Online Public Relations Thoughts

SpaceX's Starship launch turned out to be an environmental disaster.  The world's most powerful rocket destroyed its launch pad and flung concrete dust and chunks the size of refrigerators miles away.  It also started a fire around the pad that singed local grasses and scorched bird eggs. While the launch was deemed successful even though the rocket was destroyed four minutes after taking flight, authorities, including the Federal Aviation Administration, have put a hold on further flights until the launch pad mess is solved.  This could harm the company's reputation that had been flying high with its smaller reusable rockets.  The message is that while space is a worthy goal, it shouldn't destroy the environment on earth.  It may take months for the fixes to be done and for another Starship to be built.  SpaceX will need to do it right the second time.  

First Republic Bank, in the middle of a meltdown, gave a textbook demonstration of how not to communicate to financial analysts. Its executives gave a 12-minute presentation of canned remarks, took no questions and left the analysts hanging with urgent questions.  No wonder the stock continued to tank.  There has been a steep loss of confidence in the bank and its management.  What is needed is transparency, answering questions and showing that the bank's leadership is in control of the situation or where it needs to go to establish confidence once again.  The bank has had a huge run on customer deposits with only a fraction remaining, and it is in a position where it can't liquify its mortgage holdings to raise cash. So, it has left a consortium of banks trying to save it on the hook as well as the Federal Reserve.  Maybe the next time they speak to analysts they will have learned their lesson.  

Here is a man who put his reputation at risk in the Civil Rights era of the 1960s in order to speak and work for equality of Blacks and Whites.  It is a lesson to communicators that sometimes one must buck the prejudices of the crowd and take risks.  Harry Belafonte, by his own admission, couldn't work for years because of his stances but time caught up with him eventually and he took his rightful place among civil rights leaders.  He is a lesson to us all.  

President Biden is expected to announce his bid for a second term in office today.  What is different this time is that he has a record of accomplishment and failure in the White House.  His successes outweigh his mistakes, but his age is a barrier voters will have to overcome.  Biden has proven he can work with Congress, his old stomping grounds, and crucially, he is not Trump who is likely to be his opponent again.  What is his message to voters?  Almost certainly it will be his accomplishments and the state the country is in. However, should the US go into recession before the election, he will have a hard time talking his way back into the oval office.  No one can predict the future, but given the political landscape now, he has a good chance of being our oldest president.  

Bed Bath & Beyond, the home goods store, is liquidating itself and its inventory.  It is final trip of the retail chain, which struggled for years to turn around its business and didn't succeed.  There isn't much the company can say to consumers other than to buy what remains in its stores before they shut for good.  In its day, BB&B was a category killer dominating its segment of the market, but that didn't last as consumers started to shop online.  It's a pity to see it go on the scrap heap of capitalism but it is a reminder that no business is safe and adjustment to market changes is essential.  Merchandisers are feeling the cold blast of failure and are wondering about themselves. That is as it should be.  

Buzzfeed News is shutting down.  It couldn't turn a profit as an advertiser-supported medium, and it didn't want to go behind a paywall with subscribers.  That's a pity.  It is one more lost spot for journalism and one less target for media relations. It is also a proof that paywalls are necessary for the fiscal functioning of online media.  The contention that information is free on the web is false.  Someone has to pay for generation of content, and it is the consumer who reads it.  The time for experimentation is over. 

There is one political game in which former President Trump is a master -- the politics of insults.  He is focused now on Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, who has announced his intention to run for President.  Trump uses a "down and dirty" ad hominem approach, throwing mud, using demeaning nicknames, riling his adoring crowds.  It works but it is far removed from issues and what voters can expect if Trump is elected.  Opposition research is a normal part of politicking and so is mud-throwing, but to focus on that exclusively says a lot that isn't good about a potential leader.  Trump has already proved that he isn't fit for the job, but if his dirty approach works, he'll get a second chance.   

Fox News has settled in the 12th hour and won't be going to trial over its lies about Dominion Voting Systems.  And, the news organization has not apologized.  Dominion's lawyers have tried to position the $787 million settlement as a public acknowledgement that lies have consequences.  Will that stop Fox in the future?  Probably not.  It needed to be dragged through the mud for all to see how dirty it was.  Also, the First Amendment issues were not resolved, which leaves open how far a news organization can go in bending the truth to fit its opinion. I wrote yesterday that I could hardly wait to see the evidence.  It looks now that I'll never get to see and fully understand what the network did.   

