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September 30, 2005
I Heart Ethan Johnson
I am not a multitasker. I can blog, or I can read other blogs. I can write for pay or I can blog. You can see this is leading to a picture of me holding out a tin can with a message: "For only 25 cents a day, you can support this pathetic linear-tasker and help keep her blogging." But no, I'm headed elsewhere. To Mr. Vision Thing, aka Ethan "Effern" Johnson, and how one of the things I miss, because I can either blog or read other bloggers, is his truly terrific business blog. (He purports to be a manager at a public Fortune 500 company. I purport to be a successful journalist. Believe what you want, this is the Internet. I'm too busy to fact-check.) Mr. Vision, as I like to think of him, has many gems, including a smart observation about blogging (in response to the seeming inclination among some PR practioners to make blogs the answer to every question):
When new developments like blogging or podcasting come about, the natural inclination appears to be to proclaim each development to be the Next Big Thing, determine how it shall be Monetized, and warn non-adherents that they will Lose, or worse, Die. That’s the pre-boil howl coming out of the pot. Eventually, the true benefits of the new development become apparent, and a sort of resonance is achieved, where the benefits of having the thing no longer need to be discussed; they are implicit.
Obvious? One would think, and yet, hear that noise? Yup, plenty of pre-boil howl going on. Wait a minute, I hear a different howl. More like a yowl, really, the sound of an author in agony after his book was gutted.
I simply cannot recommend It’s Not What You Say…It’s What You Do by Laurence Haughton. Sorry Laurence, I don’t know you personally, I felt the earnestness of your work radiating off of every page, and I was actually thrilled to find this at the library and moved it to the front of my burgeoning book backlog. But it’s headed back to the book drop. I made it as far as Chapter 6. By that I mean I made it like that Jet Blue plane stopped on the runway recently. It was a similar picture: Sparks flying, things whizzing by (in this case, text), and the sense of cutting one’s losses after having made it that far.
Gee, so what was the problem, exactly?
Assuming markets are conversations, the conversation went like this:L Haughton: You need to execute!
Me: Right on!
LH: This book is all about the execution!
Me: Fantastic then!
LH: I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is… more execution!
Me: Rock & roll! W00t!
LH: Do you know who executes? [Company name].
Me: Great!
LH: And you know who else? [Person].
Me: Uh huh…?
LH: I read somewhere that execution was the “missing link” between getting things done and not. [Footnote]
Me: Mmm.
LH: This book is all about execution, and I’m going to show you all of the ways that execution helps people execute.
Me: (Whaa…? Page 76 already?)
Luckily I wasn't drinking a soda when I read the book review this morning or my keyboard would be history. I know I'm lifting far too much from this guy but I'm in thrall to his meaty putdowns, to the manly way he takes a big stick to the author. (My favorite bit of dialog in Notting Hill is when Julia Roberts says to Hugh Grant, "You know what they say about men with big feet." What? "Large shoes.")
The real deal-breaker came when the author talked about how [hospital] went about implementing their quality improvement program. So far, so good. Somehow one of the “key learnings” was to make a Pareto Chart (essentially) by “having a meeting and everyone brainstorming about what the problems are, and then voting on what the top 3 or 4 are.” Spooooooot went my drink. Excuse me, voting on the (perceived) key issues? You’re kidding, yeah? Things really soured out from there and never fully recovered. To clarify, assuming that the implementation was a smash success, it strikes me that they got lucky that the “key issues” were in fact, key.
I am not a Fortune 500 manager. For about 18 months I was a miserable middle manager painfully squeezed between my reports and my boss and barely escaped with my life. But even I, business pipsqueak, understand the stupidity of voting on the key issues.
Unless, of course, you want to pay me to write about it in which case I think it's a really, really fine idea.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 12:17 PM | Comments (6)
September 29, 2005
Aventures in Viking Loot
According to the Guardian, a Norweign family didn't think much about the stuff that turned up in the toybox belonging to their five-year twin sons. Not at first, anyway.
