Make a decision and stick with it

PR Pros Say Weiner Is Bungling the Twitter Sex Scandal
New York Rep. Anthony Weiner in the center of an alleged Twitter sex scandal, is failing the first rule of public relations: If you don't want to talk about the issue, then don't throw a press conference to announce your plans to stay quiet. Two long time Washington public relations pros, former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow and former NBC correspondent Fred Francis, say the congressman should make a decision on how to handle the issue and then stick with it...
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Comcast's missteps in a digital age

Comcast Makes Rare Public Relations Misstep in Baker Hire
Comcast Corp. was masterful when it pushed its acquisition of NBCUniversal through regulators and lawmakers. The cable giant successfully argued that a combination of the nation’s largest cable and broadband provider with a content behemoth whose holdings include a movie studio, a broadcast network and numerous cable channels was no real threat to competition to other programmers and distributors despite lots of opposition from consumer advocacy groups, the creative community and even a few members of Congress...
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Michelle has violent rapper welcomed into the White House

Another Bad PR Move By the White House
First lady Michelle Obama invited a number of poets to read their works at the White House Wednesday night. Among them is a rapper named Common, who is controversial to say the least. This guy has sympathized with convicted cop killers. He also does the usual rap stuff, touting guns and other anti-social behavior. In addition, he is a friend of Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
So why on earth would the president and first lady invite this man to the White House? The answer, I believe, is that the Obamas do not understand the sensibilities of many Americans. We saw that during the campaign with the president's comments on guns and religion...
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Facebook un-friends Google

Facebook’s Antisocial PR Pitch against Google
There's already no love lost between Facebook and Google in the realm of social networking. And now Facebook has been caught trying to spread some additional ill will toward its would-be rival. Public relations giant Burson-Marsteller confirmed to CNET this morning, rather ruefully, that Facebook hired it in what USA Today, which broke the initial story, has called a "whisper campaign" intended to stir up fears of Google violating users' privacy...
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Don't devalue your own product

Leave It to The Mets to Make the Worst Possible PR Move
It was only a few nights ago that Carlos Beltran stood by his locker and talked about how things had changed with the Mets. The team had just beaten the Yankees on Friday to get back to .500. But what struck Beltran about this season was the absence of the off-field baseball drama that was a constant of the past. "There's no controversy," Beltran said. "There's no, 'This guy said this, this guy said that.'" Enter this guy: Fred Wilpon. The Mets owner created a public-relations fiasco Monday with his comments in the New Yorker. And with that, the season of calm was over. The circus was back in town...
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Smart Quote

"The opportunity to avoid disaster will often times arise directly after what you think was the disaster in the first place." 

-- unknown