President Trump, the Russian Connection & Crisis Communications
By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications Some believe President Trump and his closest advisers committed illegal acts by conspiring with Russian officials on a wide variety of political and financial activities. Some believe President Trump and his closest advisers indeed had contacts with Russian officials, but that those contacts were benign or perhaps even stupid, but […]
New ‘Morning Edition’ Theme Aspires to be ‘Inclusive and Inviting’
From Adam Ragusea, Journalist in Residence and Visiting Assistant Professor, Mercer University Center for Collaborative Journalism: The new Morning Edition music debuted Monday. As a composer-turned-pubradio-guy-turned-journalism-prof who still sometimes writes music for shows, here is my take on it, along with reactions I’ve gathered from other people and some perspective from the person who oversaw its production. […]
How Your Strengths Can Sometimes Become Weaknesses
From Adam Grant, writing for the New York Times: Not long ago, I had dinner with an unusually charming friend. He entertained us with stories of arctic adventures, and he captivated us with commentary on how the Lannister-Stark conflict in “Game of Thrones” could explain foreign affairs in real life. But I left with a […]
Issues Management in the Dark: Game of Thrones Messes Up, Won’t Fess Up
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] Our blog posts typically deal with heavy-going crisis fare. I’m lightening up just this once because of an audacious filmmaker’s response to a Sunday evening tsunami of social media angst washing over the third episode in this, the final season of Game of Thrones. Did you see it? Probably not. […]
This 1 Word Makes Others Think Less of You, and You Probably Say It at Least 8 Times a Day
From Inc.: How many times a day do you use the word “sorry”? Statistics on Americans are hard to find, but the BBC reports British people say it at least eight times a day, and some say it as often as 20 times a day. And informal research supports what many people have observed: Women say “sorry” much more […]
Journalism & Storytelling
If you’ve ever attended any of our training seminars, you know we often talk about how reporters are often storytellers, often using familiar tropes and archetypes, accompanied by all their embedded values. On that subject, here’s writer Jeff Jarvis, writing for BuzzMachine on this topic: In journalism, we think our job is to “get the […]
Why the Lawyers Always Win
From a colleague of ours, Michael Maslansky: A crisis hits and the internal kabuki dance begins. The CEO. The lawyers. The communicators. And as if scripted in advance, the drama frequently plays out in a predictable way. The CEO wants to fight back against the unfair criticism. The lawyer, preparing for coming litigation, doesn’t want […]
The Tweeting Cow and the “Streisand Effect”
From Matt Cavanaugh at McDonald Hopkins: Earlier this week, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-California) sued Twitter, Liz Mair (a republican strategist), and two obvious parody Twitter accounts: “Devin Nunes’ Mom” and “Devin Nunes’ Cow.” A copy of the complaint is available here. Nunes claims that tweets by Mair and the parody accounts were defamatory and “fighting words” and that Twitter was negligent for […]
Want to Make a Great First Impression? A Princeton Psychologist Says Be Aware of 3 Snap Judgments People Make
We often tell clients that it’s not just what you say, but how you say it. And first impressions do count. Here’s what Scott Mautz, writing for Inc., had to say on the subject. Impressions make quite an impression on us as we’re so eager to manage them. I’ve written about how to overcome a bad […]
You Can’t Spin Your Way Out of Bad Behavior – Boeing & Wells Fargo
By Bruce Hennes, CEO, Hennes Communications On September 11, 2001, the world changed. The terrorist attack on the U.S. altered American politics and propelled us into a foreign war, changing government surveillance, our travel habits and even the architecture of our buildings. On a micro-level, it also changed Hennes Communications. For the previous 12 years, […]