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Entries categorized as ‘Uncategorized’

Corporate Voices and social media

September 5, 2008 · No Comments

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.

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Sarah Palin: The hockey mom scores

September 4, 2008 · 2 Comments

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?

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Sarah Palin, public perception and running

August 30, 2008 · No Comments

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.

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Gustav, conventions and public relations

August 29, 2008 · No Comments

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.

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Haruki Murakami and Kent State

August 25, 2008 · No Comments

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.

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A wake-up message from Barack

August 23, 2008 · No Comments

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.

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A long weekend inside the Beltway

August 18, 2008 · 2 Comments

Well, I’m back. I was in Washington most of last week with my new gig, Corporate Voices for Working Families.  And I had the opportunity to be involved again with an announcement that actually did have some news value and received some national news coverage, in print and online. The idea was to recognize members of Congress for their personal and legislative support of polices that help working families.

One of the many things I’ve learned during the past few months is that Congress has no uniform set of polices that govern how each member operates his or her own office. In effect, each operates as an independent, small business — and the range of benefits provided to staffers varies widely.  So Corporate Voices in conjunction with Working Mother magazine highlighted the “best of Congress.”

And being in Washington gave me the opportunity to spend some time gawking at the memorials and other http://prontherun.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/dscn0072.jpg landmarks. During all the years that I’ve been going to D.C. I always try to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial — the Wall. I did that Saturday, during a walking tour that took me from the Washington Monument to beyond the Tidal Basin. (I had a longer tour on foot during the mid-1980s during the Marine Corps Marathon. But that’s another story.)

Anyway, the emotional pull to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial remains just as strong for me today as the first time I visited years ago. Maybe because Vietnam was my generation’s war — although thankfully, I was able to sit it out at Kent State during my first tour of duty at the university now almost 40 years ago. Still, there is the starkness of the Wall — listing more than 58,000 names.  And people throughout this nation and around the world — family, friends, strangers — still leave items at the base of the Wall to salute those who went to Vietnam and never returned.

http://prontherun.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/dscn0082.jpg This is all history now of course. Many strolling through the park were not alive during Vietnam. And I sat on a park bench Saturday listening the the park rangers and veterans talk about Vietnam and the memorial. And I thought to myself, good grief. How did we as a nation let that happen?

And how many names will there be on a Wall honoring those who don’t come back from Iraq?

Even though it seems the presidential election has been going on now for four years, the nominating conventions begin next week. Let’s see if there is some serious discussions of issues: Iraq, the economy, education.

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Mainstream media and beach volleyball

August 11, 2008 · No Comments

Fairly interesting weekend for us fans of beach volleyball and the vocation we used to call journalism. George Bush had some quality beach volleyball time with Misty May-Treanor. And the pooh-bahs in the media got to slap the ball back and forth all weekend trying to figure out why the mainstream media were late to the John Edwards implosion.

I think the pundits were having every bit as much fun as W. First, Edwards proved once again that the oldest public relations trick in the book — dumping a bad-news story late in the day on Friday — no longer works.  Even with the Olympics getting under way, the Edwards story received plenty of attention on TV, in print and online.

And beyond the story of Edwards and his infidelity — and the fact that Elizabeth knew but didn’t tell — is what this says about journalism these days. Especially the widening gap between old and new media. There are plenty of articles about how the press handled this situation, but Howard Kurtz has an interesting perspective in The Washington Post this morning, “ Affair Put Press In A Touchy Situation.”

The whispered allegations about John Edwards were an open secret that was debated in every newsroom and reported by almost none.

The story of Edwards’s affair with a former campaign aide became so widely known — what a Slate blogger called “undernews” — that by last week there seemed little point in the mainstream media gatekeepers’ keeping it isolated outside their moat. And yet, even as some national news organizations tried halfheartedly to confirm the tawdry tale, they ignored it in public — wary of the National Enquirer, of Edwards’s dismissal of “tabloid trash,” of wading once again into the swamp of sexual scandal without definitive proof.

