Archive for January, 2008
January 31, 2008 at 10:04 pm · Filed under America, Issues Management
The confirmation hearings for USA Attorney General candidate Mukasey offered an interesting twist on language and legality. It all revolves around waterboarding.
Sadly this is not at all like wakeboarding. That sport involves slicing across the wake of a fast-moving speedboat then grabbing air in gravity-defying acrobatics.
Instead waterboarding simulates drowning. Candidates are tied to a board with a hemp bag tied over their heads. Water is streamed over their faces making breathing nearly impossible. “Simulated drowning”. Who thinks up this stuff?
When asked his opinion on waterboarding, Mukasey said the practice was not considered torture so therefore was legal. Yet - and here come the weasel words - he said if he were subjected to waterboarding it would feel like torture.
Frankly the subtlety is lost on me.
To gain a greater understanding of the issue, see The New York Times. Their article starts explaining the differences:
Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey said Wednesday that while he would consider it torture if he underwent the harsh Central Intelligence Agency interrogation technique known as waterboarding, the practice was not necessarily illegal, and he would not rule out its use in the future. (Source: The New York Times 31 January 2008)
So while it may FEEL like torture, waterboarding is not necessarily torture - so therefore not illegal. Or legal. Or not?
See why I’m confused?
January 29, 2008 at 11:36 pm · Filed under America, Media Industry
I love tabloids. These short-style newspapers are made for the masses and can condense a story into poignant headlines. A decade ago honeymooners north of Sydney were attacked by a Great White. He didn’t survive. “The Daily Telegraph” got an exclusive interview. “Shark Bride Tells” was the tear sheet for that edition. (Tear sheets are the small posters outside the news agent.)
What more do you need to know? Oh - “Photos Inside” was below. That helped.
Thanks to “The Economist” for pointing out another great tabloid headline. In their article bemoaning the high profile role Bill Clinton is taking in his wife’s campaign, they note Bill fell asleep in a Harlem church service commemorating the late, great Martin Luther King Jr. “Bill Has a Dream” was the headline - next to a photo of the sleeping ex-president.
Ain’t sparsity grand?
Clients complain about headlines. The messages were well considered - and the media training set the client up for a great interview. Yet while the article is good the headline is contentious. Why didn’t that get fixed?
Journalists generally don’t write their own headlines. They offer their stories with suggested titles but headline writing is the purview of the sub-editor. And for the cover of a tabloid it’s the editor’s job.
Wanna see what it’s like? Take this fictional scenario:
Campaigning in Orlando, Florida presidential hopeful John McCain slips and falls while visiting Disney World - breaking his nose.
Quick! The presses are waiting! What’s the headline for the cover of a salacious, muck-raking tabloid?
Please send along your favourites.
January 29, 2008 at 6:57 pm · Filed under Media Industry, Australia
Australia is a sports-loving nation. It’s a part of everyday life. Channel Nine News (the former market leader now writhing near the bottom - a blog entry unto itself) has about 12 minutes on national and world events before it crosses to sports. Cricket gets more coverage than Kenya. Go figure.
So it’s no surprise that sports stars have numerous, high profile opportunities after hanging up their cleats or Speedos. Next you know they’re endorsing batteries or commenting on national television or swimming in endless spas to show us flabbies how to stay fit.
We love them all - up to a point.
Wayne Carey was a football star who went onto media semi-stardom. He commented on Melbourne radio and had a spot on national television.
But then he got a little too wild.
I’m not talking about “all night in a bar verbally abusive to the 7-11 cashier” kind of wild. I’m talking “abusing women attacking police capsicum spray and handcuffs” kind of wild. And of course those ever-present security cameras caught it all. Thankfully an enterprising guard on duty had the foresight to auction the tape to news crews. Channel Seven won’t say how much they paid (or IF they paid) but they did say they’re glad they got it.
