Posted on 10/16/2004 11:19:19 AM PDT by Entrepreneur
Excerpted...
Contrast the way J&J handled the Tylenol crisis with the way CBS is handling the Rathergate/Memogate crisis. In case, you’ve been living in a hole, CBS aired a story featuring documents purportedly from the Texas Guard that were damaging to President Bush.
It took very little time for the documents to be shown to be obvious forgeries, and sloppy ones at that. It seems pretty clear they were typed using Microsoft Word and printed to Adobe Acrobat, something not exactly available in the early 1970s.
As a news organization, CBS found itself in a box. Either they admit to bias or they admit to sloppy reporting. Both are devastating, but if they came clean quickly, the issue would die and they could move past it. Instead, Dan Rather chose to insist on the documents’ authenticity. He referred to unimpeachable sources.
As more information came to light, things got worse for CBS. There were obvious factual inaccuracies in the documents. For example, one guy referred to in the chain of command had retired more than a year before the date of the document. The unimpeachable source turned out to be a wacko partisan. It came to light that CBS was in contact with the Kerry campaign prior to the airing of the original segment.
This is a major national news organization. If anyone should understand public relations, it’s CBS.
Apparently not.
Everyone knows the memos were phony. CBS still won’t admit it. They’re hiding behind an internal investigation. The closest they’ve come to an admission of error is to state on their website that they, “can no longer vouch for the authenticity of the documents, and that the documents should not have been used in the broadcast.” Arrogantly, CBS follows this slight disclaimer with the entire story on their website. They haven’t even pulled the story from their website!
You might think, “What’s the big deal? It’s just a news story.”
While it’s true that the crisis is not on a par with Tylenol, it is pretty serious. After all, the story, if true or unrefuted might have influenced a national election. Plus, what does a news organization have left if it loses its credibility? It becomes a broadcast version of the National Inquirer.
A brand is nothing without trust. A trusted brand transcends natural consumer skepticism and wariness. This is true for physical products, but especially true for a news organization or a service company (like yours).
What if CBS acted like J&J? Aside from the premise that they probably wouldn’t have aired the story in the first place, they would have immediately admitted error. They would have recanted the story. They would have pulled it from the web. They would have made their investigation transparent. They would have apologized. They would have re-examined their systems and made changes to ensure they would not repeat the mistake.
And, they would have been forgiven by the public. Instead, Dan Rather will forever be remembered for his arrogance, intransigence, and deceptive reporting rather than a long and distinguished journalistic career.
Instead, CBS’ brand has taken a hit. They’ve lost viewers and even affiliates.
Instead, the credibility of all major news networks has been called into question. This was exacerbated when the major anchors rallied around a tarnished Dan Rather and disparaged the bloggers who uncovered the sham. Don’t they realize that they’re driving people into the arms of their competitors and increasing the credibility of the very Internet sources they so loathe?
The news networks took another hit on Friday when an internal memo from ABC News Political Director Mark Halperin was leaked. Halperin wrote, “We have a responsibility to hold both sides accountable to the public interest, but that doesn't mean we reflexively and artificially hold both sides ‘equally’ accountable when the facts don't warrant that.”
ABC executives have already made it clear, nothing’s going to happen to Halperin. It sounds like they’re going to ignore things and hope it goes away. Don’t they realize the damage this is doing?
This is all that's relevant for Freepers. The rest of the column deals with pr stuff, using J&J's handling of the Tylenol scare as a positive example of how to handle a crisis (CBS was a bad example) and pr recommendations.
I don't care how much logic or sense you make - there will be some people who won't acknowledge the truth if their life or career depended on it.
I think liberalism is a genetic defect.
I've stopped watching them years ago. The old people I know that watch the small 3, nbcabccbs, are in their 70's. The era is almost over.
Hey! Mind your tongue.
I'm in my 70's and I despise the alphabet networks at least as much as you do.
