Tag Archives: News

The courtroom of public opinion

Ever since the OJ trial, the media has discovered that courtroom drama sells.  Both cable TV and network TV are replete with programs about murder, white collar crime, and everything else you can think of that ends up in a courtroom.

One NBC producer recently said, “murder sells.”  And there is no lack of competition among stations’ like CBS’s 48 Hours and NBC’s Dateline to film and offer up the most dramatic and sensational true life stories.

Case in point is the recent Netflix series “Making a Murderer” which chronicled Steven Avery, a small town, unassuming man who spent 18 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.  When he was released, he sued Manitowoc County, Wisconsin for withholding evidence in his trial.  A year later he was arrested and tried for the murder of a young woman reporter and was convicted.

Every week whether it is a network or CNN, crime seems to sell.  But it isn’t just blood and guts.  The show American Greed is a hit by documenting how people create Ponzi schemes and bilk their friends, neighbors and relatives out of millions of dollars.

What does this have to do with PR and marketing?  Simple.  For every crime story there is a long period between the arrest and the trial.  During that time the media have at it, debating with one another the guilt or innocence of the person(s) at the center of the case.  How the accused can get a fair trial with saturated media coverage is a good question.

That’s why media consultants, or PR pros, are often brought it to get one side of the story told before it goes to trial.  No PR person can convince a reporter to not tell the truth or to overlook facts.  But they can get their side of the story out, and that’s the primary purpose of telling a story in the court of public opinion.

PR is more than being; it’s doing

Public relations can be defined in many ways, but what it always comes down to is getting attention.  Every organization, whether a nonprofit or for-profit, wants target audiences to know they exist, and more so, what they do.  Hence, the public relations/marketing campaign.

This is perhaps most true in the world of nonprofits.  A nonprofit exists to do good, and all do, in their own way.  But it isn’t enough to be well meaning and good intentioned.  Not if you want to be recognized.

The media are all about telling stories and showing pictures. Regardless of the good work a nonprofit does, a reporter needs something tangible to report about.

The challenge is for a nonprofit to follow its mission while at the same time do activities and events that will draw media attention.  Sometimes a mission does not call for a newsworthy event or activity.  That doesn’t make it any less worthy, but it usually means it is more difficult to attract the media.

All nonprofits that want recognition need to find ways to do things that are interesting, visual, exciting, unusual and more.  Leadership needs to think about what they watch on CNN, YouTube and Facebook and understand that if they are drawn to that type of story, others will be as well.

This is not to say it’s easy or it always works.  But that’s where experienced PR counsel comes in.  PR professionals know what will draw the media and what won’t.   It is not something that comes naturally.  It is something that comes with experience, trial and error, and understanding what media are looking for.

That’s how you get the media’s attention.

 

Does Subway have a crisis on its hands?

Jared Fogle was the face of Subway, the multi-billion dollar sandwich chain. His story helped the chain triple its sales in the decade or so he was affiliated with the company.

Today, he pleaded guilt to child pornography charges and will find himself eating prison food instead of Subway sandwiches.

The question is, does Subway have a PR crisis on its hands through its affiliation with Fogle?

Typically, a PR crisis focuses on the actions of an organization or one of its employees. But Fogle was not an employee, he was merely its spokesperson. Is there a PR crisis by association?

The obvious answer is no. Subway has done nothing wrong and there are no guarantees that an advertising face will remain an angel forever. It was a good advertising idea when it started and helped the company increase sales over the years. But now its over. Subway immediately cut ties with Fogle when it was first learned that Fogle’s nonprofit director was accused of similar crimes. It seems apparent that he led authorities to Fogle.

So the best thing Subway can do is forget they ever heard of Fogle and move on. He is history. His name and likeness should be scrubbed from every document in the Subway headquarters, and I am sure this was done a long time ago.

I would close by advising that companies choose their reps wisely, but predicting the future and predicting human nature is a skill that has yet to be perfected, and we have a long way to go.

Old words with new meanings that we can do without

We PR professionals are in the communication business. Our job is to structure the messages of those we represent and communicate them in the clearest, most understandable words possible.

But every now again, new word meanings creep into our daily lexicon. It’s hard to tell who comes up with these alternate ways of saying the same thing, but some – many – catch on. Before you know it, we all are using the same new-styled wording to convey the same thoughts when the words we have been using for decades have worked just fine.

