Online Public Relations Thoughts

Israel has responded to the Hamas terror attacks with vengeance, killing thousands of unarmed Palestinians -- men, women and children.  The image it presents to the world is that of a country engaged in genocide.   Israel responds that it is killing Hamas fighters with its bombing campaign and civilian deaths are collateral damage.  Unfortunately, with reporting from the interior of Gaza showing the plight of the people there, Israel looks like a bully, a thug to much of the world. It's a tough position for Israel to be in.  It was the victim of the initial Hamas attacks and it lost more than a thousand citizens as a result of them.  Who can blame the first response of the Israelis to strike back out of self-defense?  It is a question of the level of response -- thousands of bombs, sections of Gaza turned to rubble, hospitals and clinics ruined; water, light and communications destroyed.  Vengeance is a poor solution to a terrorist nightmare for the children being lifted from destroyed homes will become future Hamas fighters out to retaliate for what has happened to them.  

What makes a candy popular?  This is a question the manufacturer of candy corn could be asking.  For the fact is people love or hate the tiny triangular candy.  Enough love it that the company makes and sells tons of it a year.  There doesn't seem to be deep marketing studies on preferences for and against it.  People buy it or they don't and they have opinions for and against.  It is a legacy product from more than 100 years ago that has come down through generations and will last generations more.  As long as people buy it, it will be there.

Sam Bankman-Fried is testifying in his trial that he had decisions and structures of his cryptocurrency exchange approved by lawyers -- as if lawyers are paragons of ethics.  We're learning in the various Trump indictments that lawyers can be as illegal as the worst crook.  The difference is they wrap their advice in legalese.  A defense of "The lawyers let me do it" is hardly a good defense, especially when monies were diverted to personal use.  What can be legally done is not always honest.  There is a smell test in decisions even for a young, inexperienced Bankman-Fried.   His message seems to be "I was duped by my lawyers."  Maybe so, but he still should have known better.  

The new Republican Speaker of the House has already received a backgrounding from ABC News. It is not a message of centrism but of hard right views detrimental to gays and lesbians.  It also spells trouble for the Biden administration, which must pass appropriation bills by Nov. 17 or the government will shut down.  It also risks aid to Ukrainians and Israelis.  There is little good or promising about the Congressman but Democrats must work with him to get legislation passed.  It is winter for Biden and he must deal with it.  

This is an example of messages from the past.  The recreation of an Inca girl, more than 500 years dead, says a lot about the society and its culture.  That she was sacrificed is inhumane but the attempt to appease the forces of nature is understandable if terrible.  One wonders what we will look like 500 years into the future.  

Sidney Powell, the Trump lawyer who tried to overturn the election, has pled guilty in Georgia to election interference.  She was a prominent player in the effort and her plea is a problem for the former president.  Trump himself will have to repudiate her as a turncoat.  Whatever his message, it will be a tough sell for him, but he needs to do something.  Evidence continues to accumulate of his behavior in the days after the election and none of it is good for him. The prosecution cannot assume that it will have a slam dunk of a trial but it must be more confident every day. The lawyer who said she would release the kraken to defend Trump now has the mythical beast consuming her.  

Who is at fault for the Gaza blast that killed an estimated 500 people?  We may never know but responsibility for the tragedy has already been obfuscated by competing claims from Hamas and the Israelis.  One side or the other is lying or using propaganda to justify its position even though it doesn't know the facts.  Such competing communications are typical of war.  Each side wants to gain advantage by accusing the other of misdeeds. The truth be damned.  The public knows this and distrusts both.  Only an impartial investigation can establish probabilities but neither side will acquiesce to that. So the blame game continues to muddy messages. It's a disgusting outcome but that is partially the terror of war.  

Sometimes a commander-in-chief needs to show up in a war zone to bolster morale.  That is what Biden is doing by flying to Israel.  It is being called a risky trip and not just for the danger to his person but also for the political stability of the region, which was disrupted by the Hamas invasion.  Biden is 80 but he shows the stamina of someone 30 years younger.  It is a pity that his message about his health is not getting through to voters.

The United States is not immune from troubles around the world.  Even here crimes are committed as a result of  violent outbreaks elsewhere. For, example, this.  The US can communicate its desire for peaceful protests but mobs will dictate outcomes.  In this case, it was an individual who stabbed a 6-year-old to death and wounded his mother, but there is no protection against outraged crowds.  In an era of the internet and social media, no one is safe anywhere in the world.  

A doctors group has called a diagnosis of "excited delirium" outdated and has withdrawn a scientific paper on it.  It had been used in a number of cases where the arrested subjects had died and police departments around the nation were using it as a defense against police brutality.  The message is that the American College of Emergency Physicians was wrong in publishing the paper in 2009.  Now it can no longer be cited in court cases in defense of the police.  Such is the way of science where results change with new evidence.  It is one more reminder that facts should be used carefully in communicating.  

Republican Congressmen are meeting behind closed doors to select a new Speaker of the House.  This is a change from the previous effort a few months ago when it took 15 public votes to select Kevin McCarthy.  The message they want to send this time is one of unity, but the longer it takes out of sight the more observers will assume there is dissension -- and they will be right. But, there is a difference between public wrangling and private wrestling.  The public perception carries more negative impact. Republicans understand this well so they will stay out of sight while deliberating.  There are times when transparency harms more than it helps.  

Israelis are vowing revenge on Hamas for the attack still underway in the country.  Hamas fighters are taking revenge on Israel for its treatment of Palestinians.  Tit for tat   A cycle of never-ending revenge battles and killings, each a message to the other side that it must give in or else.  It won't happen under the present leadership.  One or the other must be defeated utterly and begging for mercy that it won't get.  It's an ugly situation for the citizens of both sides who want to live in peace.  The message is one of never-ending war, which no one wants but which revenge provokes.  

Now Republicans are in turmoil and pointing fingers as to who to blame for the historic firing of the Speaker of the House.  No one seems to be asking what kind of message this is sending to the public.  The answer is that it isn't good and the chaos is damaging the party.  

Now that Kevin McCarthy is the former Speaker of the House, Republicans need to determine the message they are going to send to citizens and voters.  Will it be one of harmony with a new Speaker?  Will it be continued fractious debate over the future of the country and of the house?  Will right-wing conservatives shut the government down if they don't get their way and how will voters understand that action?  The Republican party is in a crisis of its own making and now it has to find its way out.  There is no good way of doing that short of the 2024 elections when it is possible it can gain a larger majority.   That's a long way away in governance terms, especially when they have just a few weeks to pass a budget.  Meanwhile, the Capitol is listing and there are no words to shore it up.

Tis the season for Nobel awards, the ultimate publicity for the advance of "physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace, and economics."  Scientists, writers and laborers in the trenches gain the highest nod of the value of their work and are feted internationally.  The awards are given in rich ceremony and recipients deliver a lecture on their fields and their meaning. There is no greater honor for those who receive it and they are set apart instantly in their professions.  It is not so much the money that comes with the award but the recognition.  Winners are elevated above their peers and cited as leaders and inventors of their fields.  It demonstrates the value of publicity when done right.  

The Supreme Court is staring a new year with cases designed to fill out its previous rulings.  It will tackle several hot-button issues on which it has already ruled but which need clarification.  The message it will be sending to America is that it is a conservative court ready to roll back decisions taken by earlier, more moderate justices.  While some of the public likes what the Court is doing, most do not.  It will be an interesting term in that regard.