Archive for September, 2007
A Clever Name
As I meet with public relations people in CEE –- Central and Eastern Europe – countries like Slovenia and Croatia — I find them hungry to expand their knowledge about the world of influence, and I occasionally hear about a curious thing called, The London School of Public Relations (LSPR). There is nothing like LSPR in the [...]
Krugman: Hired Guns
Paul Krugman‘s OpEds in the New York Times are always clear and deliver a powerful message. I think his OpEd from yesterday might be one of his best.
Croatian PR Pros Meet
I found the Croatian public relations people I have met at this conference at Rovinj, Croatia, to be sharp. It’s the annual meeting of the Croatian PR Association, and I spoke before the group Friday on the trends and ethics of working in a New Media. I heard many questions over issues of blogs and [...]
Debat Update: NPR’s On the Media
This is interesting listening — NPR’s On the Media interviews Laura Rozen of MotherJones.org about the latest news on the evolving scandal over credibility involving ABC News and the network’s consultant, Alexis Debat, who has a bogus resume and credentials. In a separate interview on the subject, On the Media Interviewed ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider.
An Anniversary to Remember
This guest column by Gail Collins that appears in The New York Times is both inspiring and a reminder for many of us about the last equality.
Trust Me, I Speak For Washington …
Have no fear … America’s global imagine is in the hands of … well, hired guns. No, this isn’t a posting about Blackwater. Neil MacFarquhar reports in the New York Times today that the U.S. State Department has hired a couple of Arabic-speaking bloggers (one from Texas, by the way) to weigh-in on Middle Eastern [...]
Just Use Plain Language
Want people to listen? Just use plain language. Simple words. Whenever I hear someone who is being interviewed on broadcast news begin an answer by saying, “well, ah, basically …,” I am immediately suspicious. I don’t understand today’s popular overuse of the word, basically. It’s a junk word in most contexts — means nothing. I [...]
Vintage D.C. in Photo Archive
I love to see old photos of my hometown, Washington, D.C. And the District’s Department of Transportation recently has posted its historical archives of Washington photos online. It’s a wonderful online gallery. In one photo, I saw that gasoline cost 27 cents a gallon in 1960! I hope more communities follow this example.
Debat: The Lie that Got So Big
There is an interesting update about Alexis Debat – the con artist who conned Washington — by Barry Rubin in Israel Insider. Rubin alleges that Debat threatened to kill him. If Debat was on the payroll of ABC News at the time, it might lend credence to that old adage in the news business, “he’d [...]
A Political Leader with a Clear Voice
Washington, D.C.’s mayor, Adrian Fenty, is an impressive guy. You tend to forget his political affiliation because he is an inspiring leader and sends the message that he works for the people of D.C. rather than playing politics. That’s very unusual in this city. His is a refreshing style of leadership that I hope will [...]
Blogs Give Voice to an Audience
When WAMU, the local NPR radio station in Washington, D.C., abruptly dropped four (4) NPR national newscasts on the half-hour during NPR’s Morning Edition each weekday morning in favor of its own amateurish attempts at local news, I was among a number of people who objected. Some friends and I talked it over, and within [...]
Who Wasn’t Employing Debat?
Alexis Debat, who sold his apparently phony expertise as a “Homeland Security” and “terrorism expert” to ABC News, the Nixon Center and George Washington University, apparently was also getting money from the Pentagon through a defense contractor. This fact and even more on this unbelievable story of the guy who conned an astonishingly gullible Washington [...]
Winner: Convoluted Press Release of the Month
Breaking nearly every rule for clarity of message and effective communications, America Online (AOL) has issued a convoluted news release that mixes together two jargon-engorged technology announcements (which make no sense) with … oh, by the way, gee whiz, we almost forgot … news that the company is moving corporate headquarters to New York from [...]
Where is the French “Expert?”
Alexis Debat — now described by Wired as “The French Defense ‘Expert’ Who Snookered Washington” — apparently is maintaining a low profile. I would not be at all surprised to hear that he’s got a movie/book deal. This thing reminds me of “Catch Me If You Can” with Tom Hanks. Really, when you think about [...]
Everyone’s Got a Price
Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan has sharp criticism of the Bush administration’s massive federal spending and concern about the subprime mortgage meltdown but … he’s kept quiet until now. Why? Well, Greenspan clearly saved his criticism for a new book he is hyping in a major media blitz. Heck, the guy didn’t want to hurt [...]
Powell: “Who is this Guy?”
Former Secretary of State, General Colin Powell, is one of the latest figures to question a fraudulent interview with former ABC News reporter and consultant Alexis Debat. Howard Kurtz in Monday’s Washington Post quotes Powell as saying, “I didn’t realize the guy had created a whole industry of false interviews.”