It was only when an ancient-looking brooch appeared in the toybox mix that the Kruzes decided to do some research. It turned out that twins Arthur and Teodor, aged five, and their cousin Jesper, also five, had not been playing with tat but with 1,200-year-old Viking treasure unearthed in the back garden. "After we checked on the internet, we realised that it was not something from H&M," said Marita Kruze, mother of the twins.
Tat is apparently British slang for "an object which is tacky, cheap, vulgar, tasteless, sleazy, inelegant, of poor quality or shoddy." And the importance of tat in my life makes it shocking that I only just discovered the word.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)
Scandinavians: Biz Wimps No More
Sez Reuters:
Nordic countries, with Finland in the lead, have some of the world's most competitive economies, despite high taxes and extensive social security systems, according to a study issued on Wednesday.
The study, from the World Economic Forum, claimed that
the north European nations "are challenging the conventional wisdom that high taxes and large safety nets undermine competitiveness."
This year's lineup of the top five: 1. Finland, 2. USA, 3. Sweden, 4. Denmark, 5. Taiwan. Of course, this is just the opinion of the folks who bring us Davos. That and 3 bucks won't even get you a latte in Stockholm. But the report is a bracing rebuttal, however small, to the myopic American assumption that a national health program, for example, is somehow incompatible with a competitive business climate.
Which is not to say Swedish business folks are thrilled with the Swedish system, they're not. And several of my friends moan about the complexities and pain of starting small companies here. Despite those obstacles, both IKEA and H&M seem to be doing very nicely. Some years ago I met a Swedish marketer whose job was to convince regular citizens that businesses paid too much in taxes and needed a break. It was an impossible job, he told me. Swedes don't like taxes, he said, but accept them as unpleasant but necessary to keep the system running.
This place isn't perfect, far from it. But it's not a Commie sinkhole verging on collapse, either. Contrary to the myth back home, there is more than one place in the world that has a functioning democracy, freedom of expression, and a healthy business climate. And thanks to global warming, Stockholm will have California's weather eventually. So if we survive, the weather will be terrific too.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 11:24 AM | Comments (1)
September 28, 2005
Unnecessary Crap: iPod Edition
Pete Gontier has thoughtfully forwarded this exciting release, courtesy of MacTech.
NWINDOWS introduces a new entertainment content/ecommerce platform based on one of the most popular time-passing activities –flipping through catalogs and magazines.
"San Francisco, CA, September 27, 2005 NWINDOWS, an entertainment/ecommerce content provider for digital home and mobile applications, announced the availability of high quality catalog slideshows for viewing on the iPod and Mac OS X.
"NWINDOWS is the first to provide relaxing, 'low concentration' content in the form of high quality, no/low text catalog slideshows optimized for both 'big screen' (TV/monitor) and 'small screen' (iPod) use.
"Consumers may download and import catalog slideshows into iPhoto (or Quicktime) for viewing on the big screen, and relax while the 'pages' are turned for them as they listen to their own favorite music. Or they may enjoy their favorite catalogs while on the run, anywhere and any time they have a few extra minutes on their hands.
“ 'Clearly, there is strong demand for new, exciting content suitable for the red-hot iPod,' says Deborah Quinlan, President of NWINDOWS. 'Consumers are demanding more interesting content for use on mobile devices beyond another game or ring tone.'
“ 'Our slideshow catalog content is selected and designed specifically to be aesthetically pleasing –something that would be enjoyable to watch whether someone is interested in shopping, or not,' says Quinlan. 'We have initially partnered with Ujena Swimwear, a company that possesses a strong consumer brand image and an appeal to both women and men. We believe this content is something that consumers will enjoy watching and will want to show-off to others on their iPods.' "
The catalog slideshows are available as free downloads. Now I think maybe, just maybe, somebody would look at this stuff if it came preloaded on a device but who in the hell is going to go to the trouble of downloading, say, the Lillian Vernon catalog no matter how cute the personalized totes. But my pal, the award-winning, all-knowing Pete, actually paid attention while reading this announcement and understood it instantly. As he put it so aptly:
