As Disney is Criticized for ‘Wokeness,’ Some PR Pros Like New Direction
From Sophie Maerowitz, writing for PR News… A Las Vegas man has gone viral for criticizing Disney World’s socially conscious updates to employee guidelines and its signature theme rides. In an opinion column for the Orlando Sentinel titled “I love Disney World, but wokeness is ruining the experience,” Jonathan VanBoskerck expresses his frustration with the theme park. […]
The Slander Industry
From Aaron Krolik and Kashmir Hill writing for The New York Times… At first glance, the websites appear amateurish. They have names like BadGirlReports.date, BustedCheaters.com and WorstHomeWrecker.com. Photos are badly cropped. Grammar and spelling are afterthoughts. They are clunky and text-heavy, as if they’re intended to be read by machines, not humans. But do not […]
It’s War: The New Dilemma For Corporations And Social Issues
After you read the article by Richard Levick below, we hope you’ll also read two articles we wrote for the National Law Review on a companion subject: Political Action Committee & Personal Political Contributions Become the Next Reputational Challenge for Law Firms & Their Clients Political Action Committee & Personal Political Contributions Revisited – Only […]
Landmark Case May Dictate How Far School Districts Can Go in Disciplining Student Speech Online
By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications A Pennsylvania student’s decision to express her frustration about being passed over for promotion on the cheerleading squad will mark the U.S. Supreme Court’s first review of the limits of free speech for students in the age of social media when it rules on a case heard April 28. School […]
How Johnson & Johnson Could Regain Public’s Trust In Covid Vaccine Crisis
From Edward Segal, writing in Forbes… The decision to put the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine on pause in the U.S. after six cases of blood clotting were linked to women who took the shot has forced the company to deal with yet another crisis situation. Hours after the pause was announced, the company said it would delay rolling out the vaccine in […]
“Use As Directed” Isn’t Just a Lawyer-Mandated Slogan
By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications (Editor’s Note: The article below was written on April 19. On May 5, Peloton completely reversed itself and agreed to recall its Tread Plus treadmills from the U.S. market in a deal struck with federal safety regulators. “I want to be clear, Peloton made a mistake in our initial response […]
Why do Americans Share so Much Fake News? One Big Reason is They Aren’t Paying Attention, New Research Suggests
By Denise Marie-Ordway, writing for the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School… Many Americans share fake news on social media because they’re simply not paying attention to whether the content is accurate — not necessarily because they can’t tell real from made-up news, a new study in Nature suggests. Lack of […]
“I’m Afraid to Open Twitter”: Next-Level Harassment of Female Journalists is Putting News Outlets to the Test
By Charlotte Klein, writing for Vanity Fair… It started late one day, and you could see it kind of building on social media,” Washington Post national editor Steven Ginsberg recalled of the torrent of online abuse directed last month at Seung Min Kim. The Post reporter had been photographed showing Senator Lisa Murkowski a critical tweet sent by Neera Tanden and seeking comment, a standard journalistic practice somehow interpreted as […]
New York Gov. Cuomo is the Textbook Example of How Not to Apologize
From Lisa Leopold, writing for The Conversation… New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s two apologies for alleged sexual misconduct are straight out of a master class in how not to say you’re sorry. The governor, who had become something of a celebrity during his nationally broadcast press conferences early in the coronavirus pandemic, is now embroiled in a sexual […]
Why Oprah’s Interview with Harry and Meghan Matters
From Tom Jones, writing for Poynter… Why should we care? What’s the big deal? Don’t we have more important things to worry about than some soap opera half a world away? That was the general feeling among many following Sunday night’s Oprah Winfrey interview with Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex. Millions of […]