The Good, The Bad, The Spin

Oregon Coast abstract landscape photograph near Newport and Depoe Bay.

Stories rule. Not in the sense of them being great, which they often are. Stories rule because they are what pique our interest. My story, your story, our friends’ stories, our family stories.

Each is important, and each is in need of validation.

And those stories are also utterly unrepresentative of what actually is. Stories attract us because the good ones capture our interest and relate to us on visceral levels. We are story seekers, story tellers and story makers.

(The Public Relations Society of America even offers teleseminars on how to better tell your story, presumably to better capture the interest of audiences.)

Yet stories are only small, albeit powerful, parts of a larger picture. Collections of strong anecdotes, while gaining much of our attention, really tell little when compared with, say a strong statistical analysis about a phenomenon. Such analyses coupled with peer-review are designed to strip away the inherent biases we each hold so that phenomenon are viewed more objectively. (more…)

If the average person knew how much of what they consume of daily news originates from or is influenced in some way by a public relations effort, it would likely blow minds. But such is the nature of the news (and PR) business. There’s an uncomfortable symbiosis between reporters and PR people that is both mutually beneficial and mutually unappreciated. And it is what is.

So it’s not without some sense of irony when much of the background work done by both reporters and PR people never sees the light of day. One noted occurrence from my past: A reporter, hounding our organization for months on end, was convinced of inappropriate hiring practices based on the allegations of one individual. The story had promised to be published at any day until, one day, a barrage of questions in one email was passed on to me.

Answering each one of the reporter’s questions would have certainly been an exercise in writing one’s own headline in the next day’s newspaper. Instead, the response was short, direct and truthful, something along the lines of: “The individual was hired by a committee of his peers. You will have to ask the committee members why they chose this candidate.” (more…)

He had just gotten off of a plane after a 14-hour ride and was hauled away in handcuffs.

“The worst part was having to walk past my fiancé in handcuffs. She had no idea what was happening and neither did I! When I was finally told that I was arrested on charges of rape, I about passed out!”

These are the words of Poison drummer Rikki Rockett, who announced late last week that he was officially exonerated of rape charges. After being accused of the crime–he wasn’t in the state where the alleged crime occurred–Rockett issued a statement:

“I received undying support from my band, friends, and fans, but unfortunately, my detractors had a field day with the story. I look forward to serving the press who created defamatory remarks some healthy lawsuits! I also look forward to helping other people who have been falsely accused of committing heinous crimes. My lawyers, Barry Tarlow and Mi Kim, are helping me seek out organizations like Centurion Ministries to help if I can. This wonderful organization works to free innocent people in prison who have done serious time for crimes they did not commit.”

(more…)