1. It's a new mode of acquiring more crap we don't need.
2. This isn't anything any real people really want, but that doesn't matter as long as catalog producers buy in.
3. They're launching it with porn.
Which is a truly popular time-passing activity, waaay more popular than browsing catalogs. But Pete, it's not porn. Not really, even if the body language says take me, I'm yours. Still, it seems clear that when Quinlan claims "this content is something that consumers will enjoy watching and will want to show-off to others on their iPods," what she really means is that men will love showing off babes in bikinis to other guys and adolescent boys will have a high time downloading this stuff to show off at school. (It's a pain in the ass, though. To get it on your iPod, you have to "1. Click on the thumbnails to download the photos. 2. Import them into iPhoto. 3. Select the photos and click 'New Slideshow.' " 4. Download the slideshow to your iPod. Since I'm not a hormonal 14-year-old named Jason, thanks but no thanks.)
Images of naked women have, famously, been the driving force behind many a technological development. It's possible that images of near-naked women might do the trick for NWINDOWS. Possible but unlikely. NWINDOWS appears to be more of a cash-generating scheme for the principals than an actual solution to any consumer problem. Here at Deborah Branscum Inc., which is more of a flawed cash-generating scheme for moi than an actual editorial solution to any specific business communications problem, I have great sympathy for Quinlan's plight.
And very little faith that she'll be hearing lots of ka-ching sounds anytime soon. Am I underestimating the power of scantily clad women? Lord knows, it wouldn't be the first time.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 08:31 AM | Comments (4)
September 27, 2005
The Katrina Blame Game: We're All Guilty
Yesterday former FEMA head Michael Brown told Congressional aides "he should have sought faster help from the Pentagon after Hurricane Katrina hit, and blamed state and local officials for failing to order an immediate evacuation of New Orleans," according to an AP report. Inspired by Brown's candor (in other news: sun rises in East), I'd like to share a satire I wrote on September 6, back when I was furious but too far away from the disaster to do anything but write. Since Brown has resigned from FEMA, the piece is outdated and yet, oddly, still entirely too accurate. How can that be? Let's take a little stroll down memory lane and find out.
The FEMA Customer Satisfaction Survey
by Deborah Branscum
Dear Evacuee:
As head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, I want to thank you and all the other residents of New Orleans for giving our agency and the federal government an opportunity to serve you. Please help us improve by taking this survey about our response to Hurricane Katrina. Check all items that apply.
1. Which aspects of federal service stood out for you?
___Inability to locate New Orleans after hurricane struck
___Sending in Geraldo ahead of the troops
___Cutting Jefferson Parish’s emergency communications line
___Turning away water donations from Wal-Mart
___Underutilizing the USS Bataan’s helicopters, doctors,
hospital beds, and water-generation facilities
___Successfully managing the equine mortality rate
2. Where was your FEMA representative located?
___On site
___Within 20 miles
___Within 50 miles
___In another state
___On another planet
3. How did your FEMA representative repond to your cry for help?
___Promptly and efficiently
___Wasn’t authorized to handle problem
___Was out to lunch
___Was out to get you
4. The FEMA representative who promised (1 to 3 days after the hurricane) to rescue your family was courteous and helpful.
___Agree
___Disagree
___Don’t remember
5. The FEMA representative who promised (3 to 5 days after the hurricane) to rescue your family was courteous and helpful.
___Agree
___Disagree
___Don’t remember
6. The FEMA representative who promised (5 to 9 days after the hurricane) to retrieve the bodies of family members was courteous and helpful.
___Agree
___Disagree
___Don’t remember
7. Early on Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security Secretary, said the federal government was unaware that local levees might break from storm damage and that residents were stranded inside the city’s Convention Center after the hurricane. If you and Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu found yourselves locked inside a room with the Secretary, would you:
___Prevent the Senator from bitch-slapping Chertoff
___Hold Chertoff down so the Senator could get in a good shot
___Wait your turn to slam the Secretary’s head repeatedly against a solid, unyielding surface
8. How did the FEMA rap for kidz (“Disaster. . . it can happen anywhere, But we've got a few tips, so you can be prepared, For floods, tornadoes, or even a 'quake, You've got to be ready - so your heart don't break. Disaster prep is your responsibility, And mitigation is important to our agency...”) help your children cope with Katrina?
