As I followed this weekend’s New York Times-Wall Street Journal email news alert war over the fates of Lehman and Merrill, I started wondering which dynamics really played the biggest roles in contributing to these once venerable firms’ de-existence early this morning.Few pundits disagree that both took excessive (reckless) investment risks. And most recognize the…… Continue reading Low Profiles
Category: media
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
Wag the Immigrants
As if we needed another reminder of how closely aligned Senator McCain is to the Bush Administration, yesterday the Bushies threw the McCain camp a big wet one. In a political maneuver straight out of Wag the Dog, the Feds chose the first day of the DNC to stage “the largest single-workplace immigration raid in…… Continue reading Wag the Immigrants
Sen. Joe Tynan
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
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
Russia’s Olympic Surprise
With the world media fully invested in Beijing (e.g., “…the press workroom is the largest in Olympic history with 971 broadband-equipped workstations, 680 high-speed network connections and an additional 206 for photographers…”), the Russians gambled that the court of public opinion would be sufficiently sidetracked to permit a brazen attack on Georgia, its pro-Western, NATO-allied…… Continue reading Russia’s Olympic Surprise
The Decisive Dozen
Maybe I was brainwashed as outside PR counsel for the organization’s 150th anniversary, or simply smitten with the special World War II photo book it created to mark the opening of the national World War II Memorial, but it’s certainly worth noting that the “world’s largest and oldest news organization” today announced that it has…… Continue reading The Decisive Dozen
Embargoed Instinct
One bought into the pitch. The other didn’t. I’m talking about your two favorite mainstream gadget gurus who today both reviewed Samsung’s iPhone wannabe, the Instinct.Curious to see both Mossberg and Pogue, let alone The AP, all time their reviews for today when the product doesn’t bow at retail until June 20.This is three weeks…… Continue reading Embargoed Instinct
McClellan Comes Clean
In what can only be characterized as a cleansing of his soul, Politico today broke the exclusive that former Bush mouthpiece Scott McClellan, a once-frequent subject of this blog, has penned a tell-all. And we hear it won’t be pretty for his former puppeteers. “The eagerly awaited book, while recounting many fond memories of Bush…… Continue reading McClellan Comes Clean
Manage This!
I had totally forgotten about my post two years ago featuring Chief Executive magazine’s then editor Bill Holstein’s rant against PR people.It wasn’t until PR Newser’s Jason Chupick linked back to the “Jennifer and Jasons All” item in his post today based on Mr. Holstein’s latest (yet not-unfounded) first-person diss of a broad swath of…… Continue reading Manage This!