So there’s our former role model -in handcuffs, getting bullfrog marched to the back of a police cruiser. Seems a spot he’s been in before, as media reveal today he’d been arrested in Miami last month for breaking a wine glass into his girlfriend’s face. And he headbutted the partition in that police cruiser after attacking officers. (See this clip.)
Today radio station 3AW and Channel Nine are distancing themselves from Carey - quickly. Carey will have to find another income stream to fund his legal defence. Too bad he’s not back in Newark. Tony Soprano’s always looking for a few good men.
Would “How Ya’ Doin’?” sound funny in an Aussie accent?
January 25, 2008 at 12:01 am · Filed under Media Industry
The death of Heath Ledger is a boon to newspaper circulation. People who normally don’t buy a daily paper are picking up dailies to catch up on the latest details. August publications like The Melbourne Age dedicated three full pages yesterday. Today The Sydney Morning Herald still has a page. The weekend tomes will be filled to capacity.
It’s all our fault. We’re ghoulish. Bad news intrigues us. But add an Australian celebrity, drugs, nudity and an Olsen twin and you’ve got a newspaper editor’s nirvana.
Please don’t presume I am mocking the untimely death of Heath Ledger. It is a shock and disappointment. He was a talented actor and his death is unfortunate.
It’s just this stuff sells papers.
January 22, 2008 at 5:41 am · Filed under America
The ads were always hard to miss in America. “Been denied credit?” “Ever have trouble getting a loan?” Bad Credit? No problem!”
Seems there’s been a problem.
The multi-billion dollar write-offs for sub-prime lending have been made by the major USA banks this week. That’s exacerbated fears of a recession in the world’s largest economy. Today the markets are voting on President Bush’s economic stimulus plan - and they hate it. Markets in Europe and Asia fell 5 to 7 percent yesterday. Only Martin Luther King Day in America averted a catastrophe there.
Be on the look out for a day of record losses when the New York Stock Exchange opens today - led by banking and financial services stocks.
Sad news for those “bad news borrowers” who suddenly find themselves with jacked-up interest rates and failing lenders. Sadder yet for the fixed income retirees who suddenly see their investments fall.
Seems there is no such thing as an easy loan…
January 20, 2008 at 10:28 pm · Filed under Issues Management, Globalisation, Public Relations, Australia
Australian media has been dominated by the capture of two anti-whaling activists by Japanese whalers last week. The pair had boarded the ship to deliver a letter demanding Japan cease all whaling. They weren’t allowed to leave and an international media war ensued.
Headlines across Australia feature the illegal detention - with images of captives in pain as they’re man-handled on board the whaling ship. In Japan the furore centres on Australia’s two-sided arguments: Don’t kill whales, yet local government web sites outline how to humanely kill baby kangaroos should their mothers be killed in a road accident.
Dead whales versus dead kangaroos - this is what sells newspapers.
From a public relations viewpoint, you have to hand it to Sea Shepherd. This anti-whaling protest boat has satellite phones, video editing suites, a daily blog and an on-board crew from Discovery Channel filming a documentary. This team controls the imagery and messages used int he public debate because the flotilla is somwhere in the oceas between Australia, Africa and Antarctica. With their non-stop flow of information and imagery the Sea Shepherd has dominated the public relations war.
This is a communications program worth watching to learn ways of influencing public perception, government policy and international relations all through expert media management.
Track the action at: http://www.seashepherd.org/
January 15, 2008 at 9:02 pm · Filed under America
With all the noise surrounding Hillary and Obama, it’s hard to remember that the Republicans also have to pick a candidate for President. We’re in a rare race for the White House. The sitting President has already served two terms so he’s disqualified from running again. And the current Vice President is: (multiple choice)
- Too old
- Too unpopular
- Too evil
- Too smart
- All of the above
So across the nation Republican candidates vie to be selected as their party’s preferred candidate.
It’s funny having grown up in this system but it all makes sense to me. However not a day goes by when an Australian doesn’t remark on the utter complexity of the American voting system. I disagree until conversations turn to the Electoral College. How could George Bush lose the popular vote and win the election? I have to say I’m equally baffled.