___Taught children lessons for rescuing themselves
___Taught children lessons for rescuing their family
___Don’t know, children still missing
If you are Caucasian, you have now finished the survey. If you are not, please answer two final questions.
9. When former First Lady Barbara Bush toured the Houston Astrodome where thousands of evacuees are staying, she said, “So many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them." Do you:
___Agree
___Disagree
___Want Barbara’s home address
10. Now that the Big Easy has gone Down Under--twice--there’s a whole new world of opportunity for evacuees. Some predict an upcoming boom in public health risks, while Fidel Castro is eager to send the U.S. aid. Given that perspective, and for planning purposes only, in which promising location will you build your future?
___Bagdad
___Chechnya
___Abuja
Please accept the enclosed Pine-scented auto air freshener as a small token of our thanks for rating our response. It was our priviledge to serve you in the wake of Katrina. Enjoy those combat rations and good luck with your relocation!
Sincerely,
Michael D. Brown
(Former) Under Secretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response
Need a hard worker? I'm available to help your agency meet its goals!
© 2005 Deborah Branscum. All rights reserved.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2005
Hands Off the Collection
Founder and former head of the Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center, Max Ary, is facing in hot water and facing "19 charges including wire and mail fraud, embezzlement of public funds and money laundering," according to the Witchita Eagle. That's bad news for Ary but not the only bad news. During a search of his home, according to Ary's attorney, sticky-fingered feds lifted items that belonged to Ary's private collection and not his employer. Among the items MIA:
• A mission chart autographed by Gene Cernan, among the last astronauts to land on the moon with Apollo 17.• A mission patch autographed by the crew of Apollo 13.
• Rolls of film from Apollo 13 and 16 missions.
• Fifty-four autographed photos of astronauts.
• A space boot from the Gemini program.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 01:32 PM | Comments (0)
Lawsuit Over Prison Slavery
Some people keep pets. Some prison gangs keep slaves, according to a lawsuit covered yesterday by the New York Times.
Roderick Johnson, a former inmate at the Allred Unit, a violent prison a few miles from here, belonged to a gang called the Gangster Disciples, but not in the usual sense, the gang's former No. 2 man explained Wednesday in federal court here. "Was Mr. Johnson considered a member of the Gangster Disciples?" one of Mr. Johnson's lawyers asked the witness, whose name was withheld by the court because his testimony could subject him to retaliation. "No," said the witness, a soft-spoken, perfectly bald and quite imposing black man in a prison uniform and shackles. "What was he considered?" asked the lawyer, Jeffrey Monks. "Property," came the reply. That meant, the witness continued, that gang members could rape Mr. Johnson at will. They could, he said, also rent him out for sex, and they did, daily. A purchased rape, the witness said, cost $3 to $7. Mr. Johnson says the abuse went on for 18 months.
The two parties agree that prison is violent but apparently don't agree on anything else.
Richard E. Wathen, an assistant warden, testified that there was nothing in Mr. Johnson's seven written pleas for help that warranted moving him to what prison officials call safekeeping, a housing unit reserved for vulnerable gay men, former gang members and convicted police officers. "I believe that we did the right thing then, and I would make the same decision today," Mr. Wathen testified Wednesday. "There has to be some extreme threat before we put an offender in safekeeping."
Dictionary.com defines extreme thusly:
adj 1: of the greatest possible degree or extent or intensity; "extreme cold"; "extreme caution"; "extreme pleasure"; "utmost contempt"; "to the utmost degree"; "in the uttermost distress" [syn: utmost(a), uttermost(a)] 2: far beyond a norm in quantity or amount or degree. ...
Frequent rape and daily sex rental? Sounds pretty extreme to me.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 01:26 PM | Comments (1)
September 22, 2005
Researching Everyday Food Culture
A marketing company called The Hartman Group (which has trademarked the term reality marketing so don't get any ideas, buster) plans to bring home the bacon by watching you, or people like you, fry it up in a pan. What the hell am I nattering on about? The Household Immersion Lab. For some reason the description below makes me think of pith-helmeted scientists going into the jungle for field work, when I know it won't be like that at all.
