According to a story by John McKinnon in this morning’s The Wall Street Journal, White House press secretary Tony Snow is swapping the simple, utilitarian White House seal, American flag and blue curtain for a modern, techno video wall on the set of his daily briefings. As much as I agree with Mr. Snow about the need to keep pace with the tools for getting a message out, I have to wonder if this is going to be remembered as the day the press corps was eliminated from the American system of checks-and-balances, making it easier for this and future administrations to avoid the true role of the daily press briefing: allowing the American people — through their representatives in the press — to question its government leaders.
Author: Mike
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A Swell Time
What you see here is Los Arcos shot from a small skiff during a family trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It is the very southernmost tip of of the Baja penninsula, where the Pacific Ocean meets the Sea of Cortez and gets its name from the arched rock in the center of the image. You can see the size of the swell by the markings on the rock wall to the right of the picture. What you don’t see just off the left side of the frame is a rock outcropping loaded with about 25 sea lions basking in the sun.
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A Tale of Two Homes
Please click on over to The Chronic Curmudgeon to read his post titled “Fortune.” Powerful writing based on a powerful and humbling experience that will make you reassess the value you place on your freedom of speech.
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The Karaoke Kid
This is a shot I caught one day during a family vacation at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. We were at the science museum and my oldest daughter was on stage having some fun with the karaoke machine. I quietly climbed up the back stairs to the balcony of the stage and caught this shot. It was manipulated a bit in Photoshop (added a layer with some blur-multiply, but other than that, nothing else).
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Anchored in Kauai
Strapped in and hanging half a cheek out of a small helicopter over the island of Kauai. If you look closely, you can see the coral and sand beneath the sailboat anchored in this cove.
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Acoustic in Hanalei
Jack Johnson? Maybe not, but still pretty cool. We went to the Hawaiian island of Kauai just about a year ago for our ten year wedding anniversary. After dinner one night, we were walking around the surf town of Hanalei and sat down to listen to this guy play some acoustic guitar in the main square (which, quite frankly, is the only square in Hanalei). -
Any Port In A PR Storm
Leaving all political views aside for the moment, has President Bush chosen to pursue a strategy that is the polar opposite of even the most basic of PR strategies? The AP has the latest Presidential PR miscue in the fight to give control of U.S. ports to a UAE-based company. No matter how sound his business decision might be, he has to know it cannot outweigh the political price he’s paying.
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Please Lock Your Tray Tables And Close Your IM Sessions
I got a ping on my instant messenger this past Saturday morning. It was John Patrick, a clear member of the digerati and one of the best clients I’ve ever had as a PR person. However, it wasn’t just any IM. It was John IM’img me from about 40,000 feet somewhere over the Atlantic. He was connected through the plane’s in-flight broadband wi-fi network. Like John says in his keynote speeches, we’ve only seen about 10% of what this Internet thing can do (and we can do with it). Hang onto your seats kids!
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I’ll Have A Double Cheeseburger With My Health Benefits, Please
Did the Bush administration fire all of its PR counselors? It sure looks like it given their recent round of media missteps. Adding to the stumbles is yesterday’s stop in Dublin, Ohio, where the President outlined his plan to expand health savings accounts. And where better to discuss health? Why, the corporate headquarters of fast-food giant Wendy’s, of course.
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Something Bad Must Be In The Texas Water
What is it about Texans and common sense lately? This past week, the Bush administration gave everyone a primer on what happens when you try to hide bad news. And now Texas-based RadioShack is in the barrel [free registration required] for trying to avoid the issue of its CEO falsifying his educational background.
I’m just going to assume that there’s a crisis communications playbook from the 1950s that everyone in Texas is working off of. It’s the only way to explain the head-in-the-sand denial that companies are operating in a more fluid, more transparent environment today (an environment we can thank another group of Texans for: the boys of Enron).
Mike Maney 