Michael Rogers, a blogger who was on NewsChannel 8 promoting “Outrage,” a new documentary on closet homosexual politicians and activists who “out them.” Rogers could barely get his promotional explanation out on what the video entails, which is the sole purpose he was invited on the show.

Doug McKelway, news anchor for NewsChannel 8, creates his own purpose of the documentary and what it’s about – spin? I think so. Not to mention he gives him the old “I’ll be waiting for you in the parking lot threat,” and refuses to apologize.
 
See for yourself: http://dcist.com/2009/05/mckelway.php

Well I am troubled as I read the story on cubs.com today. One, because I am big Cubs fan, and two, I don’t think the Chicago Cubs media relations team would produce such a story. So where did the facts come from?

The offseason of any sport is filling with trades, free agency, and rumors. Does that mean they are all true? The amount of times Jake Peavy was leaving sunny San Diego to join our cubbies was endless and heartbreaking, because as we all know, that trade didn’t go through – for now.

In the Chicago Sun-Times a story regarding Mark DeRosa’s departure was published suggesting manager Lou Piniella and DeRosa never seemed to hit it off in their two year player-manager relationship. The facts are all there in the story supporting DeRosa’s reaction to the trade, but nothing supports the accusation of Piniella’s and DeRosa’s relationship. Where did that come from? Instinct? Opinion?

The funny thing is Piniella was interviewed about the Chicago Sun-Times story and had this to say Thursday in an article on cubs.com Web site:

“”How can they say that? That I didn’t hit it off with him? Was that what he (DeRosa) felt?”

“I have nothing but respect for Mark. He played exceedingly well, I used him all over. I think he had his best season playing for me.”

And even better, Mark DeRosa had this to say:

“I don’t understand that. Whoever wrote that article is wrong. I had a great relationship with Lou. I respect what he did as a player, and I respect what he does as a manager. I enjoyed playing for him. He lit a fire under me. That guy, the writer, has it wrong.”

So if this story was not pitched and based off of opinion, is it saturated in journalist spin – I think so.

In the words of the Black Eyed Peas – Where’s the love Chicago Sun-Times?

The article starts out with this…

Sleazy. Disingenuous. These are words used in U.K. newspaper coverage of the public relations industry. PR, oddly enough, doesn’t have great PR. People tend to think that PR involves being manipulative and saying whatever is in the employer’s best interests.

Gee. Allow me to keep reading.

(The authors) call PR an amoral industry, a tool for good or evil purposes. There was, alas, Hitler, Goebbels, and the Nazi propaganda machine.

More? Why make my face more red that it is right now? Stop reading!  I can’t…it’s like a traffic accident. Must…keep…reading.

I’ve not read this book, but the reviewer goes on to say that in the book the authors debate whether or not it is the role of a PR professional to tell the truth.

I am here to tell you that every journalist (both traditional and new) I’ve ever worked with would tell me where to stick it if I ever lied to them.  If a client asked us to lie (and it has happened), we immediately resign the business.

I’m also here to tell you that PR professionals live by a Code of Ethics and I’ve seen people kicked out of industry organizations for displaying anything but professionalism. So there are good and bad in every profession. Until you walk a day (or five) in our shoes, let’s leave the negativeness and bashing alone.

He recently wrote a blog post called, “Get ‘spin’ out of your lexicon.” He goes on to say it’s bad for your business health because “reporters know when you’re spinning and they use it as motivation to really dig in their heels and come after you.”  Check out the post – it has a great case study via video about Jet Blue.

But this isn’t just for clients.  Yes, it’s our job to teach our clients how to work with the media, but it is not our job to teach them how to spin, lie, or evade the media.  Our job is not to spin.  Our job is to help our clients communicate with their customers via the media by being honest, open, and transparent.

Let’s do our jobs.

As you can probably guess, the tests did show that indeed, some products are gluten-free, as the labels claim; some contain small, acceptable amounts of gluten (although it is debatable if any amount of gluten in a gluten-free product is acceptable); and some contain alarmingly high amounts of gluten.  

One of the lines determined to have high gluten levels, despite a “gluten-free” label is an assortment of breaded meat products targeted for children’s consumption, manufactured by New Jersey’s Wellshire Kids and sold at Whole Foods stores. After some initial stalling, Whole Foods did pull the products but only after enough customers complained and they decided it was the right thing to do and take responsibility, no longer placing the blame on the manufacturer.  At the manufacturer level, Wellshire Kids now says they discovered last June that the products were not gluten-free as labeled due to one of the batter ingredients so they found a substitute ingredient manufacturer for the products in question. However; they chose to continue to sell the products made with the old ingredient (that did contain gluten) that was already in inventory.

