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05 Sep 2010 21:35

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Tech: Is the Craigslist “Adult Services” thing an elaborate PR stunt?

  • It certainly appears to be a statement about how they feel about being judged in the court of public opinion. It’s certainly the law that they’re not liable for it, but it’s another matter if the attorneys general are saying change your ways.
  • First Amendment lawyer Thomas R. Burke • Regarding the Craigslist “Adult Services” situation. It’s probably worth noting that Craigslist has thus far let the “Censored” bar speak for itself, suggesting that they’re trying to encourage discussion about what the whole situation means as a first-amendment discussion. Or as a safety net. Craigslist needs a little leverage. They’re getting savaged right now. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 Aug 2010 22:52

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Politics: DC bloggers to Glenn Beck rallygoers: Visit the freaking city!

  • Local Bloggers don’t really care about the rally. They see so many of them that they’re pretty much old hat at this point. In fact, sites like DCist or We Love DC didn’t even give tomorrow’s Glenn Beck rally a second notice until this hilarious guide hit the popular consciousness, starting on those blogs and eventually making its way onto Rachel Maddow’s show. They neutered it and turned it into a PR opportunity. (Smart move.) As a DC-based blog, we would like to point out a couple of things: One, we just saw a couple using the Metro tonight who blocked the aisle on the train with a couple of hunting-camo lawn chairs. Two, the nice thing about DC is that it’s a diverse city, so you might want to consider hitting U Street and checking out a show at The Black Cat. Trust us. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Aug 2010 12:47

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U.S.: Why Obama vacationing in the Gulf Coast is actually good PR

  • $34
    billion     the amount the Gulf Coast made from tourism in 2008, which created 400,000 jobs
  • $22.7 billion the amount the Gulf could lose due to the spill taking a bite out of tourism (hence Obama’s vacation) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 1 Comment • Permalink

07 Aug 2010 21:39

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Tech: The hammer falls on an Apple exec for #antennafail

  • cause Apple has a nasty PR fiasco after their iPhone 4 antenna has a bunch of embarrassing issues, forcing a sorta mea culpa.
  • effect The company’s relatively new senior VP for iPhone hardware, Mark Papermaster, no longer has a job. Sorry. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

20 Jul 2010 10:36

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U.S.: BP: Whoops! We’re sorry about that crappy Photoshop, guys

  • We will replace the Photoshopped version currently on bp.com with the original image tonight. We’ve instructed our post-production team to refrain from doing this in the future.
  • BP spokesman Scott Dean • Describing the issue with the Photoshopped image that we posted about last night (and based on tweets and traffic, drew a lot of attention this morning). Dean says that there wasn’t anything outwardly sinister in the photo deception, just an ethically weak photo editor who inserted three images in spots where the screens were blank. Which doesn’t explain, you know, the fact that the photo’s meta data has a 2001 creation date. But we’ll let that one slide, because the PR guy says it wasn’t sinister. Oh yeah, our boy Charles Apple posted an update. Check it out. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

15 Jul 2010 10:48

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Tech: Is Apple finally ready to come clean about their antenna problems?

  • They have a press conference scheduled for Friday. However, while it will be about the iPhone 4, there’s no word on whether or not it’s actually about the antenna issue, which Consumer Reports went out of their way to turn into a full-fledged PR crisis the other day. On the scale of smart public relations moves, it certainly beats Steve Jobs telling a customer, “You’re holding it the wrong way.” Unless they plan to stonewall some more. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Jul 2010 02:45

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U.S.: Well, duh: Robert Gates wants no repeats of McChrystal’s Folly

  • Gates’ staff wrote up some new marching orders for dealing with media. Just in time! As members of the media, we would agree that the level of access Rolling Stone got with Stanley McChrystal was shocking, given the nature of his job. Now, leaders have to notify the Defense Department’s assistant secretary for public affairs prior to high-profile or high-impact interviews. Which means, in layman’s turns, they have to call the military’s PR department and ask if it’s a good idea. It was being worked on prior to the article, surprisingly. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

19 Jun 2010 14:22

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World: What’s BP CEO Tony Hayward doing this weekend? Riding a yacht

Dude’s gonna get his life back, no matter how terrible the PR disaster is going to be for his company. He wants it back so much it hurts. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

03 Jun 2010 22:30

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Politics: Real or fake? These Twitter accounts claim to be real politicians

  • dubya The ex-president showed up yesterday as @George_WBush, and has 7,897 Twitter followers so far. Make that 7,898. Sadly, it’s fake.
  • blago The shamed ex-governor of Illinois, who just started his corruption trial, has just 97 followers since he launched @Governorrod Monday.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 4 Comments • Permalink

18 May 2010 21:39

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Tech: Facebook finally admits that their privacy settings are confusing

  • Now we’ve heard from our users that we have gotten a little bit complex.I think we are going to work on that. We are going to be providing options for users who want simplistic bands of privacy that they can choose from and I think we will see that in the next couple of weeks.
  • Facebook head of public policy Tim Sparapani • Regarding the site’s fairly complex privacy options. People have been complaining, and now there are tools out there that allow you to easily sort through the options because Facebook made them too complex. With all the other crap going on, they need to do something to ease privacy concerns or they’re screwed. At least they realize it. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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