Force For Good Communications

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-- Jon Harmon

2008 PR Disaster of the Year is no contest

This year I’m departing from my usual practice of naming finalists on the way to picking a PR Disaster of the Year. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has taken all the suspense out of the process by making it a hands-down no-contest. So we’ll just award the dishonor to G-Rod and include a 2008 PR dishonorable mention.

 

Governor Blow-dry-ovich had infamously been the subject of a federal corruption investigation for many months before he held a press conference in early December in which he dared the feds to listen in on his phone calls all they wanted. Remind anyone of Gary Hart daring reporters to find evidence of his infidelity back in ‘88? Especially when the guv and his potty-mouthed wife seemed to be making a habit of hours-long telephone wheeling-and dealing of the most tawdry nature.

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Lean on the Chicago Tribune to fire editorial writers who had been writing critical commentary? Hold up government payments to hospitals until he received the expected kick-back? Brazenly stupid, for sure, but nothing compared to the hair-brained idea of selling Barack Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder. Didn’t he think that might draw just a bit of scrutiny?

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Gov. Blogo is still resisting pressures from just about everyone to resign or at least “temporarily” step down from office so some State business can be conducted while he prepares to defend himself against criminal charges. He continues to make Illinois a national laughingstock. Meanwhile, each day he still makes a show out of going to “work” each day – to an office that was raided weeks ago by the feds. With his paper files and his computer files, let alone his computer, removed as evidence, what work can he possibly be doing? I suppose he’s on the phone (basically now a prosecutors’ party line), conducting whatever business that might be so routine that his involvement at this point doesn’t raise further issues of impropriety.

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Dishonorable mention: Team McCain's inept handling of Sarah Palin.

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When Sarah Palin stepped onto the national spotlight to accept the VP nomination at the GOP convention, she captured the attention of millions of voters from all walks of life. And she terrified the Democrats. She was bottled lightning. No longer just the most popular Governor in America, she had become the most popular woman in America overnight.

And then McCain’s handlers squandered the magic. First, she was sequestered from the media while she was given an impossible cram course in Federal issues, foreign policy, McCain position papers and the like. Then she was drilled with a set of canned answers to tricky questions with strict instructions to stay on message. With her head swimming, she stepped into her first post-selection interviews, which predictably became “stump the nominee” sessions with disastrous results.

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They should, of course, have endeavored to let Palin be Palin. A gifted, eloquent politician with a sharp head on her shoulders and deep expertise in energy issues at a time when the price of gas was the number one issue to voters (and Democrats like Nancy Pelosi were stubbornly resisting popular desire to expand off-shore drilling), Palin could have played to a reservoir of her strengths while buying a reasonable amount of time to become knowledgeable on national and global issues.

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Rather than pretending to be expert in things she clearly was not, she should have been allowed to say, “I’m learning about those issues right now and soon will have an informed opinion. Other successful governors – Reagan and Clinton to name two – stepped into the White House with strong state administrative experience but little if none on a national and global stage. I’m a quick study and I’ll be ready when needed.”

 

- Jon Harmon 

Fledgling Afghan news agency lets light shine on dark places

At the annual Committee to Protect Journalists' International Press Freedom Awards this past Tuesday, the director and deputy director of a fledgling news agency in Afghanistan, Pajhwok Afghan News, were among those honored for courageous reporting in repressive environments. 

Danish Karokhel and Farida Nekzad have been covering news and fighting for media rights for the past five years in a country where violence, repression and intimidation are as much a part of life as squalor and lawlessness They aren't in it for the awards or "career advancement" or even the exhilaration of covering a historic event -- all the reasons that bring Western journalists to dangerous assignments in war zones. They're freedom fighters in the truest sense and it was terrific to see them recognized for their noble, and mostly unsung, heroism.

Impressions from the CPJ awards banquet: It always makes me a little uncomfortable to walk into the splendid ballroom of New York's Waldorf Astoria wearing a tux and consuming a couple of mixed drinks along with the happy chatter all about me before we sot down to a fine meal ... and a series of video news reports that transport us to some of the most horrific places on earth, as far from the comfortable spendor of mid-town Manhattan as imaginable. And always two days before Thanksgiving. That's no coincidence -- CPJ wants us to give thanks for the freedom and liberties we enjoy and to help in the fight against press repression anywhere and everywhere.

Politically Incorrect Idle thought: Overhearing a discussion in decidedly British accents about our new President elect -- can someone please tell the Brits that his name is not Barack O-bomber!

Belicose CEO a PR Disaster; Monks Provide Lasting Inspiration

From a particularly distinguished field of PR losers, the finalists for the Force for Good PR 2007 Disaster of the Year, true infamy emerges. I hereby give you Bob Murray, a CEO spokesman for the ages, a nightmare client, wrecker of reputation and destroyer of stakeholder relations for his company.

