The Good, The Bad, The Spin

I’m no Buddha*. And likely, neither are you.

The amount of perfection expected for people is unrealistic and often contradictory. The world’s noted scandals are often the results of character flaws of familial, biological and sociocultural origins, of which most of us possess.

Yet the bar is raised particularly high for public figures. It’s at the point of being unrealistic, so much so that I get a sense of cynical, voyeuristic enjoyment from the Peter Dohertys and Dennis Rodmans of the world. People like them, who relish in their careless, destructive behaviors, are refreshingly honest even while being distasteful to some.

Not giving a shit, when compared with the uppity expectations placed on many public figures, or just about anyone who screws up and is publicly exposed for it, is a healthy perspective. Suspending judgment of others is even healthier because the levels of expectation we place upon one another is, on some level, dependant upon our own mistakes and misjudgments. (more…)

Today’s PRSA (Sierra Nevada Chapter) seminar was fantastic. Dr. Judy Strauss, co-author of the recently released book, Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online, spoke volumes for an hour about what it means to manage reputations online.

I vehemently disagree with one line of thinking she presented. That will be the subject of my Friday morning post, which was actually written before today’s presentation. At the same time, she pretty much puts most public relations practitioners to shame with her knowledge and know-how. And she’s a marketing professor.

At the luncheon I was surprised to hear one of my posts was circulated locally, of which I had no idea. I was flattered. Then I remembered this site’s goal is not just to be critical of the news media, as this post was. I try to reserve salvos for the public relations problems seemingly ever-evident.

So here goes. (more…)

By Steve Salerno

It is the measure of the media’s obsession with its “pedophiles run amok!” story line that so many of us are on a first-name basis with the victims: Polly, Amber, JonBenet, Danielle, Elizabeth, Samantha. And now there is Madeleine. Clearly these crimes were and are horrific, and nothing here is intended to diminish the parents’ loss. But something else has been lost in the bargain as journalists tirelessly stoke fear of strangers, segueing from nightly-news segments about cyber-stalkers and “the rapist in your neighborhood” to prime-time reality series like Dateline’s “To Catch a Predator.” That “something else” is reality.

Read the complete article at Skeptic.com.