Two musicians from the 100th Army Reserve Band depart a United flight in Chicago.

If you have taken an airline flight recently, chances are you will hear an announcement from the gate agent to invite military personnel in uniform to board early. I think it’s a gracious gesture to thank servicemen and women who have been deployed and fought in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, there’s always some character out to dishonestly take advantage of the system.

According to musicians in the 100th Army Reserve Band at Fort Knox, Kentucky – reservists who have not been deployed to anyplace but concerts in the U.S. -  the commander has ordered band members to wear Army fatigue uniforms when traveling “to remind the American people that the country is at war” and to take advantage of special airline benefits, such as early boarding and preferred seating, including First Class.

Many, many reservists in the U.S. have been deployed – some multiple times – and have made great sacrifices. They should be recognized and honored.

This is not about the Army band reservists who are police officers, educators, college students, and legal assistants who get together for one weekend each month to perform. They are only following the orders of their commander by wearing fatigues while traveling.

My beef is with the band’s commander who has given an order based on nothing apparently but his own agenda or bias. Aside from the fact that the U.S. is not in a declared war, the band commander has ordered his men to do something that is downright dishonest, in my opinion.

The band’s commander is a chief warrant officer who apparently feels entitled to make-up Army policy that I thought was only the purview of Army brass at the Pentagon.

The way I see it, the airlines and all of us salute military personnel, including reservists, who have proudly served in Harm’s way in battle. Many have been wounded and maimed. But, it is a dishonor to the military and flag for some chief warrant officer to decide what the American people need to know and to order his men to do something that is not honest, in my opinion.

Photographers - professional and amateur - face censorship, despite the U.S. Constitution.

At first, I thought what I was experiencing while taking photos was my own paranoia. But, then, friends in the news media have been sharing countless stories of being stopped, blocked, questioned, detained and arrested by police across the country … police who clearly are overreaching First Amendment rights, all in the name of fighting terrorism.

TV and newspaper photographers are now stopped all the time by overzealous police or security people, some demanding to see and delete the photos.

The paranoia is not us, I suggest, but them.

AMENDMENT I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

I never thought I would be on the same side of the fence – sort of – with veteran newspaper columnist George Will but his piece in The Washington Post – A snapshot of our times - squarely nails the growing threat to First Amendment rights. It’s a good piece.

George Will, conservative columnist.

Will writes of two fellows in Los Angeles, both avid photographers, who have not only been prevented from taking photos while in public places but have had their names and information entered into a “Suspicious Activity Report program. The federal government encouraged local law enforcement agencies to adopt its guidelines for gathering information ‘that could indicate activity or intentions related to’ terrorism,” Will writes.

From the chance that potential bad guys might take photos of targets, the feds surmise that photography of anything related to the country’s infrastructure could be an indicator of terrorism. Hence, photographers are suspect when taking pictures “with no apparent aesthetic value” (words from the suspicious-activity guidelines).

A close friend reminded me that looking back over history, governments have often created bogeymen to keep people fearful, hateful, on edge and/or obedient. Today, it’s “in the name of fighting terrorism” which translated means justifying big budgets and control of power by playing the fear card. Not unlike, really, how Hitler blamed Jews for everything wrong and vile.

Here’s more on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution from Cornell University Law School – http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/First_amendment

“I’ve been surrounded by phenomenally talented people for years … people I admire, people who have mentored me,” he says.

He knows the competition. So, he works harder, pushing his natural talent farther and farther. Long, exhausting hours of rehearsal.

He has labored in the fields of operatic song for decades, but has only in the past year risen to the starring role for which he long prepared himself.

After years of determination and practice, usually as a backup opera tenor, Jay is taking to the stage of The Metropolitan Opera in the starring role of Siegfried in Richard Wagner‘s formidable opera, Götterdämmerung or Twilight of the Gods.

Tenor Jay Hunter Morris ... the genuine "Ziggy."

