The Good, The Bad, The Spin

• It’s no surprise that the hubbub around U.S. News & World Report college rankings is rearing its head. A PR issue is raised with such a report: Journalists, in this case, the media outlet known as the U.S. News & World Report, present themselves as the de facto spin doctors of misinformation. Re-framing journalists as spin doctors is, perhaps, a bold move, but the evidence is more than ample that PR ‘pros’ and ‘real’ journalists are more alike than dissimilar. Fortunately, NACUBO’s rankings still exist, only without the power of the printing press.
• My homies at Wise Bread recommend diplomacy when dealing with the dysfunctions and failures of complex organizations. Kudos for the niceties.
• The Wikipedia embarrassment reveals more examples of organizations setting their own records straight. It’s difficult to blame them, but the anonymity makes for amusing reading.

• 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.)

Hurricane Katrina fucked up a lot of things for a lot of people. Its resonance is still being felt and today it was reported that a slew of universities were hit with censure by the American Association of University Professors, the organization that protects the rights of faculty in higher education. (Disclosure: I was a member of the AAUP when I was an administrative faculty member at the University of Nevada, Reno.)

Censure is significant. Today’s news is fallout from Katrina, which essentially forced Louisiana universities to make tough decisions about keeping on faculty in light of dire financial situations. The positions of tenured faculty were preciously watched over by the AAUP, especially as firings had to occur, and today’s decision to place six colleges and universities on the organization’s censure list for “a pervasive disregard for faculty governance,” as reported by Inside Higher Ed, is, like Katrina, unprecedented. (more…)