Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, was in China this week trying to drum up much needed investment in infrastructure projects as well as to carve out new export markets for her troubled economy. Immediately after meeting the Chinese president, she sent out a tweet in which she swapped L’s for R’s in the Spanish words […]
On February 5 NBC Nightly News host Brian Williams apologized for lying to the public about being in a helicopter in Iraq that was shot down during the US occupation there. That day USA Today reported “It’s an unmitigated disaster for Brian Williams and NBC News. The revelation that the NBC anchor had lied on […]
I have often been asked why I write my articles and how I choose my topics. This is a fair question. My goal is to write about communications – good and bad. I avoid abstraction, preferring to use current media stories to explore and illustrate effective and ineffective communications strategies and delivery. By putting these […]
Arabia or Auschwitz? That is the choice that President Obama faced on January 27, 2015. On the one hand, the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz attracted major world leaders, and marked the end of one of history’s most brutal human rights abuses. Even though this event had been on the books for seventy […]
On the Tonight Show on January 21 host Jimmy Fallon said, “Last night was the State of the Union address, and everyone’s excited about the huge special appearance by a guy we haven’t seen in a really long time: 2008 Barack Obama. That guy had swagger”. Indeed he did. After years of critics lamenting any […]
The late United States Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, “everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts”. The week of January 12, 2015, Fox News guest Steve Emerson told interviewer Jeanine Pirro “In Britain, it’s not just no-go zones, there are actual cities like Birmingham that are totally Muslim […]
Kenny Rogers once sang, “You got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them”. This quote underscores a principle of strategic communications: always stay on message and, when you have made your point, stop. When you say, you stray, and when you stray, you undo your good work. You have to know […]
This weekend dozens of world leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (security is a major concern for both), joined over a million people to march in Paris in solidarity with the victims of last week’s terrorist murders and each held a number of public events. U.S. President […]
This past week we have witnessed religious violence at its worst. Boko Harum has reportedly killed over two thousand souls in Nigeria during the past few days. Three Islamist terrorists attacked Charlie Hebdo in Paris killing twelve, while another two killed four innocent victims at HyperKasher in the same city. Much ink has been spilled […]
Je suis Charlie! This statement is all over the web today, January 7, 2014 — a somber day for freedom of expression. Indeed, a dozen people have died tragically in a brutal and cowardly terrorist action in the heart of Paris. However, the perpetrators have committed a cardinal sin in strategic communications (besides the cardinal […]