Reputation management

As the digital revolution has evolved online, blogs are taking more of a role to express freedom of thought and voice. For example, human rights organizations occasionally support independent bloggers who target messages to people living under governments that restrict free flow of information and news. There’s one big problem, however. The ordinary people in many of those countries with Internet access will never see a blog. Here’s why –

Many bloggers use free Blogspot blogs, and oppressive governments in countries such as China, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt and India … and others … have the ability to block all access within those countries to any Blogspot blog … and they do. As a matter of fact, any blog with a URL such as … yourname.blogspot.com or yourname.typepad.com … cannot be accessed by people in those countries. When governments have that power of censorship, they negate any attempts to influence … whether the general public or the government itself.

There is a solution … register a specific domain name or URL through a service such as GoDaddy.com and import the free Blogspot or Typepad into a standalone Wordpress site. In that way, the site cannot be blocked and is available for people to see around the world, provided they have access to the Internet.

“Today’s news media is clueless and scared.”  A friend who was a 30 year veteran of the newspaper business recently made that candid statement about today’s condition of the news media.  And, you know what?  Even though his statement uses a pretty broad brush, I think he’s mostly correct.

Let me provide an example:  Have you heard any reporter challenge either McCain or Clinton to explain how they would lift the tax on gasoline this summer?  Heck, Congress takes a year just to clip its fingernails.  There’s not much happening on Capital Hill except more funding of the war, and there’s certainly no one up there wishing to ruffle feathers with the oil companies out of fear of losing big bucks when the next election rolls around.  But, have you heard just one reporter ask either candidate … how?!

Here’s why the reporters are timid:  (1) With all the cutbacks in the news business, they are scared of losing their jobs or (2) they are afraid they’ll get kicked off the glamor assignment of riding on the campaign bus or (3) it hasn’t occurred to them that it’s okay to ask any intelligent questions.  

The once-admirable trade of being a news reporter … a journalist … has today become dominated by a flash and trash mob, and don’t rock the boat.  TV news is just a dummied-down form of show biz … except for the NewsHour on PBS.  Newspapers have cut newsroom staffs to the point where those left are terrified of losing their jobs.

So, the politicians with all their big ideas mostly get a free ride.  Yeah, I think my friend was right.

I urge you to check out BlogStrategies.net.

So many acquaintances have asked me to assist with developing and launching blogs that I have taken my show online at BlogStrategies.net: step-by-step instructions to create a self-hosted or independent blog that can be customized for a business, online newsroom, organization, or individual. The outside services I suggest are the same ones I use. And if you don’t have the time or inclination to launch a blog, I’ll do it for you at a nominal fee and in less than 24 hours. It’s become a passionate hobby.

By the way, “self-hosted” means a Wordpress blog that is using a professional Web hosting company rather than a free service over which you have no control.

My gosh … did Elizabeth Edwards get it precisely right about the trivial and clueless nature of today’s mainstream news media in her call-it-like-it-is OpEd in The New York Times.

“If voters want a vibrant, vigorous press, apparently we will have to demand it,” she writes, and then, she challenges all of us to raise our voices of complaint. Good for her. More people need to speak out over the sorry state of the media.

“Shoddy! Tawdry! …” is how Frank Rich began his column in yesterday’s New York Times about the absolutely disgraceful behavior of ABC anchorman Charles Gibson and his co-moderator, George Stephanopoulos, during the Obama-Clinton debate last week. It was every bit that and worse, as dozens of columnists and observers have written.

But I believe one important point has not been addressed — neither Gibson nor Stephanopoulos is a serious journalist. Gibson is a news reader … has been for years; Stephanopoulos was a political consultant for Bill Clinton then turned TV commentator. These guys are more aligned with today’s TV News slant toward entertainment and fluff than real journalism. While neither is to ever be taken seriously, their combined performance last week was pathetic by any standard.

By the way … among all the hostile coverage of the less than dynamic duo, I enjoyed this story from the Los Angeles Times in which the producer of ABC “World News,” Jon Banner, calls his program a “performance.” Send in the clowns …

At a time when America’s infrastructure is suffering from federal budget cutbacks — bridges crumbling, layoffs, subprime scandal, financial pressures on Americans, skyrocketing gas prices — Air Force Major Stephen Goldfein steered $50-million to two of his cronies who hoped to set up a private company to … get this … “jazz up the Air Force’s Thunderbirds air show.” No company actually existed yet but they sure could have done something with the loot.

The Washington Post has the full story on Goldfein and his behavior, just another example of the level of corruption and profiteering. No word yet on how much he hoped to pocket.

The Pentagon inside dealings and scandals have been so incredible in recent years that Defense Secretary Gates should just hire a team of crisis communications pros to handle damage-control.