You may have heard that Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevech has hired a publicity firm to help him deal with all the media attention he’s getting, since he was arrested for corruption when he (allegedly) tried to get some kind of compensation to fill  President Barak Obama’s Senate seat.
Hiring good PR counsel when you are facing a major problem is a good idea.
But I am not sure if this firm is really working on Blago’s reputation, or perhaps doing some major spin doctoring.
The public relations agency actually send out  a press release announcing the Governor’s media schedule for today. Huh? Since …read more

I was excited when the President’s new administration announced that their website Http://www.whitehouse.gov would play a big role. Here’s what it said:
One of the first changes is the White House’s new website, which will serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world.
Awesome!
They’ve also opened the site up to search engines, for the very first time. Great step!
They promise more communication, transparency and participation. Sounds good, but their blog is not open for comments.
That’s right. Although you can fill out a form, commenting on their blog isn’t available.
Communication …read more

I don’t know who Nancy Pelosi and the House of Representatives have doing they’re public relations, but did you catch her YouTube video which was created to kick off the House’s new YouTube Hub?
Here’s the video, just in case you missed it.

I feel bad for the Speaker of the House. A Rick Roll? Really?
It’s so old – and got even older after Macy’s tried to do the same thing at their 2008 annual Thanksgiving Day parade.
Nancy, if this was your (or your PR people’s) idea to look cool, hip and with the times, you’ve made a big mistake.
The Speaker …read more

If you didn’t know (Honestly, I didn’t until I did the research for this post!), is that the Adult Entertainment Expo is this week.
So was it really that surprising that Larry Flint and others have now announced they are heading to Washington to ask for their piece of the multi-million dollar bailout? And although they say this isn’t a stunt, I really can’t believe that it’s not? Can you?
Although this did give the adult entertainment industry some notice and most of us a little chuckle, I think the leaders of this stunt also gave Americans a chance to rethink what …read more

George Bush tried to get some good press when he ’surprised’ the troops with a visit in Iraq. But once again, ‘mission (not)  accomplished… when an Iraqi journalist throw not one, but both his shoes at the outgoing US president.
(The journalist had a pretty good arm, but Bush must be used to ducking, becuase he was just as quick! Sorry. I couldn’t help myself there! *)
I was actually surprised at the quick and humorous response from the President.  “All I can report is a size 10,” he said. “I don’t think you can take one guy throwing shoes and say …read more

I was surprised to read in the news that presidential candidate John McCain’s muse, Joe ‘the Plumber’ Wurzelbacher, has hired a publicity firm to help him manage his schedule and media requests.
It makes this everyman not so everyman, doesn’t it? Sure, I understand since his mention at the last presidnetial debate he’s been bombarded with requests for interviews and other engagements. But most people don’t hire a PR firm. They just deal with it.
And it also seems his choice of firms has fallen down on the job, since he missed a big intro at a McCain rally. (Check out this …read more

I saw Wanted yesterday, with Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy.
The whole thing felt like a trailer, with action money shots coming (pardon the pun) at you one after the other.
It fell far short of the Jason Bourne films, but I’m sure it will do fine at the box office.
I couldn’t help but reflect on the declining value of trailers. Most of the Coming Attractions show you key plot elements deep into the movie. It’s one thing to show you the initial dilemma faced by the hero, but why do so many of them show you the climax of the film? …read more

It’s okay to make shocking statements that mock public figures and stretch the bounds of decency. In Canada, anyway.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday that a B.C. radio commentator was using fair comment when he exaggerated the position held by critics of school use of books depicting same-sex parents.
From the Globe and Mail:
“We live in a free country, where people have as much right to express outrageous and ridiculous opinions as moderate ones,” Judge Binnie said. “In much modern media, personalities such as Rafe Mair are as much entertainers as journalists.”

The 9-0 decision by Canada’s highest court should …read more

It’s great having a mentor.
They give you the benefit of their years of experience.
TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington was happy to offer Loic Lemeur and his start-up company Seesmic the following advice, in a posting published to TechCrunch Saturday. (Arrington was furious that a Seesmic plug-in brought down TechCrunch three times when a Steven Speilberg promotion saw traffic on the consumer-generated video site spike.)
TechCrunch, May 17, 2008
“…But never withhold information from your partners and tell them that you have no idea what is causing downtime when you know exactly what the problem is. As exciting as getting Steven Spielberg on your …read more

A well known blogger deletes his Twitter account, and I read about it in a dozen different places.
Is there nothing more consequential to be talked about? Like, maybe, how to save the planet from destruction, or the kind of parenting children of mega-celebrities get?
Sheesh!
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