Fox News is hiding behind the First Amendment and hoping it will protect them in the defamation trial beginning today.  The media have already reported the unethical and shabby behavior of its on-air hosts who pushed a lie to its gullible audiences. It will be a tough case for Dominion Voting Systems to win, but the company has already secured inflammatory statements from key figures in the case who were worried more about ratings than facts.  Fox has apparently pursued settlement talks, but at this hour, they haven't succeeded and why should Dominion agree to them?  The company's reputation was severely damaged by the false allegations, and it needs the record to be set straight.  It will be an engrossing trial to follow, and I, for one, can't wait for evidence to be exposed to the public.  

One strategy when caught in controversy is to change the subject by deflecting attention to a safer issue.  Budweiser is apparently attempting this by releasing a patriotic ad in which one of its Clydesdale stallions tours America.  What is it attempting to distract viewers from?  Its endorsement partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Consumers who drink Bud aren't happy about that and have stopped drinking it.  It doesn't matter whether Budweiser was right and inclusive in its marketing.  The company is caught in controversy.  If it backs off from its partnership, it will raise a stink and hurt its reputation.  If it continues with the partnership, it will lose customers.  There is no easy out for the situation other than wrapping oneself in the flag and celebrating America.  For Budweiser's sake, one hopes it works.

A Russian court has fined Wikipedia for failing to take down a Russian-language article about the invasion of Ukraine.  Apparently its facts do not agree with Putin's narrative that Ukraine is the aggressor in this war.  Wikipedia is resisting.  Kudos to it for upholding the right to free speech and disseminating the truth.  It could be costly for the organization because Wikipedia is challenging the Russian propaganda operation, which is far larger and better funded.  Imagine if every government were allowed to spin facts according to its political bent.  We would be living in a global Orwell  1984.  Communicators should shudder at the thought. 

President Biden is proving to be a reliable gaffe machine.  He misspoke in Ireland when he failed to call a New Zealand rugby team beaten by the Irish by the right name.  Biden called them the Black and Tans, the name of the dreaded British police force that terrorized Ireland.  He should have called the team the All Blacks.  Predictably the media are having a field day with the verbal slip and some are questioning Biden's ability to run for president again.  The Irish thought it was funny.  Funny or not, Biden's speech difficulties have hampered him throughout his political career.  They haven't  stopped his rise but they have left an impression about his competence, which opponents gleefully exploit.  There is no fix for gaffes.  One lives with them, which Biden is doing.  He could limit off-the-cuff remarks to avoid them as much as possible, but there will always be another in the offing.

 This BBC interview is an example of a billionaire justifying his actions.  The question is after his wild statements in the last year, who is going to believe him?  Time will tell if he is speaking the truth.

The judge in former President Trump's trial has ruled that Trump can speak about his case but he advised Trump to tone down his remarks.  That did little good.  Trump immediately attacked verbally everyone from the judge to the prosecutors.  Trump is determined to make the case a media circus and in the process get an acquittal.  He just might do it if he can prejudice the jury pool.  The judge might have been better off had he issued a gag order, but he didn't.  He is allowing Trump to have his days in the spotlight and to self-destruct if he gets too vicious.  Should Trump foment violence, it will be one more case against him.  Free speech has outer limits.

President Biden is again calling for a ban on assault weapons and children are demonstrating in the streets.  What good will it do?  It is just words, words, words with little or no action.  The political power still lies with conservatives and Second Amendment champions.  One wonders what public relations and communications actions are needed to make a change.  It is obvious that mass murder of children and adults is not enough to change minds.  The US is looked upon as the wild west where killers have the power, and there is little or nothing to be done until lawmakers find a way through the legislative roadblocks.  Until then, calls for a ban are hot air.  Sad but true.  

Who killed the Russian war blogger?  It doesn't matter.  Both sides -- Ukraine and Russia -- are claiming the other did it.  The criminal act has instantly become part of the propaganda war.  Truth is lost in situations like this and all that counts is who shouts the loudest and longest.  It is communications by yelling.  Because Russia has a full developed propaganda operation, it is likely to win the standoff with its own people, which is what it wants.  The outside world is left to wonder whether it was Russian partisans or a Ukrainian assassination.  We might never know who did it.