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Tom Alderman
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Tom Alderman is a 30-year veteran Media, Presentation, Speech trainer and speech writer and founder of MediaPrep, a national media training and presentation skills coaching firm. With a strong background in media and crisis communications, news conferences, speech preparation, presentation skills and on-camera talent training, Alderman has worked both as a broadcaster and print journalist, as well as TV executive with CBS-TV and with Norman Lear's Embassy TV. He has also been the Communications Director for the Governor of Illinois.

Blog Entries by Tom Alderman

E-Butts: The Marlboro Man Plugs in.

(35) Comments | Posted May 7, 2013 | 1:55 PM

You may have seen the recent flurry of stories about a supposed alternative to cigarette addiction called the electronic cigarette. E-butts are a move by some nicotine-dealing tobacco companies to counter their declining smoke sales. If you're one of the 13 million smokers who try to quite each year, wouldn't...

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It's the Touch, Not the Tweet: 3D Communication

(0) Comments | Posted April 15, 2013 | 4:52 PM

You may have heard about Yahoo's new rule forbidding employees from working full or part-time from home. They must actually commute to the office instead of the kitchen table. The edict has caused a lot of chatter in office break rooms around the country mostly because people are actually in...

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What's in Your DSM?

(0) Comments | Posted April 4, 2013 | 9:22 AM

People who toil in the fields of mental health are looking forward to next month when the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders -- or DSM -- emerges. This is the official reference bible for mental health professionals. If you know the jargon, you will...

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In Politics It's the Charm, Stupid

(0) Comments | Posted March 26, 2013 | 1:41 PM

Policies, what policies? We Americans really don't vote for presidents because of their policies, do we? Sure, policies matter, but most presidential candidates play to the center -- after their nominations -- so we're left with which jo-jo is the least onerous candidate in a field of onerous-ity, and once-and-a-while,...

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The Fractious World of Digital Natives, Immigrants and Aliens

(0) Comments | Posted March 6, 2013 | 2:37 PM

For those who remember, the Age of Aquarius was a lot about peace and love. But it also splintered us into sharp sticks of rebellion and conformity, long and short hair, youth and everybody over thirty. It was a most fractious time.

Now we live in the digital age,...

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Scientology: Scary or Sacred

(5) Comments | Posted February 12, 2013 | 4:00 PM

"I'd like to start a religion. That's where the money is." -- L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology founder.

"I have to remain celibate to keep my instrument pure." -- Tom Cruise to his then-wife, Nicole Kidman.

These are just two of the oh-so-juicy morsels that New Yorker staff writer Lawrence Wright...

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How to Spot a Lousy Movie (By Reading the Ad Copy)

(7) Comments | Posted February 2, 2013 | 12:53 PM

You really don't really have to read the reviews for Arnold Schwartzenegger's comeback movie to know what a clunker The Last Stand must be. Lionsgate has supplied the clues in the prodigious print ad buy in major metropolitan areas. Take a look at some of the blurb copy they ran....

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15 Seconds With Gross

(0) Comments | Posted January 8, 2013 | 12:01 PM

First, the bad news about this winter's mystery/crime fiction offerings. The authors we count on to deliver the goods -- are not. David Baldacci's The Forgotten is a flat derivative of Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp and Lee Child's Jack Reacher stories. Nelson DeMille's The Panther, is an anemic attempt at...

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The Petty, Petty ABC World News With Diane Sawyer

(2) Comments | Posted December 21, 2012 | 4:22 PM

It was NBC's legendary boss David Sarnoff who said, "Competition brings out the best in products and the worst in people." If he saw his rival network ABC's World News with Diane Sawyer last night he might want to amend it to say that competition sometimes does bring out both...

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Off the Fiscal Cliff and Into the Swamp With Thomas Jefferson

(0) Comments | Posted December 13, 2012 | 1:27 PM

The small man with a soft voice listens politely to the office seeker. There are jobs to fill and rewards to grant. This president understands the concepts of democracy as well as the requirements of its politics. After all, he did write the book. Suddenly, the man's arm shoots out...

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He's Not One of Us!

(1) Comments | Posted November 26, 2012 | 7:58 AM

You may have noticed two recurring themes from the recent Obama vs Romney campaign. First: the issues. By the end of the exhausting process there didn't appear to be any space between the two candidates as Romney pivoted from 'severe conservative' to moderate maven thus defining his role as the...

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Dan Rather In His Own Voice

(1) Comments | Posted October 22, 2012 | 2:13 PM

We seem to be a nation that puts high value on journalism and the folks who do it - people like John Peter Zenger, Horace Greeley, Nellie Bly, Ernie Pyle, Tom Wicker, Woodward and Bernstein and these are just the print folks. Add early radios' Norman Brokenshire, H.V. Kaltenborn, Robert...

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To Bomb Iran, or Not: What Would Ike Do?

(24) Comments | Posted October 3, 2012 | 3:07 PM

If Iran is developing a nuclear weapon, should they be stopped before or after they may or may not have one? This is the scary, geo-political issue of the day involving the Middle East and therefore the world. For our country, it boils down to one basic question: should we...

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Arbitrage the Movie With a Tip of the Hat to Machiavelli, the Philosopher

(1) Comments | Posted September 24, 2012 | 2:46 PM

If you're an older adult who keeps complaining that "They're just not making movies for us anymore," they are and you'll find one in the extremely thought-provoking, gem of a movie, Arbitrage, with Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth and Nate Parker, written and directed by first-time filmmaker, Nicholas Jarecki....

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Postmortem on Clint and His Talking Chair

(1) Comments | Posted September 7, 2012 | 5:10 PM

The one thing you can say about the whole Clint Eastwood convention episode is that it will live forever in TV replay-land. 'Doing an Eastwood' might even become a new phrase for being unprepared, for winging it -- badly.

But let's be realistic. It's not really his fault because Mr....

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America's Most Exclusive Club

(0) Comments | Posted August 15, 2012 | 11:26 AM

We do seem to like the notion of clubs, especially private clubs, clubs we can't belong to like The Women's Murder Club, The Baby Sitter's Club The Joy Luck Club, Fight Club or my fave, the Meryl Streep Movie Club, which is probably about sincere women sharing their inner journeys...

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Note to Future: It's All on the Fridge

(5) Comments | Posted July 19, 2012 | 11:39 AM

And by fridge, I mean refrigerator or, if you're already in the geezer zone -- icebox. The odds are quite high that, right now, your fridge is so much more than just a receptical for food. It is also disguised as a home art gallery. Take a look. No matter...

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Some Writers Should Be Seen and Not Heard

(4) Comments | Posted July 2, 2012 | 4:40 PM

Authors often like to talk about finding their literary voices, which generally means they haven't sold anything yet. This post, however is about writers who actually have sold a book, want to voice the audiobook edition -- and shouldn't.

Take the case of Harlan Coben, he of the delightfully entertaining...

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The Grand Marshall of Fun

(2) Comments | Posted June 18, 2012 | 3:23 PM

If you're in the entertainment business, particularly TV and movies, the name Garry Marshall means success and longevity. Success is always a long shot in Hollywood. But longevity -- that, as the Wizard would say, is a horse of a different color. When you read, or much better listen to,...

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The Candidate as Antidepressant!

(0) Comments | Posted June 7, 2012 | 3:29 PM

We all know political candidates are sold on TV just like soap suds or prescription drugs.

Dire conditions are described -- dirt, crime, unemployment -- and only our candidate has the power to clean up the mess. On TV, all drug commercials are required to divulge a...

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