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Murray sinks below all the others for his amazing performance in rambling press conferences on the scene of the Utah mine disaster in August in which he railed against his perceived enemies and those with different views of politics and life, including a tirade against environmentalists concerned about global warming, while hope slowly ran out on the miners trapped in Crandall Canyon. Families and friends of the miners, co-workers, members of the community and those who heard of the disaster through the news media wanted only to hear about the rescue operation and what could be done to try to save the miners’ lives.

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Murray often veered off course to lecture anyone who’d listen on his views on politics and the economy, and to stubbornly insist that an earthquake had caused the mine collapse even as scientists concluded that seismic disruptions had been caused by the massive cave-in, not vice versa.

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Murray’s act moved from tiresome to wholly inappropriate to something even worse as hope for the lives of the miners faded, and eventually he disappeared from the scene, replaced by a much more professional spokesperson. But the damage had been done. Perhaps he will exercise more restraint the next time he is called on to represent his company publicly, in the inevitable litigation to come.

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On a brighter note, we draw inspiration from the Force for Good “People of the Year” that we can only hope will far out-last Murray’s 15 minutes of infamy.

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Thousands of monks in Myanmar, formerly Burma,  took to the streets in September to protest repressive measures by the country’s government junta.

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On October 1, the world learned of the government’s genocidal reprisal to the monks’ courageous stand – as the bodies of thousands of the monks were dumped in the Burmese jungle. Yet, later in October, monks took to the streets again to continue their courageous protest. Standing up to pro-junta enforcers and thugs, the monks demonstrated peacefully and courageously, delivering a message of hope to the impoverished masses of Myanmar and a lesson in the power of righteous, non-violent dissent to the rest of the world in an age of suicide bombers.

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Can images and stories of the monks' courage inspire the Mynamar people to stand up to brutal tyranny? Will the bright light the monks have shone on abuse and genocide lead to universal condemnation of the junta from the family of nations and true reform in Burma?  this is the hope of the transforming power of righteous communication. Let's not forget the just cause of the monks, truly a force for good.

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- Jon Harmon

A Few PR Disasters … and Three Worthy Force for Good People of the Year

It’s time for Force for Good’s take on the “of the Year” awards.

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First up, I have to agree with PRWeek’s pick for “2006 PR Disaster of the Year” – the Hewlett Packard spy scandal. Hard not to pick this hair-brained scheme and the bad soap opera that followed, especially considering the central role that PR didn’t play because of its exclusion from HP’s executive table (a fact first disclosed on this blog).

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HP had some very worthy competition for dishonor as ’06 gave us such PR debacles as Edelman-Wal-Mart’s flogging across America … offensive implosions by Mel Gibson and Michael “Kramer” Richards … the clumsy way the White House handled Dick Cheney’s accidental shooting of his hunting buddy (among other less-than-stellar moments from the White House) … the demotion of Pluto from planetary status ... Fox’s how-could anybody-think-this-was-a-good-idea deal for a TV special on O.J. Simpson’s grossly pathetic “If I Did It” book … and, finally, Terrell Owens’ “publicist” Kim Etheridge's confrontational, gum-chewing news conference where she explained that T.O. had not, in fact, attempted suicide, citing “25 million reasons why he should be alive” (alluding to the dollar-value of his contract with the Dallas Cowboys – I  don’t think Kim is going to be recruited anytime soon by MasterCard for a “Priceless” commercial).

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Fun as it is to ridicule the deserving, it is better to celebrate the positively inspirational moments of the year. Here are three worthy winners of the Force for Good People of the Year 2006:

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o       Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, two San Francisco Chronicle sports journalists and the authors of the well-researched book “Game of Shadows” that blew the lid once and for all on Barry Bond’s steroid use. Sentenced to jail time when they refused to reveal their sources to a Grand Jury, Williams (left) and Fainaru-Wada stood their ground and will be forever remembered favorably for their principled stand. Anyone who has provided delicate information on background should thank these two for reminding all journalists of their profession’s code of honor to not burn their sources.

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o       Retired Dallas Cowboy Everson Walls for donating a kidney to former teammate Ron Springs (left, with Walls), who has diabetes and has been undergoing dialysis to get ready for surgery. Not that this courageously selfless action really has anything to do with communications; call this one: “Actions speak louder than words.”

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o       The Amish people of Nickel Mines, Pa. After a deranged milkman shot ten young Amish girls in a one-room schoolhouse, killing five, and then killed himself, the families of the victims reacted in a manner most unexpected (to us anyway): Within hours, they not only expressed forgiveness of the killer, but reached out to his widow and children, bringing them food. Their sincere and heartfelt expression of forgiveness came through loud in clear in the few interviews they gave and opened for us a bit of a window into the simple goodness in their lives.

- Jon Harmon

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