This fall, The Hartman Group's team of ethnographers begins the initial phase of the Household Immersion Lab. This pioneering effort opens up an entire new window onto understanding the consumption behavior of mainstream America. The initial 6-9 month Household Immersion Lab research effort is focused on eating patterns and will reveal the messy dynamics of Everyday Food Culture in America in surprising detail. While this first immersion centers on food, the Household Immersion Lab is perfectly suited to marketing and branding initiatives across a broad industry spectrum: apparel, technology, travel and leisure, hospitality, restaurant, consumer packaged goods, home improvement, telecommunications, retailing, etc.The Household Immersion Lab is about having close encounters with consumers on their own turf. It is about reconciling the differences between what consumers say and what they do. For example, while this initial phase is built around two families (one empty nester Boomer and one family of four with children), companies can sponsor their own families and interact with them on any number of marketing initiatives, such as putting products into the family to see how they are adopted, accepted, consumed, used, shopped for, etc. Other applications may be to test messaging, labeling, packaging or if we know the families are going to stores, observe specific behaviors or look for certain shopping/buying cues, etc.
Is the Household Immersion Lab as pioneering as it claims to be? Lemme know. Yo, Hartman folks, holler the second you're able to reconcil the differences between what family members say and what they do. Now that would be a true service. Not as lucrative but darn compelling.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 11:52 AM | Comments (1)
Ringtone Marketer Must Turn Down Volume
I'm not a total luddite but I'm just elderly enough that I had no idea that there was such a thing as the Crazy Frog ringtone (based on "the sound of a revving moped"), or that it had a Swedish connection (it was "spawned seven years ago by a Swedish motorcycle enthusiast") or that in the U.K., at least, it was "the first ringtone to enter the pop charts, where it stayed in the No 1 slot for four weeks." So what's the marketing angle? Here's the London Times:
PARENTS claimed a victory over the Crazy Frog after the High Court upheld a ruling that will banish the annoying ringtone advertisements until after the watershed.The company behind the mobile telephone ringtone breached advertising restrictions by appealing to children without making clear the true cost of its products.Almost 300 people complained that Jamba!, based in Germany, did not make clear that its mobile phone services were offered on a weekly, subscription basis rather than a one-off payment. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found that children had unwittingly run up large phone bills and ruled that the commercials cannot now be shown before 9pm.
The Crazy Frog advertisements were shown on 40,000 occasions during a single month on British television. The post-9pm restriction is intended to place it outside of children’s viewing hours. ... The ASA had previously criticised the commercials for their failure to make clear that the £3 weekly charge was not for one ringtone but a weekly subscription. The watchdog has found that the on-screen warning “16-plus and bill payer’s permission” was insufficient to stop children subscribing to the service via text message.
Not fair, whined the company:
Jamba!, which has sold 11 million Crazy Frog ringtones, argued that its advertisements were not aimed at children and produced evidence that the target purchaser of a Crazy Frog ringtone was aged between 18 and 29.The company said that a ringtone was “a fun item, of no harm to adults or children, and no more expensive than many small items on which a child may spend pocket money”. But the ASA said that the characters had a “strong appeal” to children and that “peer pressure”, and a No 1 Crazy Frog single, had exacerbated the phenomenon.
Jamba! is appealing the ruling. Meanwhile, says the Times, "the telecoms watchdog Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services ... fined the company that supplies the Crazy Frog ringtone to Jamba! £10,000 for sending out unsolicited text messages for a premium-rate auction."
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2005
Good, Better, Best: Marketing Condoms
This irresistable report is courtesy of the Mainichi Daily News:
BEIJING -- A rubber company in China has begun marketing condoms under the brand names Clinton and Lewinsky, apparently seeking to exploit the White House affair that led to the impeachment of America's 42nd president.Spokesman Liu Wenhua of the Guangzhou Rubber Group said the company was handing out 100,000 free Clinton and Lewinsky condoms as part of a promotion to raise consumer awareness of its new products.