He is starring with soprano legend Deborah Voigt who plays Brünnhilde. The operatic performance is a staggering five hours long and is the conclusion of Wagner’s fabled, four-epic Ring Cycle about treachery, death, deception, mythical gods, magic swords, love, hate, dense forests with strange creatures and dragons.

Jay got his big career break late in 2011. He was called in to replace the original tenor for “Siegfried,” who had become ill. Jay knew the part, and his performance at The Met in New York was spellbinding. Audiences – whether at The Met or watching HD telecasts around the world – were thrilled. Critics called his singing and acting, “A genuine triumph.”

Words like “genuine” and “authentic” are easily used to describe Jay Hunter Morris, whether watching him sing, perform or just visiting over dinner.

The Met's newest star tenor gets prominent billing.

It has been a long road for Jay since growing up in Paris, Texas, where his father – who died when Jay was age 12 – was a Southern Baptist music minister, and his mother a church organist. But, the humble and real roots and dreams of his upbringing firmly ground him, even today.

We recently sat in a New York restaurant, bragging about our respective wives, children and personal things that matter most in our lives.

“My voice hurts, my brain hurts, my body hurts … I hurt all over,” he said, slumping for a moment in our booth at Lincoln. Why?! He has just finished another eight-hour day of rehearsing on stage with The Met’s orchestra and the other singers. But, all of his energy and sparkle returned when he talked about his actress-wife Meg and son, Cooper Jack. Grounding on what’s important to life and a shared knowing that pretension gets us nowhere.

I think that one of the many things that thrilled audiences about Jay’s performance of Siegfried – whether they watched in person at The Met in New York or in theaters globally on live HD television – was his believability, he accessibility. He brought the character to life. Most audiences had never seen or heard him before but his Siegfried was dramatic, exciting and the stuff of which makes for overnight legend.

Watch Jay Hunter Morris: A New Siegfried for the Ring on PBS. See more from SundayArts.

Heck, I don’t care whether you enjoy opera or not, Jay’s “Ziggy” (as he calls his character) reminds me a little of Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow in “Pirates of the Caribbean,” with his own style of sparkle, energy and thrilling voice. I also believe it’s only a matter of time before Jay Hunter Morris develops a crossover second career as motion picture star.

How does he muster the stamina for such a demanding operatic role?

“It’s storytelling,” Jay says. “I know this story so well … I’ve sung it so many times that when the stage lights come on and the orchestra begins, I just find myself in Ziggy and sing the story.” With a lot of passion, I might add.

Not since the late Luciano Pavarotti have I found a tenor’s voice so captivating, so rich, so passionate. On stage, he is all charisma. Similar to Pavarotti’s magic but all his own.

Tickets to be there at The Met to witness Götterdämmerung are sold out. But The Met’s live HD global telecast of Götterdämmerung is Saturday, February 11, and probably showing in a nearby movie theatre. It is something not to be missed.

Connect with Jay Hunter Morris on Twitter.com – @JayHunterMorris

If you are ever visiting Hawaii’s Big Island when one of its volcanos is erupting, there’s a chance you may see Mick Kalber in action with his incredible Sony HDW-F900R HDCAM CineAlta High Definition Camera.

That's Mick in the white t-shirt, perched precariously on the side of a volcano as molten lava flows by.

In a conscious life-change, Mick moved to Hawaii 30 years ago and reinvented his career from that of TV news photographer to the world’s leading “volcanographer,” a term he coined.

His story underscores and brings to life the ever-increasing demand for unique video, even from an island in the Pacific with no television stations.

As a volcanographer, he has captured film and video images of volcanic eruptions on Hilo that we have seen on TV news, documentaries and motion pictures. It’s a far cry from his former life.

“I wanted an adventure. I had visited a friend on the big island and fell in love with the place and wanted to find another line of work,” he says.

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While Hilo has no TV stations, it has volcanoes – active, incredible, picturesque and dangerous volcanos. Mick bought a video camera and started capturing spectacular images of eruption like no one had ever before seen … up close.

His luck began with the high-fountaining eruption of Kilauea – red-hot molten lava shooting 1,200 feet high. He was there to capture the action, and TV news stations were ready to pay for his video.