And Kurtz gets to a key fact. The mainstream media are reluctant to report stories unless they can confirm the facts. In the case of Edwards, there was no court case, no official source, for journalists to use as the basis for the story. Edwards denied it. And he denied it vehemently. Kurtz writes:

The fact that big newspapers, magazines and networks have standards — that is, they refuse to print every stray rumor just because it’s “out there” — is one of their strengths. But in the latter stages of this case, it made them look clueless. Perhaps there is a middle ground where media outlets can report on a burgeoning controversy without vouching for the underlying allegations, being candid with readers and viewers about what they know and don’t know.

In the end, the much-derided MSM were superfluous, their monopoly a faded memory. People have hundreds of ways to obtain information in today’s instantaneous media culture, and are capable of reaching their own conclusions about what is reliable and what is not.

So among many other changes that are talking place in journalism, I think we are looking at the end of objectivity as one of the defining values of news reporting. The era of “he said, she said” is coming to a close. Whether that is good or bad remains to be seen. But it is a fact.

Here’s a story by Jonathan Dube on Poynteronline, “Lessons From Huffington Post.com.“

How does The Huffington Post cover the news differently from mainstream media organizations?

Arianna Huffington

Huffington: A lot of the discontent with traditional journalism is because too many reporters have forgotten that the highest calling of journalists is to ferret out the truth, consequences be damned. Unfortunately, this is a concept that has fallen out of favor with too many journalists, who are obsessed with a false view of “balance” and “objectivity” and have become addicted not to the tireless pursuit of truth, but to the tireless promotion of the misguided notion that every story has two sides. And that the truth is supposed to be found somewhere in the middle. But not every story has two sides and the truth is often found on one side or the other. The earth is not flat. Evolution is a fact. Global warming is a fact. And there are definitely not two sides to the proposition that Iraq is our generation’s greatest foreign policy disaster. It is. Period.

HuffPost eschews the misleading “on the one hand, but on the other” approach to news because not every story has an “other hand.” Also, HuffPost doesn’t pretend not to have opinions, but it does make them transparent.

Let the media games begin. And I’ll bet John Edwards would give anything today to have the opportunity to trade places with W. and just spend some time on the beach playing volleyball.

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John Edwards: Let the Games begin

August 9, 2008 · 1 Comment

I watched some of the opening festivities of the Olympics last night. Is LeBron James the captain of the American team? He’s the one who gets the most face time on NBC. And when did professional basketball become an Olympic sport anyway? Gee. I digress. And actually, the news about John Edwards and the great American sport that combines sex, lies and politics was much more fun to watch.

By now I’m sure most everyone knows the story. John Edwards admitted to having an affair with a woman who he met in 2006. Here’s from The Washington Post story, “ Edwards Admits He Had An Affair.”

Former presidential candidate John Edwards admitted yesterday that he had an extramarital affair with a filmmaker working for his campaign and repeatedly lied about it, but he denied that he fathered her 5-month-old baby.

Edwards said that he is “ashamed” of his conduct and that “it is inadequate to say to the people who believed in me that I am sorry.” In the course of several campaigns, he said in a statement, “I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. If you want to beat me up — feel free. You cannot beat me up more than I have already beaten up myself.”

It’s naive to think that powerful, wealthy and attractive men like John Edwards are not going to have opportunities for sexual relationships with women who they meet when away from home, in hotels, whatever. That doesn’t make it right. But it’s a fact. And I’m not sure that the majority of the American public really cares about marital infidelity. If they do, then there are a whole lot of hypocrites out there who set a higher standard for politicians and government officials they they do for others — including themselves. Let’s face it. Gennifer Flowers didn’t derail Bill Clinton’s journey to the White House.

But we don’t like being lied to. And that’s the rub now for both John — and Elizabeth — Edwards.

The National Enquirer first reported the story in October. ( The Huffington Post says it first reported the story in September. Sorting that out would require some real reporting on my part. So let’s just continue.)

