Nary a Specter of sound messaging

So there’s this senator from Pennsylvania. His name is Arlen Specter. Have you heard of him? He’s been in the news a lot lately, but not because of any particularly impressive legislating he’s done — though in his lengthy career, he’s had plenty of that. Rather, it’s because he decided the only way to maintain [...]

Karl Rove relies on me for guidance

Well, that headline is a little bullshitty, but whatever.
Still, being formally “followed” by Karl Rove on Twitter is every aspiring communicator’s dream come true, right? So what if he’s also following 42,000 other people? He’s still paying close attention to each one of them.
OK. You got me. That’s a lot of bull, as well. Those [...]

Journalism happens, often online

Yesterday a group of online journalists were slated to testify before the Minnesota House rules committee. Their aim is to bring about a change of policy with regard to how the House defines a journalist and what types of media outlets could or should have access to the House floor.
I understand the need to make [...]

Pentagon no-photo policy holds no water

President Obama said he is considering whether to overturn a Pentagon policy that bans the media from taking pictures of the flag-draped coffins of U.S. troops returning from the battlefield. (Lead lifted word for word from USA Today; it’s not plagiarism if you link, right?)
The argument the Pentagon and Bush administrations (this was started by [...]

Barack, behind the scenes

You might as well get a divorce and disown the kids now. Newsweek’s “we promise not to report it until after the election” story is going to take a while to read, but if you’re like me, you probably won’t be able to help yourself.
I’m a sucker for the “inside baseball” stuff, and there’s a [...]

One Man’s “Artful Dodging” Is Another’s Blocking and Bridging

The Washington Post today offers up an instructive discussion on the difference between “blocking and bridging” – the technique that is at the heart of media relations – and simply ducking the question.  In particular, the article discusses how audiences perceive those who use the techniques and those who don’t:
In a series of particularly relevant [...]

To cover the convention, avoid the convention

Jeff Jarvis is a bright guy. His thoughts on the changing media business — where it’s stuck and where it needs to go — are usually interesting and often truly brilliant. But Jarvis misses the point with his recent rant about what he calls an ego-driven wastefulness of sending 15,000 journalists to cover this summer’s [...]

“Sitting in Joe Biden’s driveway. Only 12-13 more hours”

Have you heard of Twitter? If you’re a geek who likes to play with new techie things, it’s really cool, and if you’re a news junkie or a curious person, it can provide an endless stream of behind-the-scenes peeks that make you giddy.
Quick overview: Twitter is a place that lets people share absurdly short messages [...]

Epic typo

I like Joe Lieberman, but I have to admit this typo is absolutely classic.

Can robots write tell-all books?

Breaking news from ONN (the Onion News Network): The Pentagon has developed and successfully deployed an unmanned spokesdrone, which is able to conduct press conferences and field questions deemed too dangerous for a human press secretary, whose career could be irreparably damaged by answering them.

Of course, the question remains: Can [...]