“I’d never seen anything remotely like that! The landscape looked like the moon … and here was incandescent liquid rock doing what rock is not supposed to do … jetting into the air nearly as high was any building in the world … the sight boggled the mind!

“That activity lasted less than a day … not long enough for other photographers to get to Hilo. But it occurred every three to four weeks, like clockwork. Thus began the last 30 years of my documenting the world’s most active volcano.

“The massive 2,000 degree eruption gave way to a fissure, the formation of a lava lake, which fed flows to the communities of Kapa`ahu and Kalapana, destroying several dozen houses in late 1986 and entering the ocean for the first time in ten years. I knew then I had a story to tell.”

That historic eruption of Kilauea led to Mick’s first documentary, “VolcanoScapes … Pele’s March to the Pacific.”

Since then, his stock footage has appeared in the Hollywood movie, “Volcano,” TV commercials, and countless programs not only on TV news but The History Channel, Discovery and National Geographic. He found that the volcanos have given him a new and prosperous career. But, there have been dangers, too.

“I’ve had methane (gas formed by organic material that decomposes w/o oxygen) explosions go off under my feet. There are two types … one with a flame and one without. Fortunately the one that went up my pant leg had no flame. Scared the bejesus outta me though.

“I’ve melted countless pairs of shoes, tripod legs, video recorders … and have singed my eyebrows and hair any number of times. Burns on my arms and face have been minor … kind of like a mild sunburn.

“I do not wear protective clothing when shooting the lava flows. The main reason is that if it’s too hot for me to be there, it’s definitely too hot for my gear.

“Stood at the Pu`u `O`o Vent (active bent of the current eruption) and shot straight down into the throat … some 400 feet. I had to be right at the edge with crumbling cinders continually breaking off. To get there, I stepped over cracks a foot or more wide to stand somewhere I know will no longer exist at some point … but hopefully not while I’m standing there.

“Had I not been shooting, I probably wouldn’t have had the nerve to do it, but the camera functions kept me distracted from the dangers. And, I got shots of a 60 foot high undulating dome of lava unlike anything I’ve seen before or since. But for the longest time afterward I was thinking, What the hell was I doing up there!”

Mick says his greatest pleasure in documenting Kilauea is not making money from selling stock footage or DVDs but rather witnessing “one of nature’s most amazing spectacles, and to be able to share those sights and sounds with people around the world.”

A career reinvented … passion and pleasure in his work … success in a specialized business … and, volcanos that keep erupting and keep him in business. That’s Mick Kalber’s recipe for happiness.

Check out Mick’s websites – VolcanoScapes.com and www.tropicalvisions.com.

Special thanks to Ann Kalber for the photos.

Washington Post photographer John McDonnell and I were visiting recently during a holiday get together, and the pieces of a puzzle all seemed to fall into place. John said that one individual came on the scene in the late 1970s who gained immense image-shaping influence, and his style singularly has changed how we perceive the world, events, happenings and major leaders ever since. He presented a brilliant thesis about the late Michael Deaver, and I agreed with every word.

Michael Deaver

“Mike Deaver was the single person who changed the way we see the world,” John said. “Deaver’s style of image-making extended far beyond his skills to position the image of Ronald Reagan for the presidency, and then, as Deputy White House Chief of Staff in the Reagan Administration, shaped the Reagan perception into legend.”

John should know. As a distinguished photojournalist, he has covered nearly ever major story in America over the last 40 years.

“It was all about the perfect image and soundbite for the media,” John said. “When I would want photos of Reagan, I would find him in a room with perfect lighting to favor Reagan. Deaver had ordered that. I would be ushered in by Deaver – ahead of patrons who had paid $10,000 to meet Reagan – for immediate access to get outstanding photos. Deaver and the patrons knew the influential power of the media’s images.”