That same "unimpeachable source" stated that he told Rather he could not vouch for the authenticity of the documents when he turned them over. Once the dust had settled it was revealed that there was ZERO evidence to suggest that the documents were authentic, nada, none, zip, nunca. BUT, CBS own experts were telling them that they may be fakes. Thus, this wasn't an accident or a situation where CBS got hoodwinked, CBS went with documents they knew were probably fakes in an effort to sway a presidential election. Joseph Gobbels would be proud.
The hypocracy of the situation is part of what drives me nuts. Look at the way they treated Ken Lay. What's the difference between Ken Lay feigning ignorance, blaming subordinates, and the president of CBS doing the same? Rather, Mapes, and the president of CBS should all be dismissed. Ditto for the guy at ABC who wrote the "We have a responsibility to be biased" memo.
During the scandal TV episode (NBC?) where they faked a pickup exploding from a side impact, I believe the network president ended up being forced to resign.
Of course, I've never seen as much hypocracy and deception as this year between the MSM and the Democrats (oops, I'm being redundant).
When people cannot use proper grammar in a written persuasion piece, it becomes very difficult to take their ideas seriously.
Where can I get one?
I made it, and it's free for one and all. (It's a lossless .png, for what that info is worth)
I knew people could make t-shirt iron-ons, but a couple here have alluded you can get bumper sticker fixin's for your printer at office supply stores.
Addenda:
For the record, I didn't make the Freep logo, of course. I can't remember who did, but they'd posted it on a thread several months back, a large 600plus pixel square one.
Glad you like the image. Be sure and spread it around.
You just gave me a good idea! My cousin has one of those big tshirt sticker machines!
Make sure you wear it proudly, ya hear? :)
I found the link to the large Freep logo.
http://www.speakeasy.org/~pj99/FreeRepublicLogo.gif
The link was found on a Google search which led to "ThePythonicCow"'s Freeper page. Perhaps he/she made it?
http://209.157.64.200/~thepythoniccow/
Thanks, Jojo!
When people cannot use proper grammar in a written persuasion piece, it becomes very difficult to take their ideas seriously.
Okay, moderators, this is a return flame. Please allow me the courtesy to refute this shot at my intelligence, education, communication skills, and so on. I must reply because I have a REAL problem with effete pseudo-intellectuals like this poster and John F'n Kerry...
I confess. I wrote the "MSM is is hurting their brands" headline.
Whether this is grammatically correct or not depends entirely on whether I was referring to the MSM as a monolithic (i.e., monolithic as in singlular) entity or a group. Given that the MSM presents a monolithic viewpoint, I used the singular term. I'm sure you can correct me in my error. Oops, as my intellectual superior, you already have!
You, as an intellectual, must be superior to us inferior types who speak softly (i.e., southern and genteel) and clearly know so, so much more than us dumb hicks.
Me? I'm just a dumb Texas Aggie. You're clearly my superior in every sense of the word. Why, I'm such a hick that I've actually been to Crawford, TX before W ran for governor. I'm such a hick that I know West, Texas is just up I-35 from Crawford and has the best Kolaches this side of Czechoslovakia.
Even worse, I grew up in the deeeep south (yeah, mispelled and wrong capitalization). I grew up eating boiled peanuts. How crass!
And your smug arrogance irritates me to no end.
Oops, I started a sentence with "and."
Well that's not the only "oops."
Oops. I run a friggin company. Do you? I've created jobs. Have you?
Oops. I've got a "tested" Mensa level IQ, but I'm sure your IQ must be higher.
Oops. I write a column in a national magazine and serve on their editorial advisory board. What the bleep do you do?
Oops, I've published over 50 times and can cite a couple of books to my credit. Wait, I'm sure you've done better.
Oops, you criticized "proper grammar" in a "written persuasion piece," stating that "it becomes very difficult to take their ideas seriously." Too bad this was only a post headline and a reference. Surely, you must be able to spot the difference, you effete, arrogant (okay, this is a low blow) Kerry-like snot.
FYI the word "media" -- as in "MSM" -- is the plural form of the word "medium."
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