He said that after the promotion ends, the Clinton condoms will go on sale in southern China for 29.8 Yuan (US$3.72) for a box of 12, while the Lewinsky model will be priced at 18.8 Yuan (US$2.35) for the same quantity.
"The Clinton condom will be the top of our line," he said. "The Lewinsky condom is not quite as good."
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 06:37 PM | Comments (1)
September 07, 2005
Salon on the New Media Backbone
In Salon Eric Boehlert analyzes the media's new willingness to ask the government hard questions and makes an obvious but important point:
"It's hard to decide which is more troubling: that it took the national press corps five years to summon up enough courage to report, without apology, that what the Bush administration says and does are often two different things, or that it took the sight of bodies floating facedown in the streets of New Orleans to trigger a change in the press's behavior.
"Think about it. It took the worst U.S. natural disaster in a century -- with a Civil War-like refugee crisis and undiluted chaos throughout New Orleans -- for the mainstream press to conquer, at least temporarily, its collective fear of offending Republicans and the White House and its trepidation toward the angry army of press haters complaining about liberal bias and report what it believed was the truth.
"The consensus among observers of this press phenomenon is that reporters in the besieged city experienced such a huge disconnect between what they were seeing up close and what they were hearing from relief officials (e.g., Brown's early assertion that the federal relief effort was 'going relatively well') that they couldn't help boiling over on the air. No doubt that's true. But for how many months (years?) have reporters in Iraq been witnessing the disconnect between the often burgeoning, bloody insurgency and rhetoric from White House officials who insist the insurgents are actually in their 'final throes'? Why have so little anger and passion about Iraq appeared on TV screens? One answer: There's a powerful conservative push-back against the press when it hits hard on Iraq -- which so far has not occurred regarding Katrina."
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)
September 02, 2005
PR Vultures
Every disaster creates a promising PR opportunity in its wake and Katrina is no exception. It may be a long time before New Orleans and other hard-hit areas get all the help they need. But media types, bless 'em, will have no problem filling column inches with all manner of (loosely interpreted) Katrina-related copy. Yup, the PR vultures are circling and ready to drop in for a meal at a moment's notice. First, read this passage from "I'm Living Your Dream Life," a book by Michele VanOrt Cozzen.
...During the time I lived in California, there was no mistaking the crushing feel of an ever-expanding population. If my own personal circle of transplanted friends was any indication of what was happening to the millions of other people in the Bay Area with New York, Baltimore, Atlanta and Chicago accents, I felt that pretty soon the bridges would collapse from the weight of the populace. Adding to the mix the earthquake of 1989 and the Berkeley and Oakland Hills fire two years later, a fire that claimed the homes of many of our neighbors, the terra was anything but firma. I shouldn't forget to mention the seven-year drought we lived through where I not only learned to turn off the water while brushing my teeth, but also the catchy slogan used in the bathroom: "if it's yellow let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down." So, after one long party I was ready for some quiet.
(We had that notice posted in my college dorm as well.) Now compare that lively prose with the press release below:
Cozzens Shares With Survivors of Hurricane Katrina How to Reinvent Yourself in the Wake of DisasterPopular San Francisco journalist and author, Michele VanOrt Cozzens survived the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and the 1991 East Bay Hills Tunnel Fire.
To: National Desk
Contact: Kathleen Campbell, Campbell Public Relations, 877-540-6022, kcampbell@thecompletesolution.com
NEWS ADVISORY, Sept. 1 /Christian Wire Service/ -- AVAILABLE IMMEDIATELY: Popular San Francisco journalist and author, Michele VanOrt Cozzens survived the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and the 1991 East Bay Hills "Tunnel Fire". She is a published expert on the effects of surviving disaster.
"After we survived two catastrophic events that Mother Nature threw at us, I gave up my career as a journalist and my husband, Mike, left his successful business as a stock broker.