Edwards, of course, strongly denied at the time that he had an affair — and he did from his point of view the only honorable thing: he attacked the Enquirer.

According to The Washington Post article:

In October, Edwards, 55, dismissed an initial report in the National Enquirer that he had had an affair with Hunter, 44, as “lies” and “tabloid trash.” He said in the statement yesterday that he is willing to take a paternity test to establish that he is not the father of Hunter’s girl.

And in his statement yesterday admitting the affair, Edwards said:

When a supermarket tabloid told a version of the story, I used the fact that the story contained many falsities to deny it. But being 99% honest is no longer enough.

“A supermarket tabloid.” Oh, John give us a break. Liar. Liar. Pants on fire. Would it have been different if the report had first surfaced in The Washington Post? And for that matter, why didn’t it? Again from The Post article:

The Edwards admission comes amid growing criticism of major news organizations for not reporting the allegations, even as they were debated on Web sites from Slate to National Review, in the North Carolina press and on Fox News, and were joked about on late-night comedy shows.

“We feel our reporting and our investigation have been vindicated,” National Enquirer editor in chief David Perel said. “It took so long because Edwards was just so bold in lying about it.”

Lessons here?

First, as an elected official or someone campaigning for public office, if you are going to have a sexual relationship with someone other than your wife/husband, expect it to become public eventually. Then no point lying about it. That just makes it worse.

Second, I think the “old” media — The Post, The New York Times, etc. — showed a lot of restraint here, mostly because Edwards was so vehement in his denials. But I’m not so sure you can criticize The National Enquirer or any other media outlet for going with the story — when it is true.

Third, I’m not sure I agree with the charges of a liberal media bias in this case. Although the story of Larry Craig’s foot-tapping in an airport men’s room sure became national news in less time than it took this one. One reason? Maybe because of Elizabeth Edwards and her well-documented battle with cancer. Again, from The Post article:

Numerous journalists said privately that their appetite for the story was dulled by sympathy for Elizabeth Edwards. Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter said Elizabeth Edwards’s health is an obvious factor, adding: “To say the journalists should not consider that is reprehensible. Journalists can be human beings.”

And you have to feel sorry for Elizabeth Edwards and her family. Who would want to go through a situation like this? But — the fact is she lied as well. John told her about the affair — and she lied about it, allowing him to continue in the race for president. Read Lee Stranahan’s post on The Huffington Post, “Say It Ain’t So, Elizabeth — You Knew But Supported His Run For President?”

So we’ll see how this plays out if in fact Elizabeth Edwards is going to speak at the Democratic Convention.

In the meantime, it’s back to the Olympics. Maybe LeBron is in one of the swim relays.

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We’ll always have Paris

August 7, 2008 · No Comments

Well, as Rick said to llsa as he was putting her on the plane to leave Casablanca: “We’ll always have Paris.” And thanks to John McCain’s stupid attack ad, we may have Paris to talk about throughout the campaign. There is a communications lesson here. But first. Let’s play the video.

I’m not much into movie metaphors, but some critics argue that that scene depicts the last time that America could control her own destiny. I digress. But consider that point as we continue on the path to November.

Anyway, here’s the story. And it’s from The Huffington Post: “Paris Hilton Shows Up John McCain.” The Paris Hilton video has already had around 3 million views — and has attracted as much, if not more, attention than did McCain’s ad. Here’s The Huffington Post story:

Two lessons from this viral Paris Hilton striking back at “wrinkly , white-haired guy” John McCain on “Funny Or Die”:

(1) It’s gotten 2,812,325 views in 18 hours.
(2) If you’re going to mount an attack ad, make sure it’s not capable of being completely skewered by Paris Hilton in a much better, funnier, and cleverer ad that your opponent didn’t even have to pay for.

I think Obama and his campaign people understand the wild new world of online journalism and communications. Not sure about McCain.

But if he doesn’t get it, then we’ll always have Paris.

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