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My good pal and PR colleague Geoff Barbaro is eagerly awaiting the new series of ABC TV’s Media Watch, as bad public relations as well as bad journalism will be targeted next year, according to the program’s new host. Jonathan Holmes, a veteran reporter with ABC TV’s Four Corners, said he
hoped to “expose the more egregious antics of the (PR) industry that all too often tries to sway, or mislead, or simply stonewall journalists who are trying to do an honest job“. He said the public relations industry permeated government and business at every level and exerted undue “influence these days on what we read and hear and watch”.
Aussie PR’s - you have been warned!!

Bernie Banton - the anti-asbestos campaigner whose courage and resolve justifiably created a major PR disaster for James Hardie Industries - died peacefully in his sleep this morning at around 1am (AEDT). Work colleague John Robertson said Mr Banton was “…a bloke that was determined to make sure that everybody - not just himself - got justice from James Hardie.” Read more

As K-Rudd’s Labor cruises to victory in Australia, Scottish Labour is smarting after a string of ‘PR professionals’ brought the party in disrepute; one did it by blogging, another shouted drunken profanities at a posh dinner. A predecessor was caught in Hugh Grant mode with a prozzie; Hollywood scriptwriters; who needs ‘em?
SCOTTISH LABOUR’S new spin-doctor Gavin Yates made a series of damning criticisms of his colleagues weeks before he accepted the job as the party’s head of comms, reveals Scotland’s Sunday Herald. Creating a PR disaster-in-waiting, Yates used his blog to describe the party leader as “abrasive”, labelled the shadow health minister as “simply uninspiring”, and blasted Jack McConnell for being a “lame duck leader” when in office. Hmmmm; those weekly PR strategy sessions should be interesting then? His comments featured on his WordPress-hosted blog, GYmedia. A message on the blog page now states: “The authors have deleted this blog. The content is no longer available.” But the Sunday Herald has uncovered a number of Yates’s postings, many of which portray the Labour leadership in a negative light.
In a lame defence Yates said: “My comments have been taken out of context. I wrote them as a journalist in July and they do not reflect my own views.” So Gavin, as blogging’s all about expressing your own views, you don’t know the difference between blogging and journalism; In a senior PR role, you should.

Scottish Labour’s previous media aide, Matthew Marr, resigned just over a week ago after shouting the C-word at an opposition party leader during an awards ceremony.
Several years back, Labour PR staffer Philip Chalmers’ departure was accelerated after being caught in his car in Glasgow’s red-light zone with a prostitute.

The UK’s Torygraph newspaper reports that:
“Skype, the internet telephone service owned by online auctioneer eBay, is facing a PR disaster backlash from customers after admitting that it will have to cut off 10,000 UK numbers just before Christmas…The company’s own chat rooms at Skype.com been inundated with complaints from furious customers… Skype is offering users a year’s free subscription by way of recompense.”

Yet look closer at the story, and you’ll see the claim that GCI Telecom leased numbers to Skype, which they’d already leased to a third party - surely the PR disaster lies at the door of the company that duplicated the lease arrangement. But Skype gets a misplaced boot to the swingers cos it’s the ‘brand de jour’.
However, the saying ‘timing is everything’ seems pretty poignant in this PR nightmare - after all, when would most international callers want to use the no-cost Skype? Surely around the festive holidays when they’re doing loadsa business or may be distanced from relatives and friends!

Meanwhile, ‘top’ London PR Lynne Franks has been voted off TV show ‘I’m a celebrity get me out of here’…must be a slow start to the news week, eh?

Barnum was a PR guy, they say.

Progressive (technologically anyways) Stateside PR blogger Peter Himler says PR’s are stuck in the past:
“In a nutshell, the industry, including the largest independent, remains possessed, if not hunkered down by the practice of generating ink and airtime for clients. And it’s not necessarily the digital variety…Media “placements” still drive, if not validate our industry’s raison d’etre. They produce industry awards. Clients crave (and pay handsomely for) them. And our success by-and-large continues to be measured by this age-old deliverable. Is it right? Does it jibe with the times? Is it changing? Is it changing fast enough? Does it even need to change?

Any standup will tell you that the secret to good comedy is timing; so when an offensive, fake flyer designed to discredit the Labor party - but lamely decribed by electorate Lib MP Jackie Kelly as a Chaser-style joke - was distributed just days out from a close-call election, Libs’ honchos just ain’t laughing.
Download the fake leaflet, courtesy of news.com.au here leaflet.pdf
From a PR viewpoint, it shows how the stupidity of any individual(s) can undermine the reputation of the collective. Read more

Interesting piece in London’s ‘Independent’ newspaper about celebrity addict Britney Spears, and the media pack’s feeding frenzy around her dysfunctional behaviour - many parallels with the problems faced by fallen/falling Aussie Rules star Ben Cousins, just banned from playing AFL for a year after his drug-related behaviour was adjudged to have brought sport into disrepute.
The Indie wrote:
“A professional public relations consultant would advise Spears (sic Cousins) right now that if she won’t go into rehab and stay there, then she must not go out in public at all for a while, paying someone else to purchase her groceries, while she lives under self-imposed house arrest, attending only events where her privacy and anonymity can be guaranteed. Unhappily, there is little indication that Spears has been given good advice, let alone had the sense to take it…
Addicts typically blame everything else in their lives for the chaos that surrounds them, and Spears is no exception. She will not wish to spend time with anybody unwilling to help her maintain that inverted position. Like many others before her, her fame and wealth will attract a number of people only too willing to assist her in her refusal to face reality.

WordCamp (Sat 17/11) - an ideasfest for WordPress afficionados - had loads of helpful info for bloggers. Apart from being plagued by Docklands’ flies and having slideshows that no-one could read because of the brightly lit venue (a pre-presentation check omission), there were plenty of handy hints and perspectives. A bit strange, tho, that at such a tech-savvy event, a few of the presentations were spoiled by gremlins in the various machines:(
Interesting - for an event for those at the blog frontline - there were no major Ad or PR agencies represented, which possibly signals two things: Either they’re all blogging on a different system to WordPress, or already know it all:)Here’s a precis of the prezos, and if any points grab your attention, contact the person mentioned, OK…
Read more

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