Shades of Tawana

Have you been following this desperate and bizarre story? It centers around a twisted 20-year-old Texan who went to Pennsylvania to throw her support behind the McCain campaign, and instead may have thrown the campaign.Apparently Joe the Plumber’s distant cousin concocted a story in which she was mugged and mutilated by a “6’4” black man”…… Continue reading Shades of Tawana

Voodoo Doctors

How much influence does post-debate coverage have in determining the evening’s ultimate winner and loser?A considerable amount, if you believe the WashPost’s media watcher Howard Kurtz who today turned his sights on the “spin doctors” who were working their “voodoo” at Ole Miss following Friday’s stand-off: “Obama may have won the insta-polls after Friday’s debate…… Continue reading Voodoo Doctors

Spray Wash

I wonder if McCain campaign COO Steve Schmidt pulled a Tom Cruise and hired his sister?Here’s campaign spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt’s explanation given to reporters who were barred from capturing Sarah Palin’s first date with a foreign leader. “The decision was made for this to be a photo spray with still cameras and video cameras only.”…… Continue reading Spray Wash

Family Values

I put myself in the dog house this past weekend — Sunday morning to be exact. It happened when I came across Daily Kos’s well-reasoned assertion that Gov. Palin’s fifth child may actually be her grandson, not her own son as she claims. How else can one explain the photo of her intact figure at…… Continue reading Family Values

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

“Reasonable Promotion and Publicity”

So what constitutes reasonable promotion and publicity: a pop on ET, feature in the LA Times, an OK magazine spread, all of the above? That’s the question the lawyers for the company that produced “National Lampoon’s Pledge This” want answered as they sue Paris Hilton for non-performance…of her PR duties.No one can accuse the blonde…… Continue reading “Reasonable Promotion and Publicity”

News Hole Partisans

Presidential politics was on the menu at Michael’s (alongside the $34 cobb salad) during a recent gathering of our men’s lunch group of PRs, journos and one special guest, the head of a magazine publishing company.The day’s topic explored the variables that might still make a measurable impact on the candidates’ respective fates. It included…… Continue reading News Hole Partisans

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