Perhaps it’s nothing more than looking and sounding cool; like you just bought the latest model sports car so you must know something. But having practiced PR for several decades, successfully, I do my best to avoid the newest and latest lingo because I don’t think it adds to my credibility, and frankly, I think it makes me sound silly.

Here are a few examples: Feel free to add to the list:

Space – No longer do people work in a business or industry, they occupy a certain space. I had a conversation with a nice young person recently who was trying to sell me a service. Every other word from his mouth was the “space” my company occupies. The only space I occupy is my office space and I pay rent for that. That’s the only space that makes sense to me.

Reach Out – There was a time when people would call or contact one another. Today, everybody “reaches out.” I wanted to reach out to you about any openings you may have in your company. You mean you are calling me about a job?” If that person was really current, s/he would have said “I wanted to reach out to you about any space I could fill in your firm.” But I guess there are only so many new-fangled clichés a recent graduate can muster in one sentence.

Different Direction – This has actually been around for a while, and won’t go away. Years ago, as the story goes, Johnny Carson decided to fire one of his writers. He called him into his office and said something like, “I just want you to know we’re taking the show in a different direction.” That was Johnny’s way of firing him. Later, the writer said in an interview that he never knew what different direction the show took, as it seemed the same to him until Johnny retired.

Circle Back — “I’ll tell you a bit about my company, you tell me a bit about your company, and then we’ll circle back to how you can help us.” You mean: After we get the preliminaries out of the way, we’ll get to the point of the meeting? Can we do this while remaining in our chairs or do we have to get up and walk in a circle?

Best – Prior to email overtaking our daily communications, people wrote letters. Yes, with actual paper that had to be folded and put in an envelope and mailed, or in later years, faxed. For as many years as I can remember, letters ended with something like Very Truly Yours, or the ubiquitous Sincerely. Then, when email arrived, people wanted to sound more friendly and started using All the Best. And now, All the Best has morphed to simply Best.

Best what?

It was nice hearing from you, Best, Gary.

You mean All the Best? You mean I Wish You the Best? You mean I Am the Best? Perhaps You are the Best? I never know what best you’re talking about. Please explain.

Hey – I saved my favorite for last. I can’t tell you how many emails I get, usually from people soliciting business or more likely people sending resumes, that begin with Hey! If I am not worth a Hello, then why bother? Colleges should offer a course that teaches would-be PR pros the difference between writing a business email and writing a text to a buddy. If you are asking me, or anyone for a job, don’y start with Hey!! We’re not drinking buddies, at least not yet. And for heaven’s sake, drop the exclamation points unless you are writing for a comic strip.

So hey, now that I have reached out to you, I want to circle back and take this in a different direction because of the space that I occupy. Thanks for listening.

The curious case of Brian Williams

NBC anchor Brian Williams has been suspended for six months without pay.  This will give the network and Williams enough time to figure out whether they will take him back or whether he wants to come back.

The “scandal” surrounding his suspension is curious.  One would think that in a world where everything that happens (especially to a public figure) is either captured on video or has witnesses, that Williams would not have intentionally embellished his Iraq war story. Certainly he knew that telling such a dramatic tale would come back to haunt him, one way or another.  You can call him a liar, but you can’t call him stupid.

Which is why I think the entire episode is so strange.  He obviously doesn’t suffer from dementia.  His only ailment, perhaps, is an oversize ego.  It could be that on the spur of the moment, while telling David Letterman the story, he just added a few details that never happened.  It made for a better story on late night TV, and he took a chance.

In an age of instant news 24 hours a day, one can hardly make the case that the TV anchor has much of a role anymore.  There was a time when Americans were glued to their TV sets every night to hear from Walter Cronkite or Chet Huntley and David Brinkley.  What they said mattered, and if they said it, it was the truth.  Today, I don’t think TV anchors or newspersons have the same credibility.  The competition to be first and to be the most dramatic has lowered the credibility of all news organizations.  It is not at all unusual for a CNN or New York Times or any of the other major, mainstream media to file a report, only to change it later when the facts become known.  They no longer even apologize for it, just file an “update.”  Being wrong is now part of the news business.

This is not even to mention how NBC bungled the entire fiasco.  Someone needs to give NBC a crisis management seminar.  While the mainstream and social media world took hold of the story, NBC seems to be in a daze.  There was no immediate and forceful taking of the reins.  No handling of the situation. No outrage over what their most prized possession had done.  Instead they were thinking about damage control.  How to keep a very profitable show on the air, even if it meant its star has lost all credibility.