So, is just enough really good enough?  Yes, both parties acknowledged the problem truthfully and factually (no SPIN!!!) then made the necessary changes to correct the problem and went public with those announcements and changes.  But in today’s world, wouldn’t it be refreshing to have someone take that extra step, be ahead of the bad publicity, do the testing more diligently and ensure all the claims are 100% accurate before being caught in this situation?        

My good friend Martin Waxman last week blogged about this very topic, but in terms of sweepstakes.  You know that letter you receive that says, “The fact that you are now in possession of enclosed documents that are proof of your chance of becoming a prize winner is all but confirmed.”

There are many instances of this in our lives and some advertisers have been sued over extraneous words that can’t be proven (most know my favorite is “The Funnest iPod Ever”, mostly because “funnest” isn’t a word).  But this is spin in it’s finest flair.

Martin is right; the excellent PR professionals will stop this practice through social media and honest and transparent communication and it will eventually trickle to the rest of our lives.  Well, one can hope!

This incident, captured by other reporters live, was only minutes away from blowing up with endless amounts of spin — Bush’s dog is taking out his master’s frustration on reporters for all the harsh remarks; the dog is not friendly anymore because he is leaving the White House soon; or should they allow Obama to bring his golden doodle into the White House?
 
However, I don’t think these spin issues are even the biggest of them all. In national news, there lays a story about the President’s dog portrayed as newsworthy news. I mean it’s not that our country isn’t going through an economic crisis; Americans aren’t losing their jobs; the stock market didn’t just take its usual dive after a new presidential election, and we definitely didn’t just elect a new president who is a rather historical figure. Rather President Bush’s dog is now a YouTube sensation. MSNBC’s video on YouTube already reached more than 4,000 views. Barney, “the first Scottish terrier,” only added to his celebrity status due to an unworthy news placement.
 
Now if Barney would have taken a bite out of Obama to greet him into the White House – that’s
some news. Can you hear the stories? Bush trained Barney to attack Obama…stop the spin!

Everyone has the right to their own opinion, but journalists are supposed to cover both sides of the story. Well, unless you are covering the Cubs vs. White Sox or Bears vs. Packers, in which case, a journalist certainly covering a team outside of the “bear family” needs to have their head checked.
 
Journalist who were covering John McCain years ago giving McCain the media coverage any potential candidate would love or as one journalist put it, “give a journalist a treat and we will leap into a politician’s lap.”

Since John McCain has been subject to lies and upsetting some of his old media friends who he fooled  last year, they now have turned on him, leaving people with a reoccurring question, are we reading a factual story or is this another bash on McCain from a former journalist’s friend?
 
Either way, I am staying out of this spin; I would never want to be called Paris Hilton or Britney spears!

However, there is one major characteristic no other candidate can touch on Obama. Obama might be the most down to earth and regular guy a presidential race has encountered, and Obama can thank his right hand man for that. Former Duke basketball and football star, Reggie Love is Obama’s body man, he knows what “the boss,” as he calls Obama, likes to eat, drink, and even his sleep schedule. But most importantly, Love assists Obama in the social world, whether it’s playing basketball with locals in the state they are in, or up loading his iPod with pop music younger crowds are listening to these days.

“So I’ve gotten pretty fond of Jay-Z,” says Obama. “He’s broadened my horizons in the hip-hop world.”

When it come to politics, I know very little and I find it very hard to stayed entertained, but now that media outlets are printing headlines like “Will Paris Hilton’s Energy Plan Work,” how can I not be entertained or keep from laughing? McCain’s attempt to spin the media into thinking Obama is just another celebrity and unready to lead our nation totally backfired on him and in many cases due to the aid of mystery cue cards, Hilton sounds smarter than both presidential candidates by coming up with her own plan, which she calls a hybrid of both their plans to end our oil-energy crisis.

“We can do limited offshore drilling with strict environmental oversight, while creating tax incentives to get Detroit making hybrid and electric cars. That way, the offshore drilling carries us until the new technologies kick in, which will then create new jobs and energy independence. Energy crisis solved,” says Hilton.

Are there three presidential candidates now? Guys, put your tongues back in your mouth, I’m willing to say it’s impossible the first women president to be Paris Hilton. The only character missing from this breaking news video was Hilton’s dog hanging out of her purse, but her outfit was priceless.