Online Public Relations Thoughts

Is anyone worth $55 billion in compensation?  What are the optics for employees who earn a tiny fraction of that amount?   CEO pay has been excessive for a long time and a PR/reputation issue, which should be addressed.

Why after all of the car manufacturer cheating scandals of recent years would a car company cheat again?  And for so long?  Toyota had better have a good explanation.  Its reputation hangs in the balance.

The UN organization designated to aid Gaza, UNRWA, has destroyed its reputation for neutrality with the disclosure that a dozen of its employees helped Hamas on Oct. 7 to invade Israel. It couldn't have come at a worse time.  Key countries have suspended aid payments to UNRWA and the agency is reduced to claiming desperation in its efforts to deliver food, medicine and shelter to a million displaced Palestinians.  The agency took swift action in terminating the employees, but that has not been enough.  The challenge now is how to prevent famine with smaller funding and employees who might not be as impartial as they are supposed to be. It's a difficult position and demonstrates how the actions of a few can compromise the reputation of an entire organization. 

 Have Spanish prosecutors run amuck with this charge?  It would seem so, but the initial kiss was highly public and unwanted.  

The pleas for a ceasefire grow louder with tragedies such as this.  Will Netanyahu hear the message?   

How do you bring attention to a destructive pest?  Burn it in effigy.  That is what a South Dakota town has done for 11 years.  The focus of its blaze is the mountain pine beetle, called by the Forest Service the most destructive bark pest in the western US and Canada.  The fire and the consumption of the wooden effigy brings attention to the beetle and its infestation of forests.  The AP news story reaches across the US with the message about the bug.  The fire is an example of burning publicity.  

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has said that he opposes any kind of state for Palestinians west of the Jordan River.  This rules out Palestinian independence altogether.  It's a hard line to take, and it guarantees future political troubles and violence for his country, but it is a message directed at his conservative constituency which has been taking over the West Bank one hill at a time.   Where will Palestinians go?  If they stay put, they will be under Israeli control. If they leave, they will be political refugees scattered throughout the world.  It is not a good outcome for them in any event.  The US has urged Netanyahu to work for a state but he isn't listening.  He is committed to his course of action.  

The Baltimore Sun is the latest newspaper property to be purchased by a local owner.  It had been owned by an investment firm.  What the new owner is getting is a shell of the former publication.  The same is true for most newspapers in the country.  They are media whose time has past.  One wonders if PR practitioners even bother with contacting many of the remaining newspapers but rather go to online right away.  Media relations has changed permanently and young practitioners might not have much sense of the power of print media of yore. That is both good and bad.  The good is the multiple ways to reach audiences now.  The bad is the decline of carefully edited and vetted news, which readers can trust.  New news media are emerging on the internet.  They are struggling but some are making a go of it.  The Sun might not survive as a print publication but it has a chance on the web.  May it fare well.  

You would think that someone who is in this much trouble would learn to guard his remarks, but apparently not.  He is a motor-mouth and his own worst communications.   

No one should be surprised by this message from North Korea to the South. It was inevitable and now it is a fact.

Instructors at the nation's military academies are sending a strong message to the future leaders of the military.  Soldiers are subject to the Constitution and answer to civilian authorities.  They are not a power unto themselves and aids to insurrection.  It's an urgent communication at a time when former President Trump has broached the topic of using the military to do his will.  It is possible, though not probable, that Trump could use the ranks of Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines to take control of the country and install himself as a dictator.  The military academies are acting out of concern for the law as well they should and warning against that.  it is smart and urgent messaging.

It's hard to find anyone more outraged than a Congressman who has been ignored. And, they're angry with their own President in the White House.  Biden acted quickly as he needed to do, but in the process he flouted Article 1 of the Constitution as his angry Democratic critics are saying.  

Voters are sending a message to the White House.  It's not democracy which Biden says is threatened but the economy at the top of their minds.  Is Biden listening?  His recent major speeches have dwelled on the threat of Trump to the country.  Either Biden knows something that most voters don't or he is on the wrong track.  He is trying to change the terms of the discourse between him and voters, but so far they are having none of it.  It's a major PR problem for Biden and so far, he seems to be ignoring it.  

What kind of message and  impression does one send when he claims he is above the law and immune from its judgments?  This is the demand that former president Trump is making -- and there is a chance he might get away with it.  If the courts sustain him, they will have set the scene for a rogue president now and in the future.  

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has compromised his position and his reputation by failing to disclose his hospitalization for four days to anyone -- not the President, not Congress, not the press, not even his deputy.  There apparently is no good reason for why he remained silent but the fallout from his secrecy is severe.  Good PR demanded transparency, and he didn't have it.  It might not cost him his job but it certainly should earn him a dressing down by the White House.  Meanwhile, Republicans are charging it as a failure of the Biden administration, something Biden doesn't need right now.   

There are two messages about the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol -- Trump's and Biden's.  They are diametrically opposed and one will win on election day.  Meanwhile, Trump and Biden will try to motivate their followers with ongoing messaging about the insurrection.  Communications are well underway.  Trump  has Republican support.  Biden has Democrats and a significant number of independents.  In that light, Biden has an advantage because Republicans are a minority party as are Democrats but independents carry the day.  It is far too early to call an election, but look for the facts of Jan. 6 and the truth to be mangled in the coming months. 

This number is beyond comprehension and one wonders how long the Federal Government can continue to deficit spend. Such debt sends the wrong message to the public and the world at large.  

Given public sentiment about mental health, this public discussion was risky, especially with a physical heart condition that mandates a pacemaker and a defibrillator.  

Kim Jong Un is at it again.  He threatens to annihilate South Korea and the US should they attack the North.  And, he is pumping even more money into defense, beggaring his country.  Big words from a small man who uses the threat of invasion as an excuse to remain a dictator.  One could wish in 2024 that he disappears from the world scene but that is highly unlikely.  He apparently has a fierce grip on power and he is not afraid to use it against his own countrymen.  Words backed by deeds are effective PR, as distorted as that might be.  2023 was a year of dictators.  May 2024 see some of them fall.