One of the problems of working in the media is that you really never turn off. Since TV is ubiquitous, us media types are always analyzing the press to see how we would have handled certain situations differently.
I often find myself saying about media disasters, “How the hell did that happen?” And I am finding myself saying this ever more often during an election year, when we are presented with daily media screw ups. Continue reading
All too often, we see CEOs put their foot in their mouths. Remember Netflix CEO Reed Hastings’ “apology” last year? Or how about former BP CEO Tony Hayward and his “relatively tiny” Gulf oil spill comment? These types of words cannot only stain a chief executive; it can also hurt a company. In the cases above, both Netflix and BP suffered mightily.
These types of instances are very preventable though. One of the things that are often forgotten about in our PR planning is media training. Continue reading
In recent days, the poor sportsmanship of a select few Olympic athletes has garnered significant media attention. For those following the games, it has been difficult to ignore pointed accusations of misconduct directed at Apolo Anton Ohno by South Korean speed skaters. Not to mention the recent additions to Evgeni Plushenko’s website which credit him as a platinum medal winner in the 2010 games – last I checked the accolades stopped at gold.
While one can feel a twinge of compassion for those who train their entire lives for the chance to compete for a gold medal and miss the mark, it’s difficult to dig deep and root for the troublemakers, poor sports and those looking to start a fight. Continue reading