John and I are in solid agreement – The art of three simple and clear messages that leave lasting and favorable memories, the perfect images, and the devices for staging events that change how the world sees things all came from Deaver’s genius and has been copied by very savvy business people and politicians ever since. Few people and companies back then and even now ever consider the image-enhancing payoff of lighting an event for TV and still photographers. And, that’s only a small part of the Deaver magic.

Ever wonder why there has consistently been so much great media coverage of events staged by the late Steve Jobs and Apple? Everything was provided for the media to get stories – Hollywood-style spectacle, passionate and authentic messages, timing, purpose, lighting, access. Nothing left to chance but rather all control over the media. Jobs knew and used Deaver-style.

In my most recent book, Making News in the Digital Era, I wrote my admiration for Mike Deaver, with whom I had worked. Here’s an excerpt:

Perhaps no person has left a greater and more positive imprint on the practice of strategic communications worldwide over the last couple of decades than the late Michael Deaver.

Mike Deaver was sometimes accused of being an expert at media manipulation. It is my guess that whoever alleged that harbored a good deal of envy for his talent. There is no question that Deaver made the contemporary concept of “photo op” into an art form to achieve the rewards of great media coverage, whether “spontaneously” manipulated or otherwise.

Deaver became famous as the image-maker for President Ronald Reagan. He was a master at staging visually memorable symbolic events—from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the fortieth anniversary commemoration of the invasion at Omaha beach. Deaver’s artistry created lasting impressions on millions of us around the world.

Former first lady and friend Nancy Reagan said Deaver’s greatest skill “was in arranging what were known as good visuals—televised events or scenes that would leave a powerful symbolic image in people’s minds.”

Deaver was nearly always behind-the-scenes, advising not only President Reagan but countless other leaders—heads of state to titans of industry—on the value of speaking with a clear voice and wise perspective. He was a leading example of people who have changed the world by knowing how to communicate a message, inspire greatness, and create a lasting great impression.

His secret for great communications was to help a leader develop an ability to translate the most complex issue into just a couple of clear sentences using simple words that would lead to positive change. In other words, leaders should take a moment to step back from all the chaos, look at the big picture of what needs to be done, and say it—in a few easy to understand words.

After leaving the White House, Deaver took his quiet manner and enormous talent to independent PR agency Edelman Worldwide, where he reshaped the practice of public relations and helped successful organizations around the world become even more successful. There, I learned from him and treasured his friendship.

Just before his passing in August 2007, Deaver was asked by his colleagues at Edelman to describe the few great communicators he had known, including President Reagan and Dan Edelman, founder of Edelman Worldwide.

This is what Deaver said:

“They, and a few of us, got into the world of communications when it was a world of print … then radio and TV and now the Internet, e-mails and blogs … and yet their values remain the same today—

• Know who you are
• Be open and transparent
• Be ready for change

“But the world IS CHANGING,” Deaver told his colleagues and friends. He quoted an excerpt from a column by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times. Friedman had written:

“When everyone has a blog, a MySpace page, or Facebook entry, everyone is a publisher. When everyone has a cell phone with a camera in it, everyone is a paparazzo. When everyone can upload a video on YouTube, everyone is a filmmaker. We’re all public figures now. The blogosphere has made the global discussion so much richer—and each of us so much more transparent. In this transparent world, ‘how’ you live your life and ‘how’ you conduct your business matters more than ever, because so many people can now see into what you do and tell so many other people about it on their own without any editor.”

What was important to Deaver was “how” we differentiate ourselves in a world that has become so exposed and so easily copied. He talked of getting your “hows” right—how you build trust, how you collaborate, how you lead, and how you say you’re sorry.

“More people than ever will know about it when you do—or don’t,” he said.

Office workers in Washington in the aftermath of the August 23, 2011 earthquake.

TV news outfits maintain freelance cameras at places like the White House and sometimes on Capitol Hill and at the Pentagon. But, those crews are rarely equipped to be mobile.

Because of severe budget cuts, TV news has become increasingly studio-locked. It’s low-budget and generally accepted to have celebrity news readers sit in studios and read stories or interview other reporters and guests about events in the world.