"We learned first hand how to reinvent ourselves in the wake of disaster by deciding to live our 'dream life.' As a result, Sandy Point Resort and Disc Golf Ranch in the Northwoods of Wisconsin was born.
"Today we are successful innkeepers, living the 'dream life' and living far away from Mother Nature's latest rampage, Hurricane Katrina. We watch with trepidation as more and more people are evacuated from their flooded homes.
"Many survivors will return to find their homes and businesses--their lifestyles--completely gone. Some will rebuild. Some will flee. Some will choose to take this opportunity to reinvent themselves. The choice is up to you.
"Living your 'dream life' isn't easy. It takes hard work and determination. There are lots of do's and don'ts if you are going to be successful. The key here is to resist the victim mentality. In times like these your dream may be all you have. Only you can turn that dream into reality."
Notice any disconnect between the book's actual content and the dishonest PR tactic to publicize it? (I survived the earthquake and tunnel fire, too. Along with roughly, oh, 99.9999 percent of the state's population. Maybe I should have cobbled together a reinvention gig as well.) The release is a disservice to an apparently good book that readers seem to adore. (Of course, the Amazon reviews could be imaginary as well.) Marketers have learned that news releases are valuable these days not because they spark media coverage--that happens rarely--but because they attract search-engine traffic, which can be even more valuable. Maybe that's why so many press releases seem less like news and more like the trackback spam for cars, porn and casinos that stream into this blog daily.
So here's a message to Alan Gould: Listen up to VanOrt Cozzens and get rid of that victim routine, it's so Monday. Time to move on.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 03:43 PM | Comments (2)
CNN's Cold Fish
One word about CNN's Carol Costello: Yuck. The anchor of CNN Daybreak tried but failed to communicate genuine sympathy for an individual stranded inside New Orleans' Super Dome but was moved to tears (which she wiped away, discreetly, on camera) by a tape of CNN reporter Kathleen Koch visiting the remnants of Koch's childhood home. There Koch plucked up seven bricks as mementos for each family member, a gesture that triggered Costello's waterworks. And I'm not moved, I'm angry.
I'm angry because during Costello's stint this morning she's sounded more concerned about the lawlessness of a few individuals than the suffering of the great majority. When an eloquent man identified as Alan Gould was interviewed off camera about life inside the Super Dome, he was blunt. He said a "genocide" was underway there. He said (this is not verbatim), "We need the president to come down, take charge and get us out of here." He talked about the dead and dying, about his fears for his life and the lives of his wife and five-year-old daughter. He said it does not take five days to send a bus to New Orleans. When Costello reassured him that National Guards would be arriving "in the days to come," Gould was bitter and wondered how many more people would die before they arrived.
Costello didn't ask why Gould used the term "genocide" twice. Instead she asked about gunmen inside the Dome and Gould said there were no armed men there any more. People had banded together, Gould said, and asked the armed men to leave and they did. Costello asked why some people were shooting at rescue workers and the police, why wasn't everyone banding together to help each other like those in the Super Dome? Gould couldn't answer that question. His observation about the situation stays with me: "We're all we have," he said. "We're all we have."
Later Costello asked both a CNN producer stuck on a roof and a CNN reporter stuck on the roof with him why the police couldn't stop the lawlessness inside the Super Dome and go help a woman who had reportedly been held hostage. In the midst of explosions, apparently from the train yard, Costello said it was unknown if the fires have been set deliberately, then later implied that they had been set. During the time I watched she sounded much more indignant about the outbreak of crime in New Orleans than about the shortage of water and food and help that everyone CNN interviewed said was still needed. It baffles me: is she trying to channel imagined Middle American outrage or does the potential threat to residents from armed thugs (which existed way before the hurricane, by the way) scare her more than the immediate threat of dealth and disease to thousands of residents? Costello's reaction to the crooks seems out of proportion when measured against the suffering that CNN is showing. It's not like the dead people inside the Super Dome have died from gunshot wounds.
