The Good, The Bad, The Spin

In the late 1990s, President Bill Clinton was accused of selling burial plots at Arlington National Cemetery. The scandal made front page news all over the country. The problem: none of it was true. Lanny Davis, Clinton’s former special counsel, explains why this happened in part two of this exclusive interview for The Good, The Bad, The Spin.

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LANNY DAVIS is former special counsel to President Bill Clinton. While in the White House from 1996 through 1998, Davis was assigned the difficult tasks of handling negative allegations against the President. He had to seemingly work against the formal machinations of the White House in order to give the President credibility in the face of, at times, bizarre allegations of impropriety. His experience is chronicled in his 2003 book, Truth To Tell: Tell It Early, Tell It All, Tell It Yourself: Notes from My White House Education.

Truth To Tell presents an inside view of media relations at the highest political level and soundly presents the story behind the stories. Davis’ latest book, Scandal: How “Gotcha” Politics Is Destroying America, sets America’s scandal culture in a much broader context by presenting the history of American political scandals through today’s 24-7 news cycle and the resulting extreme partisanship we see today. In the end, Davis presents a voice for commonality among political views. He now works as a litigator focusing on crisis management in Washington, D.C. (more…)

• Netflix is taking the radical step of ensuring excellent customer service. What was once an assumed business creed is now being used as a way to be a market leader. This is a mixed blessing.
• The Wikipedia scandal has spread like wildfire. It’s extremely tempting to assume an anonymous identity to set the record straight–or, cynically, to bend it in our favor. For public relations practitioners, following PRSA’s code of ethics means, quite clearly, this practice should be avoided. I would say that anonymous postings or edits should be avoided publicly and privately. There are two other downsides to the Wikipedia scandal: One is that it calls into question the assumed glory of the democratization of information; two, it’s yet another reason that despite Wikipedia’s overall accurate information, there’s enough glitches in the system that it’s best not to be used as a serious source of information. (This blog will never reference Wikipedia as an objective information source until these glitches are ironed out.)

• This is a double whammy: iPhone users are described as shocked and take matters into their own hands when they receive box-sized bills for their iPhone usage–airtime and Web time. AT&T’s response: this is standard billing practice. Consumer responses: Post a video on Youtube. Both reactions are ridiculous. Consumers know what they are getting. I am very used to scrolling through online ‘agreements’ and clicking the ‘I agree…’ box. My laziness will not be a substitute for later bewilderment, though. For the record: My Verizon bill is normal and (usually) acceptable. My Internet service for my phone is unlimited and no record of my surfing activity is included in my bill. It’s a sensible policy.
• The Bush administration needed better PR advice. It’s possible. Yet, solid practitioners know that PR advice can only go so far when the leader knows best. In other words, surrendering to the realities of groupthink may be the necessary survival strategy for those looking further into the horizon.
• Surprise, surprise: Consumerist notices that organizations are editing Wikipedia entries, and the businesses are doing it anonymously.