It’s Monday, and I can’t get serious about PR

It’s Monday, but more importantly it’s Opening Day of the 2008 baseball season. For 162 of the next 180 days, I’ll have something positive to focus on — no matter what else goes wrong. The steroid scandal notwithstanding, baseball has been an American icon for more than 100 years. And it’s been a central part of my life since Bill Mazeroski hit that 9th innning homer to beat the Yankees in the 1960 World Series.

I was only 7 when Maz put the Pirates on the map, and I’ve been in love with this game ever since. Now, if we could only persuade the baseball gods to dump the designated hitter rule — one of the great injustices of the 20th century, along with “lite” beer.

One journalist’s rage turns to campuswide dialog — It’s a great day to be from Kent State!

What might have turned into a PR crisis on some college campuses has become a meaningful dialog here at Kent State. Or so we hope. Read Christina Stavale’s excellent report in today’s Daily Kent Stater if you want the details.

The story involves student journalist Beth Rankin and her Daily Kent Stater column that ran on March 13 under the headline: I am not a white bitch! In a vivid commentary, Rankin tells her personal story of what she views as mistreatment and verbal abuse by the African American community on campus. She points a finger at Black United Students (BUS) as an organization that perpetuates the problem, then states boldly: “I am not afraid.”

Fascinating study or junk science? This one smells funny

When it comes to pitching stories to bloggers, PR folks still don’t get it.

Are you surprised to hear this? I didn’t think so. But now we have a real live study to support the claim.

Or do we?

A study released last week by APCO Worldwide and the Council of Public Relations Firms (CPRF) looks promising on the surface. Hell, it even has a colon in the title? And as anyone knows, important research always has a colon in the title.

But did you know that “Expectations for Bloggers: Public Relations Executives’ and Bloggers’ Points of View” draws its conclusions from a survey of just 102 people? Just 55 PR executives and 47 bloggers make up the sample. And that, friends, is a survey that — no matter how interesting — has NO statistical validity.

Milk wars, PR ethics and Swan Lake

It’s another one of those weeks. I’m jammed with work and not feeling at all well. But the blog beast calls me. Post, damn it! Post! I swear, in the next life I’m coming back as a trumpeter mute swan. I’ll be the good-looking one on the right.

I shot this photo just before noon today while working from home and gazing out back. Really, I was working from home — honest. Please don’t tell the dean! (If you’re confused, and you should be by now, check my last post.)

Two quick notes on PR-related stories, then I gotta go to work.

Need employee productivity? Chain ‘em to the desk!

I usually don’t poke fun at the academic world. I have to live here, you know. But this week I found a case study that’s amusing, and instructional from a PR perspective. The setting is the University of Akron, just 14 miles from home, so there’s a local angle, too.

Update #1: I’ve added the spoof ad above. It’s been making the rounds among UA faculty for the past few weeks, I’m told. Also, here is the local coverage from ABJ 3/22/08.

Update #2: A popular local columnist weighed in this morning in an essay that — get this — he wrote from home.  It won’t tell you anything you don’t know, except that Dr. Darchame’s nickname is “Dewey.”  It will confirm that he is an outstanding performer, respected by students and faculty — everyone, it seems, but his dean. One of Dewey’s colleagues sent me a copy of his last performance review (at state institutions, these documents are public record).  Number of philosophy majors doubled on his watch, number of minors quadrupled.  This led UA to add two tenure track faculty lines to serve the demand.  Meantime, UA remains unwilling to discuss reasons for his dismissal as chair.  I’d chalk it up to “CD Syndrome” (Clueless Dean). 3/27/08.

If you accept the facts as reported in this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education, the chair of Akron’s philosophy department was fired from his administrative post for being away from his desk without the dean’s blessing. (Story available only to subscribers. Email and I’ll send a copy.)

Is it time for an accountant as president? PR can help

I love accountants. They make sense of our world in ways no one else can. They insist on balance and symmetry. Accountants operate not on some abstract worldview but on numbers that are supposed to add up.

Since I’ve been married to an accountant for 31 years, I know a little about the breed. Most are conservative in their decisionmaking and painfully attentive to detail. They say “no” a lot when the question involves spending. And they can smell a bullshit idea even before you present it. You can trust them — at least most of them.

Smart folks listen to accountants. Most U.S. politicians do not. So maybe it’s time we elected one president — one like David Walker.

It broke my heart to learn that David Walker, the U.S. government’s top accountant and auditor, had decided to call it quits. And yeah, I didn’t know who he was either, so don’t feel bad.

Milk-labeling debate reveals the cloudy nature of ‘transparency’

Last month I wrote about the milk labeling debate here in Ohio. If comments measure interest, no one cares. So let’s try again.

As the milk debate returned to the headlines today, I began to see that this “transparency” thing isn’t a simple concept. In fact, the debate over milk labels presents an ethical dilemma for PR practitioners on both sides of the issue — though I doubt either side is seeing it clearly.

The debate began last month with a proposal to prohibit milk suppliers from labeling their products as “rBGH free.” If you aren’t up on agri-biz issues, “recombinant bovine growth hormone.” aka, Prosilac, is a chemical that boosts the production of dairy cows by as much as 20%. That means higher profits for farmers and lower milk prices for consumers. On the surface, it’s a classic win-win.

We’re all on drugs: This explains everything!

The AP today released the second segment of its 3-part series about drugs in our water supply. We’re all on dope, it seems — even the fish, and wait ’til you hear what it’s doing to them.

Yesterday’s AP story tells us that municipal systems serving over 40 million Americans report finding traces of pharmaceuticals in the drinking water. Drugs detected range from OTC pain killers and decongestants to prescription meds of all sorts. No one can say how these substances affect public heath, but if the fish are any indication…

Some of the fish exposed to the drug-laden water have lower sperm counts, and their gonads are shrinking. That’s right, shrinking! So now the story morphs from “just another toxic scare” to a horror that strikes at the very heart of one’s reproductive being — if you know what I mean. And yes, those are fish gonads.

Enough with the jokes. As PR professionals, this story raises questions in two areas: our communication transparency and our communication competence. We must examine both.

Power of Facebook comes through at “You Too”

If you believe in the power of Facebook, then the snowstorm pummeling the Midwest right now is all my fault. I’ve been praying to the Facebook gods for one last blast of winter. One last chance for some Nordic ski action. One last shot of chilly wind to the face. Ahhhh.

My Facebook status updates this past week:

March 6: Bill is waxing those skis. Oh yeah. Bring it on! 10:43 p.m.

March 5: Bill would give anything for one more good snow — just one more. Kick, glide. Kick, glide. 10:46am

March 8: Bill is thanking the Facebook gods for delivering a great snow storm. Awesome! Totally awesome! 11:17 a.m.

Communication in contrast: I’m laughing, but I shouldn’t be

I was awakened the last two mornings around 5:30 courtesy of my Kent State “Rave Alert.” In both cases, it was a text message announcing cancellation of classes at our Ashtabula campus, so it didn’t affect me this time. By last week’s alert about a snow day here at the Kent campus did. These are welcome pings, even when they disrupt my sleep.