Back when I was toiling in the Hollywood PR game, from New York no less, our boutique entertainment firm had the fortune of working with M*A*S*H star Alan Alda as he segued from the small screen to the big.The first film he wrote, directed and starred in, “The Seduction of Joe Tynan,” cast him as…… Continue reading Sen. Joe Tynan
Category: Barack Obama
Dem Past Mistakes
To engage or not to engage…that is the question. For as long as I can remember, good crisis managers stressed avoiding knee-jerk reactions to unpleasant characterizations in the media of your company or person.Crisis pros advised: “Why draw attention to something that will disappear with the next news cycle?” “You’ll only make matters worse.” “Time…… Continue reading Dem Past Mistakes
Thinning Press Cred
If you thought Ari Fleischer and Dana Perino were/are liars and apologists for this failed and deceitful administration, get ready to deal with Brooke Buchanan (pictured at left).The McCain mouthpiece (and former Bush Cheney comms. director in Nevada) already is in Bush-style deception mode, if her quip to an AP reporter seeking comment on the…… Continue reading Thinning Press Cred
“The Spirit of the Cover”
It would be fairly easy to jump on The New Yorker-bashing bandwagon today for its satirical cover featuring Barack and Michelle Obama as fictionalized Muslim terrorist and fist-bumping radical, respectively.It would be easy if one didn’t truly get the shock culture of Condé Nast wherein David Remnick’s glossed-out siblings have few qualms about popping former…… Continue reading “The Spirit of the Cover”
“Trained in Spin”
The Washington Post’s main media man Howard Kurtz today profiles Senator Obama’s newly anointed press secretary Linda Douglass, a former broadcast TV political reporter.In the course of the interview, Ms. Douglass makes an observation about jumping to “the dark side”: “The thing that really made me feel at peace with the decision is this conversation…… Continue reading “Trained in Spin”
A Blown Nomination
Dear Hillary,Yes, I see the daily e-mails from you, Terry, Bill, Chelsea and Geoff, but I’m afraid they’ve fallen short in pulling me back into your fold.Do you remember the PR advice I offered up in January and February? Be authentic, lay off Sen. Obama, and direct all your attention to this administration’s failed policies…… Continue reading A Blown Nomination
Debatable Instincts
A firm for which I once toiled had a policy that discouraged its professionals from commenting in the media on the public relations quagmires of others.I think it stemmed from an incident in which one of our Asian colleagues publicly skewered the PR strategy for a very high profile crisis. One problem: it was our…… Continue reading Debatable Instincts