Hurricane Katrina. A new major storm along the Gulf Coast would renew memories of one of the low points of the Bush administration, while pulling public attention away from McCain’s formal coronation as the GOP presidential nominee.
Senior Republicans said images of political celebration in the Twin Cities while thousands of Americans flee a hurricane could be dubious. “Senator McCain has always been sensitive to national crisis,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds, noting that the senator postponed announcing his presidential candidacy in 2000 because of the war in the Balkans. “We are monitoring the situation very closely.”
Then as usual we get to the public relations challenge.
Staging a convention during a major natural disaster would be a public relations challenge for either political party. But GOP officials say the burden could be especially heavy for their party, whose reputation was tarred by the Bush administration’s bungling of Katrina and its aftermath in 2005.
And what should the “Bungler-in-Chief” be doing about all this?
“He’s involved, engaged, and getting briefings and working to make sure that the federal assistance is there, but that obviously state and local authorities have responsibilities,” press secretary Dana Perino says [in an article in USA Today]. “And by all accounts and purposes, they are following through on those.”
Bush is scheduled to speak at the convention Monday night.
“We’ll just continue to watch it, do what we need to do to make sure that all the plans are in place to make sure evacuations are implemented, that we provide for the other types of materials that they need, or — in terms of wood, or if they need ice — wood for boarding up windows,” Perino says.
OMG. I bet Dana Perino can’t wait for her tour of duty to be over.
OK. Let’s hope Gustav fizzles in the Gulf. And let’s give John McCain and his advisors some credit for signaling early that the GOP convention would have to take a back seat to developments in New Orleans and elsewhere. Delaying the convention would be a logistical and financial crisis — but if there is a real crisis in this country caused by a hurricane or anything else, putting the brakes on the convention would be the right thing to do. Sometimes that defines public relations better than anything else.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: GOP convention, Gustav
I’ll admit that I haven’t seen many of the speeches at the Obama/Biden/Clinton convention. Most of the big hitters don’t make it to the plate until after I’m asleep at 10 p.m. But I do catch a lot of the cable news shows. That’s fun these days because the cable news pundits on CNN, MSNBS and Fox have finally abandoned the notion that objectivity is the standard for news reporting. Game on.
And of all the changes taking place now that are reshaping the news media — the fact that the era of “he said/she said” journalism is all but over is huge. That’s one of the reasons for the success of The Huffington Post. You see this point-of-view journalism in virtually every blog being written now by reporters and other pundits. And you have commentators — like Lou Dobbs on CNN — who have gained big audiences and ratings by not even pretending to be fair and balanced.
Then you have Jon Stewart. He’s broadcasting The Daily Show (the primary source of news for the new wave of young voters, IMO) from the convention. And he had some thoughts about the “real” news business earlier this week, as reported by Howard Kurtz in The Washington Post article, “ No Joke: Jon Stewart Takes Aim At 24-Hour Cable News Beast.”
Jon Stewart ripped the cable news networks Monday as a “brutish, slow-witted beast” and castigated Fox News in particular as “an appendage of the Republican Party.”
Wearing a gray T-shirt, khaki pants and a healthy stubble, the “Daily Show” host told reporters at a University of Denver breakfast that Fox’s “fair and balanced” slogan is an insult “to people with brains” and that only “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace “saves that network from slapping on a bumper sticker. . . . Barack Obama could cure cancer and they’d figure out a way to frame it as an economic disaster.”
Ouch. But hey. Maybe Stewart knows what he is talking about. After all, The New York Times suggested that he is the most trusted man in America.
But it is a change now working its way throughout journalism — and it doesn’t just involve Fox News. If Fox is heading right — then MSNBC is racing just as hard in the opposite direction. We will see how soon The New York Times, Washington Post, et al, get into the race. My guess is pretty soon.
And one more thing about the story involving Stewart and Fox News. Kurtz asked for a comment from the news guys and gals. Here it is — and it’s pathetic, from the standpoint of public relations and journalism.
