The Good, The Bad, The Spin

• 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.

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 iimpropriety. 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.

This post is the first in a multi-part interview with Davis about crises and media relations. Please check back for future installments. Better yet, click the Subscribe link at right to get new posts by email or into your feed reader.

How did you get into your position at the Clinton White House?

LANNY DAVIS: It starts with my friendship with Hillary Rodham when I was in law school before I knew Bill Clinton. It goes back to when I was in my third year in Yale Law School in 1969. We were friends for that one year before I graduated and then over the years kept in touch off and on. I met her future husband when he volunteered in the Joe Lieberman for State Senate Campaign of 1970. That’s where all roads seemed to cross in New Haven. (more…)