Jeff Bezos & The Enquirer: Extortion or Just Negotiations? That Slippery Slope
From our good friends at Thompson Hine, attorneys Tom Fehrer and Karen Rubin: Last week the media was abuzz with the allegations made against the National Enquirer by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and the owner of The Washington Post. The details in Bezos’ blog post about his ongoing dispute with the Enquirer and […]
America’s Experts on the Biggest Threats and Challenges Facing Us in 2019
From Homeland Security Today As a political standoff shut down the government for 35 days, homeland security professionals scrambled to continue the mission. From Russia to China, to cyber attacks and near daily mass shootings, read on for where we should focus as a nation and in our communities. We reached out to our cadre […]
How to Say ‘I’m Sorry,’ Whether You’ve Appeared in a Racist Photo, Harassed Women or Just Plain Screwed Up
Written by Lisa Leopold, Associate Professor of English Language Studies, The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Middlebury. “I’m sorry.” These two words may seem simple, but the ability to express them when you’re in the wrong is anything but – particularly for those in the public eye. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, to […]
Social Media Outpaces Print Newspapers in the U.S. as a News Source
From the Pew Research Center: Social media sites have surpassed print newspapers as a news source for Americans: One-in-five U.S. adults say they often get news via social media, slightly higher than the share who often do so from print newspapers (16%) for the first time since Pew Research Center began asking these questions. In […]
Disbarment for Anonymous On-Line Posts Should “Send a Message,” Says LA Supreme Court
From our friend and colleague, Karen Rubin, attorney at Thompson Hine in Cleveland, Ohio: Do we need another reminder about the perils of posting internet comments on cases and matters we are connected with? Apparently we do, and here’s a strong one. Earlier this month, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana was […]
A Crisis Management Lesson: Leaders Under Fire Who Choose to Say Nothing Give People Nothing to Believe In
By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications From pointed guns to pointed fingers, the damage left in the wake of the Feb. 14, 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, has been gut-wrenching. The gunman, of course, is ultimately to blame for an act of pure evil. But many others involved, from the police officers first […]
The Stakes are Higher for Women in Charge of Safety
By Rachel Schallom, writing for Poynter: The first time I made a security decision, my stomach was in knots from the moment I said yes to the second I got the text confirming the reporter was home safely. This wasn’t an international story. The reporter took a short car ride to the assignment and would […]
Crisis Management Hot Seat: The Ambush Interview (and How to Survive it)
By Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications: There are a few surefire ways to ensure you, as a representative of your organization, can get on TV: Run as fast as you can from a reporter and videographer Grab the videographer’s camera lens and wrestle with it Jump in your car and floor it Slam your front […]
The Hashtag That Became a Movement Marks its First Anniversary
From Nora Jacobs at Hennes Communications: After this week’s events, if there is a place in America where the issue of sexual misconduct is not top-of-mind, it is a place without access to the internet, television and newspapers. Although the phrase “Me Too” dates back to 2006, it wasn’t until October 2017, when it […]
How the Media Encourages – and Sustains – Political Warfare
By Kyle Jensen and Jack Selzer, writing in The Conversation. Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has been waging war against the American press by dismissing unfavorable reports as “fake news” and calling the media “the enemy of the American people.” As a countermeasure, The Washington Post has publicly fact-checked every claim that Trump has […]