Online Public Relations Thoughts

This story is from last week, but it is a classic in how to ruin one's credibility in argument. The method is simple and powerful: Give Congress incorrect data. Legislators are "highly amused" when they have been misled. In this case, the one who made the error is an ex-Congressman himself who knows better. He was sandbagged by a research agency retained by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). There isn't much one can do when this happens except to admit the error which the MPAA did. But, one can easily imagine how MPAA president and chairman Dan Glickman felt -- and reacted.

If there is a lesson here, it would be that such mistakes can happen even to the best lobbyists. But, they had better happen only once.