But I digress.
The Republican field is crowded with a Mormon, a fundamentalist preacher, a Vietnam POW, New York’s 9/11 Mayor and a man called Huckabee. And these are just the front runners. As weeks progress the field will winnow. Not only do candidates face the excruciating scrutiny of the media and the non-stop activity, they must also fund their campaigns. And when poll place drops so do the funds.
By April we’ll know who is heading each party’s race to the White House. And then feathers will fly and there’ll be tears before bedtime!
Let the race begin!
January 15, 2008 at 5:56 am · Filed under America, Australia
I like the theory that societal norms stretch like a rubber band then after they reach an extreme they bounce back to the opposite side. In politics it played out in Australia. After eleven years of a conservative government we reached our limits and snapped to the other side. As America prepares for an election in 2008, where will the rubber band snap to?
It’s hard to imagine a Republican having a chance at the White House once history’s most unpopular president leaves. Bush is Republican and is blamed for an unpopular war, a sputtering economy, tragic international relations, etc. Bush personally pulled the rubber band to breaking point in the extreme rush to the right. The Patriot Act, Guantanamo Bay, Weapons of Mass Destruction are just examples of the neo-conservative stretch.
Now Hillary and Obama are duking it out for a chance to lead the nation. Each stress the theme of change. The nation has experienced one end of the spectrum and is ready for a re-alignment. But watch - in time it’ll get more and more liberal until finally the nation snaps again.
Swings and roundabouts or chutes and ladders - call it what you will. I just imagine a nation-sized elastic stretched nearly to breaking point and today it’s ready to “POING” to the other side.
January 13, 2008 at 8:02 pm · Filed under America
America can relax. Its most notorious mass murderer is finally behind bars after a decade free. OJ Simpson has been remanded in custody for violating the terms of his bail while under investigation for armed robbery and kidnapping.
OJ’s case made a mockery of the US justice system - and was the “critical application” that turned CNN into a household name in America. Millions watched the trial daily and learned new legal terms. It also showed how justice can be bought with the right defence team.
Sadly not every accused criminal can afford a phalanx of suited attorneys. My Mom works for Centurion Ministries which is dedicated to getting people wrongly convicted of capital crimes freed using DNA evidence. There are hundreds of men and women wrongfully imprisoned whose legal defences were shoddy, stupid or lazy. One man’s attorney slept during his trial! The successful play “The Exonerated” is based on their wonderful work.
While many companies wrestle with a vision or mission statement, you can’t pass Centurion Ministries for getting it right:
“The primary mission of Centurion Ministries is to vindicate and free from prison those who are completely innocent of the crimes for which they have been unjustly convicted and imprisoned for life or death. We also assist our clients, once they are freed, with reintegration into society on a self-reliant basis.”
While murder didn’t stick, it’s nice that OJ is behind bars even if it’s only for bail violation. Justice is warped but today it’s served America well.
January 12, 2008 at 8:00 pm · Filed under Media Industry, Public Relations
My friend Paul Griffin in Brisbane and I are re-working media training to make it more effective. Yes - it is a commodity product. And yes - every PR person and their dog offers a similar course. But we’re trying to make ours super effective for harried professionals. How quickly can we take media fledgelings and have them bravely flying from the nest?
As part of this we’ve been collecting good and bad examples of media interviews. I’d love your contributions if you have any. Paul just sent this one. It must be the worst avoidance technique. But then again, insanity has been a defence plea for decades…
Click here!
Next entries »
Sadly this is not at all like wakeboarding. That sport involves slicing across the wake of a fast-moving speedboat then grabbing air in gravity-defying acrobatics. 
Instead waterboarding simulates drowning. Candidates are tied to a board with a hemp bag tied over their heads. Water is streamed over their faces making breathing nearly impossible. “Simulated drowning”. Who thinks up this stuff?