I remember watching a CNN anchor in a studio talking about earthquake damage but they had no video to air … two hours after it happened.

CNN's Anderson Cooper

Yeah, they can cough up some money for a live truck for Anderson Cooper to cover some dramatic story but it takes longer and longer to mobilize when breaking news happens. Network and cable news no longer have armies of video crews at the ready.

Have you noticed how much television news video that’s aired these days is actually shot by ordinary people on their cell phones or home video cameras who have witnessed actual news? We – you and I – have become a source of video for TV news.

And, there is significant opportunity knocking for communications professionals – learn the essential tenets of shooting and using authentic news video. Become a provider of timely, relevant and real TV news for your organization.

In advising and working with companies on the competitive advantages of solid brand journalism – and building and managing working, real-time news sites for those clients that become not only valued assets for the companies but aggregate all the news of their industry sector – we place great emphasis on shooting excellent quality NEWS video. Traditional b-roll and soundbites, the staples of TV news for decades. Yeah, TV news still needs video like that.

We store broadcast-quality HD news video at our online FTP sites for easy downloading by TV news organizations. And, it gets aired regularly by everyone from local stations to the networks.

The message here – if you want TV news coverage, begin by knowing how to shoot authentic TV news video, the core element of a story. And, then, learn how to get the attention of TV news producers. Learn to tell your stories.

Damage from students rioting at Penn State.

Students at Penn State demonstrated last night in support of keeping coach Joe Paterno in his job. Beyond the fact that those students are nuts and apparently lack any ethical boundaries, they have no business being in college. Some of them broke the law.

We are learning about a scandal, an environment of complacency in the knowledge of terrible crimes, that was allowed to flourish at Penn State for nearly a decade. It has made the university an embarrassment and disgrace in the field of education.

Penn State president Graham Spanier and Paterno played a high stakes game of coverup and lost, taking down the image of the university with them.

I normally write about communications issues from my perspective as someone who has been a communications strategist and journalist for the last 40 years.

When I think of Penn State’s communications team, I wonder what they knew and why they kept silent. We get a clue in how they have buried the issue on the university’s main website, hiding behind prepared statements and news releases … links sandwiched between announcements about university events.

Penn State’s communications department chose to bury the issue, and in doing so, they, too, joined Penn State’s shameful team of complacency. I believe they chose just to look the other way.

This column is about zero tolerance on the subject of complacency, of reporting violent acts, whether the forced rape of minors – as is the case that has toppled the reputation of Penn State University – or the rape of women.

Regarding Penn State, a friend write to me on Facebook today:

This kind of story is too familiar and old and harrowing and completely and totally unacceptable to an advanced civilization. Ironic that yet another institution designed to uplift humanity had the first impulse to preserve itself at a cost payable to the most vulnerable.

Universities would do well to emphasize a zero-tolerance prevention culture to avoid the tremendously taxing aftermath of sorting, assessing, protecting and healing.

I completely agree with her.

I suspect Paterno, now-former Penn State president Graham Spanier, and the rest of the mob of complacency kept quiet because they didn’t want anything to interfere with the university’s multi-million dollar football program. The cost now to repair Penn State’s image will be enormous.

As I wrote just the other day:

Protecting a brand reputation begins with understanding the implications and potential cost of not protecting a reputation.

These people know that, according to research on the importance of brand management, roughly 82 percent of shareholder value is intangible. It’s merely a perception, impression, or … feeling that people have about their brands. As such, these leaders are keenly aware that reputations can be injured with a single misstep.

Unfortunately, many party universities – including Penn State, James Madison and the University of Arizona – skate dangerously close to the edge of damaging their reputations, perhaps for decades to come.

Here was a newspaper that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 publishing a partisan political opinion piece in the #1 priority news slot, the right column, on the front page above the fold. What’s more, the “analysis” had come from the Associated Press as opposed to being written by the paper. I had never before seen such an error in American newspaper journalism. I guess a lot has happened since they won the prize in 2009.

