Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Public Relations?

I am tired of the public relations folks who distort, extend the negative and alter the truth of what’s going on to augment a client’s position or advance a political position. I don’t know where the following blurb will go, but it’s offensive to the truth that we all seek.

Here is a blog sent to me by a good friend and a very good PR professional. It was not his creation.

Obama Downs a Beer While Joplin is Destroyed
 While Obama visits his roots in Ireland Joplin Missouri is the scene of carnage from one of the deadliest tornados in US history.

In the world of PR perception the President loses. The images of his pub crawl is in stark contrast to the horrific pictures and audio coming over the TV , Radio, and Internet. Tweets, blogs and face book tell of heroism and despair. See how the White House spins this one.

Facts:

Obama was in Ireland long before the terrible tornadoes and tragedy destroyed and killed so many in Missouri.

A pub-crawl in Ireland is far different from a traditional welcoming Guinness pint upon visiting Dublin.

The near juxtaposition of the two events is coincidental, not conflicting.

The headline is blatantly misleading and prejudicial. It’s a PR ploy to harm the image of, in this case, the President. If the Joplin tragedy had happened days before his scheduled trip to Europe, then maybe the headline would have some validity. Natural and man-made tragedies happen all the time in this world and none of us can react to all of them instantaneously.

We are a global society that’s become radically obnoxious. School systems have a no tolerance policy for innocuous events. Religions become offended because of some silly and unintended slight. Police arrest children for slapping another kids on the back and call it assault. Neighbors kill neighbors because of an argument over the flag. Countries bomb countries because they each continue to teach their children to hate.

These are the headlines that PR professionals should be presenting to the public each day, not the distortions that harm our innate desire to live in peace and love.




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