Some blunders are unavoidable; often they are self-inflicted. One thing's for certain: 2011 provided some stunning examples of public relations disasters.
10. There are no claw backs in PR. Back in January, a guy named Mitch Delaplane thought it would be cool to write a press release that touted his...
Posted December 17, 2010 | 00:02:53 (EST)
This year proved to be a golden one for public relations meltdowns. Compiling this list was easy - trimming it down to the 10 biggest wasn't. As far as PR blunders go, 2010 was a target-rich environment.
10. The Nazi Candidate. Republican Rich Iott has a hobby. He likes to...
Posted November 1, 2010 | 12:45:16 (EST)
It was a huge throng, stretching from 3rd Street on the National Mall down to the Washington Monument. Initial estimates put the number somewhere north of 200,000, and if the difficulty of getting back on the Metro was any indication, it was certainly the largest crowd in the Nation's Capital...
Posted September 16, 2010 | 12:55:53 (EST)
It seems to be a foregone conclusion the Democrats will take an expected hit and end up losing the House in the upcoming midterm election. Should that hit become a shellacking (i.e. losing the Senate), many factors will be cited: an unemployment rate that is too high, a stagnant housing...
Posted June 3, 2010 | 16:41:52 (EST)
Armando Galarraga, who was robbed of a perfect game by a blown call from umpire Jim Joyce, has also pitched a perfect example of how to handle a potential media storm. The young Detroit Tigers pitcher has been nothing but calm, cool and classy in the kerfuffle, giving us all...
Posted June 1, 2010 | 17:05:55 (EST)
Memorial Day inherently is a time of reflection. Honoring what our soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen have done for the sake of our freedom is not a single-day activity, but one that should be in the hearts of all of us, all year round.
Whenever this holiday comes, I invariably...
Posted April 25, 2010 | 21:21:02 (EST)
A little over ten years ago, I was asked by Al Burton to come down to his office and talk about working on a new TV show he was putting together with Ben Stein. Stein was hot at the time with his Comedy Central quiz show Win Ben Stein's Money,...
Posted April 9, 2010 | 18:29:55 (EST)
President Obama deserves congratulations for the new nuclear arms treaty with Russia. Reducing the number of nuclear bombs in the world is a good thing, and the Senate needs to ratify it as quickly as possible. So some of the big bullets are being removed as a threat to American...
Posted March 25, 2010 | 18:57:38 (EST)
It's difficult not to consider Barack Obama's first year in office as one of the most successful in American presidential history. Saving the economy from the brink of collapse with the Recovery Act, Stimulus Package, and the recent Health Care Reform bill are major acts of legislation that will help...
Posted December 15, 2009 | 15:04:19 (EST)
For some this was, as Queen Elizabeth might say, "annus horribilis" - a horrible year. For the rest of us, it was another lesson in public relations crisis management. Here are the Top 10 PR blunders of 2009:
10. Fox News Caught Using Fake Footage. To make it seem like...
Posted December 4, 2009 | 15:24:14 (EST)
As a guy who spent the better part of twenty years of his life in Hollywood working as a publicist and in the TV news biz, I almost found the flap with the Salahis getting into the State Dinner amusing. Almost, except that particular party-crashing represents a huge security breach,...
Posted October 28, 2009 | 04:35:20 (EST)
With the Justice Department's release of an important policy memo, we find a small bit of common sense seeping into the long-failed "War on Drugs." Federal prosecutors have been instructed not to target patients or sanctioned providers of medical marijuana for prosecution in states that allow the substance for medical...
Posted September 30, 2009 | 14:12:40 (EST)
The time has come for Congress to step up to the plate over health care reform. President Obama's speech to the joint session put forth his plan -- an address "presented as a societal imperative and a test of the nation's character" according to one TV commentator. The stakes are...

14 Comments | Posted December 22, 2011 | 16:10:45 (EST)