Glens Falls, NY, Post Star - October 31, 2011

The real news of the day – a record-setting snow storm that had swept through much of New England – and, Glens Falls – and had left millions without power and cold was relegated to the bottom of the front page. The story was buried.

There is a reason newspapers like the Glens Falls Post Star have merely six (6) pages, including one full page ad, in their “A” sections – they, like many other newspapers and TV news, are in a continuing, steady state of economic decline. Much of it is self-inflicted. Many if not most experienced editors and reporters are gone, replaced by much younger people straight out of journalism school or interns who will work cheap. They lack the experience to know any better. They often don’t know who their audiences are.

Trust is another reason for the decline in mainstream news media. Many people do not trust the media and believe coverage is biased. Media bias is one big subjective can of worms, in my opinion.

Politicians and captains of business frequently knock the “liberal media” when stories they attempt to plant don’t come out as planned or when they don’t agree with something that’s printed or broadcast. Liberal media is a tired, outdated and very inaccurate thing for anyone to say. The label is often and unfairly slapped on legitimate, researched and balanced reporting.  We are seeing less and less of that kind of journalism, unfortunately.

There is no question but that media bias exists and has existed for years. But media inexperience today overshadows bias, in my view.

Mainstream news media – ranging from the Post Star to the Washington Post, from NPR to Fox News – is largely staffed by junior level people or interns who struggle with a heap of work. Lacking credentials and experience, they make mistakes. Most of the mid-level editors – the real stewards of accuracy – are gone. Mainstream media is in constant staff cutback mode.

The label “liberal media” is often baseless and a cop out, in my opinion. It’s an overused tactic to distract attention and an excuse for a politician or business person to not take responsibility. On the other hand, if they were to start using “Inexperienced and mistake prone media,” I would say that’s more accurate. Who knows? That might shock mainstream media into burnishing its once-great standards.

[ADDED INFORMATION] After writing this piece, Post Star Editor Ken Tingley called my attention to a blog posting he did yesterday on the paper’s website. I can only assume it was in response to others asking, “what the heck are you doing?!”

Here is his blog posting and a link:

Over the years, we in the newspaper game have had to make allowances that our print product only comes out once a day.

Often, significant news will break early in the day. By the time the newspaper hits the doorstep the next day, the news will sometimes be 24 hours old. In those instances, we often run a different type of story – an analysis.

An analysis is exactly what you would think. It is a “what it all means” story and puts the news in perspective regarding what might happen next.

Sometimes we will run an analysis even though we have not run the main news story. Or sometimes we run the analysis on the front page and refer to the main story on an inside page.

With 24/7 news cycles, poststar.com is the place where we can compete on breaking news and more and more you will see print products being used to explain the news and give it context.

This morning we ran an analysis on what issues Republican presidential candidates have been talking about and whether their solutions have any merit.

The Associated Press writer quotes experts who found that most of the solutions did not have merit on the key issues. What I sometimes hear when we run an analysis is that a partisan reader believes the analysis is partisan, like a commentary.

But that is not the case.

We also try to run “fact check” stories whenever we can for the same reason.

It is all part of how the print product continues to be a viable source of information.

Ken Tingley

Tingley’s blog posting raises more questions than it answers, I believe.

• Why was an “analysis” piece run in the #1 news slot position?
• Does he know, personally, the AP writer and the competence level of that person?
• Did his staff feel the massive snow storm story was less significant?
• Why the need to run an analysis piece rather than news on the front page?
• Why did he feel the need to blog about running the piece?
• Was he motivated into writing the blog piece by reader complaints and questions?

Lisa Simeone

What Ms. Simeone did was on her own time and not involved with her professional work or capacity with “World of Opera.” No one would have been aware of her private time had it not been for NPR’s objection.

“Our view is it’s a potential conflict of interest for any journalist or any individual who plays a public role on behalf of NPR to take an active part in a political movement or advocacy campaign,” NPR spokeswoman Dana Davis Rehm told the Associated Press. “Doing so has the potential to compromise our reputation as an organization that strives to be impartial and unbiased.”

But, Ms. Simeone did not work for NPR and was not acting on behalf of NPR.