The hurricane coverage took a break at one point and CNN plugged an upcoming report on Iraq. Over the image of a burning car, a reporter soberly intoned that when there are attacks in Iraq, ambulances should come "right away. Frequently they don't. Such is the primitive state of Iraqi services." The timing was ironic because just before the break we'd learned that such is the primitive state of services in Louisiana that people in New Orleans can't get medical help either. Kathryn Jezer-Morton and Gray Miles, local freelance journalists, confirm that sad fact in Salon:
While chatting with some of the National Guardsmen, another guardsman approaches and informs us that a woman is in the middle of a stroke around the corner. The guardsmen shrug. There is no emergency medical tent in the downtown area, and many people in need of medicine have no way of getting what they need, even inside the shelters. On our way into the French Quarter, a wild-eyed man flags down our car, begging us for insulin or information about where some can be found. We cannot help him.
It is horrifying that some individuals are shooting at rescue workers and police officers. As the city's major explained in a radio interview rebroadcast by CNN, the looting got out of hand because most of the city's resources went to rescue operations. Now thugs and desperate drug addicts, he says, are roaming the streets and he can't stop them. That may be the biggest news angle to Costello but it's no news to the people trapped in the Super Dome. Criminals have always preyed on the poor and weak, just as politicians have always ignored them. And if Costello wants to get her panties in a knot, she can get indignant about that last part. People needed help several days ago. And it's not just poor black people who are pointing that out. Kathleen Koch, Costello's fellow CNN employee, said there may be help available but no one in the area can find it.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 10:51 AM | Comments (0)
Katrina and the Media: All Wet?
"Journalists Begin to Fear for Their Own Safety in New Orleans." From Editor & Publisher:
On Thursday afternoon in New Orleans, a 'Times-Picayune' reporter and a 'New York Times' photographer witnessed a deadly shootout, got roughed up by police, hid in fear, and now plan to flee the city to save their lives.
That awful situation helps explain why the growing number of poor Americans is largely ignored by mainstream media. Reporters and editors don't live in those neighborhoods. They visit them, only briefly, under duress. And who can blame them?
The horrifying aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has resulted in the kind of video that I associate with third-world countries, not the United States. Today the BBC has shown crowds of sweaty, hungry, thirsty and mostly poor people surrounded by filth and destruction. A few women, weeping, have begged for help, begged not to be left to die like some others who survived the flooding but waited in vain for rescue. The government isn't God but people are dying. How are TV broadcasters responding?
I wish I knew. I live abroad and don't get network TV news. But I do get CNN, which is transmitting CNN America. There the gloves are off. On a taped special this morning, Anderson Cooper was asking hard questions on behalf of the victims of the hurricane. At first I was struck by how blunt and direct he was, so like British newscasters and so unlike most American ones. Then I realized I was comparing this story to the mostly meek coverage of Irag. Since this particular disaster occured in the U.S., maybe Cooper believes he can afford to be blunt and ask why American families are going without water. Maybe he doesn't have to fear, at least for the moment, that his patriotism will be challenged over aggressive reporting.
As it happens, there's a continuing shortage of safe drinking water in Iraq, a problem that's existed for some time. That's not the only thing that links New Orleans to Bagdad, according to a piece by Will Bunch in Editor & Publisher (thanks, Tim):
New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA. ...... Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.
Newhouse News Service, in an article posted late Tuesday night at The Times-Picayune Web site, reported: "No one can say they didn't see it coming. ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."
In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to a Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness.
On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."
Not everybody buys that argument (In a letter to Editor & Publisher, Professor Larry Schweikart of the University of Dayton says it's "absurd to think that because we spend money that is legitimate by constitutional standards -- for national defense against terrorists in Iraq -- we 'don't have enough' for levee projects.") Should be interesting to see how the mainstream news outlets frame the issue. Bloggers, sez the Financial Times, are all over this question and so are the Democrats, according to the Washington Post.
That might spur some he-said/she-said type of supposedly balanced reporting. After residents are no longer in immediate danger, I'd like to see a well-reported, detailed and accurate analysis of the response to Katrina by local, state and national governments both before and after the hurricane arrived. American taxpayers and, especially, the victims of Katrina deserve that much.
Posted by Deborah Branscum at 07:18 AM | Comments (0)