Few people feel sorry for Williams, even if he will forfeit $5 million this year.  He probably can get by on the other half quite nicely.  But one still has to wonder why.  All a newsperson has is his/her credibility and when that is gone, he/she has nothing left.  Williams’ credibility has taken a dire hit and in six months we’ll see if he can recover.

I am not placing any bets either way.

The news cycle via Twitter

Since the invention of the newspaper, media outlets have always competed to be first.  Being first to break a story is everything, as was so well dramatized in the play and then movie “Front Page.”

Today, news organizations compete to be first to break a story, and when they do, they continually remind their readers, viewers or listeners that they were first.  Somehow being first means they know more about the story or they are more on the ball than their competitors.

But a major story in Los Angeles this week took the cake.

The city awoke to a huge fire of an apartment complex under construction in downtown Los Angeles.  It is (or was) a massive and controversial real estate development.  When the fire was knocked out, the Los Angeles Fire Department said they suspected arson and were investigating.

Later in the day, the fire chief held an update news conference to inform the public what he knew.  It wasn’t much, but he wanted people to know they had suspicions while investigators were combing through the ashes.

What I found fascinating is how the Los Angeles Times covered the news conference. Traditionally, reporters show up, take notes, then return to their desk to write the story.  TV and radio reporters would report from the scene after it was over.

However, in today’s “get it first” news cycle, the way The Times covered the news conference was for two Times’ reporters to tweet one liner updates while the news conference was going on.  The Times published a series of tweets along with some pictures of the scene.  The only thing faster than that would have been to cover the news conference live on TV or radio, which some may have done.

For a newspaper to disseminate one line updates via Twitter, I guess is ingenious.  But there isn’t a whole lot one can say in one sentence — even a series of disjointed sentences.  But on the other hand, The Times can claim they were first, at least among newspapers.

Something tells me this is not an isolated incident and will be used more and more.  Twitter may become our new news source with newspapers just write the wrap up.

 

What is news anyway?

There is a campaign underway to raise $2.1 million to fund a movie about Kermit Gosnell, the doctor convicted of three murder counts, and 21 felony counts of illegal late-term abortions.  The movie producers are trying to make the case that nobody knows about this convicted murderer, yet everybody seems to know about Jodi Arias, the woman convicted of murdering her boyfriend in Arizona.

The argument is that Gosnell’s crimes are larger that are Arias’ and why does everybody know about Arias and not Gosnell?

The problem with this argument is that it misunderstands the nature of news and news reporting.

When television news reports on crime, it doesn’t weigh which crimes are worst.  If that were the case, CNN would have 24 hour coverage of Syria instead of 24 hour coverage of the Malaysian airliner.  There are many other factors that go into the determination whether to cover a story or not, and how much coverage to give it.

This is because TV news, whether we like it or not, wants viewers and ratings.  It is a reality show disguised as “news.”  More people would prefer watching a murder trial of a pretty, young woman than an elderly physician.  Yes, like it or not, the Arias case is sexier.  It has everything people want.  Drama, sex, lust, violence, you name it.

Some are making the case that the Gosnell case isn’t getting coverage because the media are generally left wing and pro-abortion.  The argument goes that they are ignoring his crimes because he was performing abortions.

In journalism school we had entire courses devoted to discussions about defining news.  The general  conclusion is that news is drama.  It is not what is most important; or what impact the greatest number of people; or what has the biggest impact on the world, or who and how many die.  Rather, TV news is predicated on whether the media can get cameras on scene, and the pictures they capture.  Plus it also helps to have pretty players either as criminals or victims.

Even if the movie gets made, people still have to go see it, and unfortunately without a pretty girl or sexy story, that is a long shot.

 

When is no news enough news?

For three weeks, CNN has covered the strange disappearance of Malaysian flight 370.  The only problem is, nobody knows what happened to the plane then, and as of this writing, nobody still knows.

Yet CNN continues to make it the Breaking News: story on their website and devotes most of their on-air coverage to the story.  This, despite the fact that every bit of information that comes out of Malaysia has been wrong.

To my knowledge no other news organization has devoted so much time and space to a story with no facts.  Isn’t news just that?  Facts?  How can CNN call itself a news organization when its coverage of this story consists of talking to experts and its own reporters over and over again, with nobody knowing anything?

Malaysian flight 370 is a fascinating and tragic story certainly worthy of coverage.  But shouldn’t that coverage come when there is real information to impart?

In the meantime, CNN, other things are happening in the world.