Author: Mike

Without saying so directly, David Bianculli, a TV critic at New York’s The Daily News, adds to the spiraling shrinkage in credibility of network news. Bianculli armchair quarterback’s the decision by ABC to have World News Tonight news anchor David Woodruff report live from Iraq (Woodruff and his cameraman, Doug Vogt, were seriously injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq this week). In doing so, Bianculli apparently believes that network news anchors should be glorified script readers and not the journalists they are promoted to be, that the person/face is more important to the story than the actual story. I give Woodruff and Vogt credit for being journalists and not the actors Bianculli would rather them be.

There have been so many corporate scandals over the past couple of years that it’s hard to keep up with all of them. One that continues to make headlines is the case against former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy, who was acquitted last year of his involvement in a $2.7 billion accounting fraud. Today, word is coming out that he paid a local journalist $11,000 to write flattering stories about him. Apparently, Scrushy funneled the $11k through a local PR firm, The Lewis Group. This is another black eye for both the PR and journalism professions. Andy Lark is also calling this out on his blog (which gets a ton more traffic than mine, so it might make sense to follow any comment threads there) and expresses the frustration that many of us in the PR industry have with unethical, amateur professionals and agencies.

The good folks over at Slashdot are running a post on a Wall Street Journal story that highlights a push for more sharing of data in the development of pharamceuticals. Not that my site stats back me up, but this is the second time in about a month that posts on this blog have preceded articles or television commercials.

The Media Guerilla, Mike Manuel from Voce Communications, expands on Shel Israel’s advice for early-stage startups that are considering hiring a PR firm. It’s a post worth a read, as it speaks more to the changing nature of communications than it does to decisions facing startups.

Renuka Rayasam at the Austin-American Statesman is reporting today that Whole Foods Market is switching to all wind power in the U.S..

I don’t know enough about the economics of the wind-powered energy industry to determine the economic benefits of Whole Foods’ decision, but my 14 years of PR experience tell me that this is a great PR decision (and I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that the company’s PR team was at the table when the debate about the merits of moving to a wind-powered infrastructure were discussed).

I don’t follow the supermarket wars as a matter of my day-to-day news reading (apparently there is a huge battle going on). But I do have a few cooking/luxury blogs loaded in my RSS reader. Whole Foods seems to get consistent buzz as the good guy (read: good customer and community citizen) in a lot of the posts. Whether that’s for the natural products they carry, their purchasing ethics, or something else, I don’t know. I just know that from a PR perspective, Whole Foods seems to be doing a lot right lately.

Their competition should start paying closer attention if they aren’t already — before they get the wind knocked out of their sales.

Tim gave me the heads up on this story out of Rancho Cucamonga about a man who broke into a neighbor’s house because he mistakenly thought it was his in a heavily inebriated state. Let’s just say the results didn’t turn out to good for him.

Tim and The ‘Mudge can provide much deeper insight on the topic of baseball than I ever can. However, for some odd reason, I am hooked on the discussions about the banning of Pete Rose from ever entering the Hall of Fame.

For those of you like me who know little about the history or passion of the game, Rose admitted to betting on games (including those he played in) and was ousted from the game for life. There is no question in anyone’s mind that he would be a shoe-in for the Hall if not for this transgression. The trouble, for me, with this permanent ban from the game is that I believe Charlie Hustle (Rose’s nickname) would rather have lost money on a bet than lose a game. That’s the passion that he played with.

Today, he’s busy signing autographs and watching the game on television. And baseball is worse without him.

USA Today’s John Saraceno captures a quote from Rose that, in my mind, shows Rose’s contrition and absolute passion to help make the game better — for the game, not for Pete Rose:

“I’m a teacher. I’m a leader; I’m not a follower. I watch two or three games every day during the baseball season. It drives me crazy when I turn on the TV and see some of these cities, see the empty seats. Every seat at a ballpark is for (a body) every night. That’s why they make ’em.”

“I don’t know,” he says, “but you’d have to think that I’m young enough to get a four- or five-year contract. Obviously, I could make more in some cities. … I don’t want to be arrogant, but if you own a baseball team and you don’t want to win or put people in the seats, don’t call me.”

These are the things that winners and leaders are made of.

For anyone as hooked as the missus and I are on the ABC hit “Lost”, this report from the UK’s The Independent either solves a bunch of the show’s riddles or adds to confusion. If you aren’t watching the show, pick up the first season’s DVD and catch up. It’s, perhaps, one of the most creative and well-done shows in the past 10 years.

Does this surprise ANYONE: Utah Theater Cancels ‘Brokeback Mountain’?

Consumers — people like you and me — downloaded almost 20 million songs at the close of 2005. And they did it legally through iTunes and other legitimae online retailers. Good to see that the RIAA is so in touch with reality and their business as they maintain their ridiculous crusade against their own customers. Customers, mind you, who have shown in the last week of 2005 that they have moved beyond the industry’s stuck-in-the-past model of business.