NPR's head of communications, Dana Davis Rehm. NPR photo.

Before I go on, let me note that there seems to also be a fundamental of misplaced competence level involved. Ms. Rehm, who is NPR’s senior vice president of marketing, communications and external relations, has nothing in her bio that suggests even a blush of expertise or credentials in communications. Rather, she comes from the incestuous local public radio environment.

NPR’s ethics code states that “NPR journalists may not participate in marches and rallies” involving issues NPR covers. The code notes that some provisions may not apply to outside contributors. It uses a freelancer who primarily contributes arts coverage as an example.

The target of NPR’s scorn – Lisa Simeone – is a highly respected freelancer who has worked in radio and television for 25 years, hosting music shows and documentaries. She hosted “World of Opera” produced by North Carolina classical music station WDAV. Ms. Simeone was involved in a Washington citizens protest on her own time. NPR had a problem with that.

Clown Rodney Huey, NPR's former head of communications

The list of NPR’s problems just keeps growing beyond this latest looney action:

1. NPR is deeply afraid of appearing to be liberal and incurring more scorn from conservatives on Capitol Hill and around the country, and that affects their judgement.
2. NPR is struggling with sustaining its funding in a highly charged political climate (see #1).
3. NPR management doesn’t realize that legitimate news coverage might incur scorn from someone. That’s because they come from the world of fundraising, not journalism.
4. NPR persists in hiring executives from the organizationally inbred clan of local public radio who often lack deep experience and credentials to handle the brand and image responsibilities of a major national radio organization. Remember when NPR hired Rodney Huey as head of communications? Huey had no experience in news or broadcasting but had worked at Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey, the circus.
5. The position held by Ms. Rehm is a contradiction and an organizational hold-over of bygone days. “Marketing” and “Communications” are contradictory practices in today’s world. Marketing promotes, sells and pushes out self-serving messages. Communications, on the other hand, works to build trust, engagement, connection. Stated another way, marketing shouts while communications listens.
6. NPR continually makes self-inflicted and very public stumbles and wounds to its reputation through amateurish handling of issues, such as the idiotic behavior of senior NPR fundraising executive Ron Schiller or the impulsive firing of long-time journalist Juan Williams.
7. NPR has systematically cancelled opera and classical music programs in recent years. Was the Simeone excuse just cooked-up to cancel “World of Opera?”

Before picking on Lisa Simeone, NPR needs to get its own house in order. Because what NPR is not just punishing Ms. Simeone, WDAV and “World of Opera” but also NPR listeners. Isn’t there any comprehension of that impact?

Steve Jobs once said:

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Jobs was one of us. He was a baby boomer, just like the past few presidents, Bill Gates, and many other leaders in the digital era and captains of industry … and just like many of us, in some respects.

Let us not forget that America’s largest demographic group – baby boomers – has reshaped the country for better or worse. But Jobs was different. He was unlike any of his peers in technology or corporate America.

While others in technology were and still are caught up in the machinations of tech stuff, Jobs knew that the only thing that really mattered was how we might perceive and value his innovations. He dreamed, questioned, challenged himself and others … and gave the country and the world good things intended to bring value to our lives.

Jobs said, “A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.”

Many of us learned of his passing on one of his technology devices.

Jobs grew up in the pop culture of the San Francisco area and was shaped by the free-thinking liberalism dominant there in the 60s and 70s. He dated Joan Baez, tried LSD and kept emotional ties to the period in which he grew up. Viewed as a corporate outsider, he built Apple in the reflection of his unconventionality.

Jobs became wealthy through his inventions, ownership of Apple, Disney and Pixar. Yet, in today’s world defined by corporate greed and corruption, Jobs was again different. He focused on the idea of “taste.” It was a word he used often. Jobs crafted his genius and lasting legacy through the distinctive simplicity, elegance and taste he insisted on in every Apple product. And, his focus has changed the world for the better.

Addressing a graduating class at Stanford in 2005, Jobs seemed to foresee his own destiny:

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”