A Fox News spokesman, who was authorized to give the network’s response to Stewart’s comments but declined to be named, replied that “Jon’s clearly out of touch,” citing a Pew Research Center study showing the network has the most balanced audience in cable news, 39 percent Republicans and 33 percent Democrats. “But being out of touch with mainstream America is nothing new to Jon, as evidenced by the crash-and-burn ratings of this year’s Oscars telecast.”
The Fox News spokesman declined to be named; and Kurtz let him/her get away with it.
And you wonder why more and more people get their news from The Daily Show.
LOL
Categories: Public Relations
Tagged: Fox News, Jon Stewart
Well, I was thinking this morning while running about how much my life has changed recently. Yet how much it has remained the same. Fall Semester classes begin today at Kent State. This is the first time in nine years that I won’t be in the classroom — or working with senior-level public relations students at Flash Communications, Kent’s student-run public relations agency. I’m going to miss that association with students, in the classroom and on the job.
I still consider myself a teacher — although I’m retired from that now and back writing and doing PR work with Corporate Voices for Working Families. And I’m still running.
In fact yesterday I passed the 1,000 mile mark. And in the 26 or more years I have been running, I have only been under 1,000 miles for the year once — a few years ago because of a tennis injury. No more tennis.
Running 1,000 miles a year isn’t a great accomplishment. But doing it consistently for 25 years or more must say something. And I wish now I would have tried to have said it in a book. Just like the one I finished reading yesterday by Haruki Murakami, “ What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.”
Murakami is a well-known author with an international reputation and following. He also is a runner — completing some 25 marathons and a handful of triathlons. I’ll admit I haven’t read any of his novels. Maybe I will now. But what attracted me to the book were the similarities between the two of us when it comes to running — and what it has meant to our lives.
Here’s a few.
Murakami is 59; I’m 60. He began running in 1982; I started in 1981. While he doesn’t say this in the book, he has to be running around or more than 1,000 miles a year. When preparing for a marathon or doing what he calls other serious running, he pounds the pavement for about 150 miles or so a month. And he is still running marathons. Something that is out of the question for me at this point. But like me, running changed his life — for the better. And, yeah, he goes to bed by 10 p.m. and describes himself as a “morning person.”
He writes: “It’s a lifestyle, though, that doesn’t allow for much nightlife, and sometimes your relationships with other people become problematic.”
And one more passage from his book:
“Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that’s the essence of running and a metaphor for life — and for me, for writing as well. I believe many runners would agree.”
I agree. And even though I’m not at Kent State in the classroom or with students today, I’m still running. And still writing.
So it goes.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Haruki Murakami, running
Well, I’m writing this at 5 a.m. Saturday. But I’ve been up for about 90 minutes, drinking coffee, reading and getting ready to run. And I’ll admit it. I’m impressed that Barack Obama knew almost exactly what time I was going to get up before sending the text message that he has selected Joe Biden to be his running mate.
Here’s from the OnPolitics blog in USA Today, written by Mark Memmott and Jill Lawrence.
It’s 3:42 a.m. ET and the news is now confirmed. Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware has been chosen by Sen. Barack Obama to be the Democratic Party’s vice presidential nominee.
This post began, at 1:31 a.m. ET, with word that the Associated Press, CNN and The New York Times were all independently reporting Biden was the choice — citing unnamed officials with knowledge of the decision who spoke anonymously because they didn’t want to comment on-the-record before Obama’s campaign makes an official announcement.
Then, at 3:21 a.m. ET, we got our copy of the text message blast that the Obama campaign said all along it would use to announce the VP choice. It reads:
“Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3 p.m. ET on www.BarackObama.com.”
The campaign has also posted the news on its website.
Looks like Mark and Jill had to stay up all night waiting for the text message. That’s good. Someone has to provide content for these blog posts. And I wonder if the dead-tree edition of the Akron Beacon Journal will have the story. Haven’t heard the thud on the porch as yet. I’ll check as I leave for my run in about 30 minutes.
And I wonder what John McCain will do with his VP announcement. Can’t believe he is up at 3:30 a.m. texting people.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Joe Biden
