eChaser: March 2006


	Welcome to our newsletter ... Society of Professional Journalists, Fort Worth Professional Chapter Public Relations Society of America, Greater Fort Worth Chapter International Association of Business Communicators, Fort Worth Chapter eChaser archive [graphics format] We appreciate our advertisers! Advanced Mobility Systems Balcom Agency Barr Printing Bass Performance Hall Business Wire The Collegian, Tarrant County College District DFW Printing Co. Fort Worth Business Press Fort Worth Transportation Authority Fort Worth Zoo Helping Restore Ability InterStar Marketing and Public Relations Jesse Hornbuckle Photography Joe T. Garcia's Mexican Restaurant The Keller Citizen Magic Video Optimist, Abilene Christian University PR Newswire PRSA Creative Consultants SIG Reasons Group, Inc. Robert Hart Studio The Shorthorn, UTA Star-Telegram TCU Daily Skiff Trinity Railway Express The University of Texas at Arlington VMS Weber Shandwick Worldwide Wise County Messenger Witherspoon Advertising and Public Relations March 2006 Next at IABC/Fort Worth ... Lasso the Moon: Managing New Technology with Real People Blogs. Wikis. Portals. What's next? More importantly, who's going to keep it all fresh? Bells and whistles don't do anything for an organization if they aren't managed with the same forethought that brought them in-house in the first place. A half-day seminar March 28 will explore legal issues and how to identify bottlenecks that may stifle creativity and great content. Stacy Wilson, ABC, president of Colorado-based Eloquor Consulting, will lead the seminar and also speak at the chapter's regular monthly meeting on "Get a Seat at the Table: Become an Internal Communication Consultant." She will examine the skills needed to deliver precise strategic consulting to your own organization and teach how to measure your consulting success. Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, March 28 Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets Cost: seminar and lunch $70 members, $95 nonmembers RSVP by noon March 24: Julie Trowbridge, julie.trowbridge@c-b.com ----- Next at Greater Fort Worth PRSA ... Gone fishing. Actually, no, gone to the Southwest District Conference, participation in which replaces the luncheon and program this month. The regular schedule will resume in April. ----- Next at Fort Worth SPJ ... Censorship or Editing? Free-speech Strangulation or Preparation for the Real World of Editors and Supervisors? Margaret Hosty and her fellow editors took their fight over control of content in The Innovator, the student newspaper at Governors State University, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. They were turned down, leaving intact an appeals court ruling that may imply that college administrators have as much authority over college journalists as high school administrators have over high school journalists -- which is considerable. At the March SPJ meeting at UTA, co-sponsored by UTA Student Publications, Hosty will fly in from Illinois to talk about her legal battle. Organizers also will present an administration (UTA, not Governors State) perspective. Afterward, student journalists will network and get help on their résumés from editors who see lots of them. Students from UTA, TCU, UNT, SMU, TCC, Texas Wesleyan and Arlington and Mansfield high schools have been invited. Speakers: Margaret Hosty, plaintiff in Hosty v. Carter, and UTA President James Spaniolo, a former Knight Ridder executive and communications school dean Time & date: mingling 5:30 p.m., pizza and program at 6, Wednesday, March 22 Place: Concho Room, E.H. Hereford University Center at UTA; park in lots F12 and 38 (see the enclosed link) Cost: $15 members, $20 nonmembers, $5 students RSVP by May 20: Kay Pirtle, mkpirtle@yahoo.com =================================================== STRAIGHT STUFF '59 TCU grad Bob Schieffer, interim "CBS Evening News" anchor and moderator of "Face the Nation"; Jill Abramson, managing editor of The New York Times; Larry Kramer, founder of Marketwatch.com and president of CBS Digital Media; Judy Woodruff, former anchor of CNN's "Inside Politics" and a correspondent for PBS's "NewsHour"; and Len Downie, executive editor of The Washington Post, will discuss the factors affecting the ways in which news is distributed and received at the TCU Schieffer School of Journalism's second annual Schieffer Symposium, "The Changing Communications Landscape," at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 5, in TCU's Brown-Lupton Student Center Ballroom. Tickets are $15; call (817) 257-5976. Area students will be admitted free with a student ID. ... Fast times at Journalism High. The SPJ workshop for Fort Worth j-students will be Saturday, April 8, in the Student Center at Tarrant County College Northeast Campus. E- Mark Horvit at mhhorvit@yahoo.com. ... Full-time newspaper people -- copy editors, page designers, editors, reporters, photographers -- are eligible for scholarships to attend any accredited college or university course in religion, online courses included, through the Religion Newswriters Association's Lilly Scholarships. Recipients receive up to $5,000 per course to cover tuition, books, parking and other expenses. Application deadlines are April 1, July 1 and Oct. 1. The RNA has $100,000 in scholarship funds available. See rna.org/scholarships.php, or call Amy Schiska at (614) 891-9001, ext. 3. ... The National Academies' 2006 National Academies Communication Awards recognize excellence in reporting on science, engineering and medicine during 2005. Three $20,000 prizes will be awarded to a book author, print or online journalist and a producer or reporter in television or radio. Online nominations must be completed by April 7. See keckfutures.org/awards. ... The Scripps Howard Foundation's Roy W. Howard Collegiate Reporting Competition will select nine undergraduate j-students to participate in a 12-day tour of Japan and South Korea. Apply by March 31 at the foundation's web site. IABC local update: A guide to IABC and its programs is available for members at iabc.com/members/pdf/membershandbook.pdf. ... Consultant and Bono pal John Bourke will present "Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High" at the Tuesday, March 14, IABC/Dallas luncheon. More here. PRSA local update: The Independent Practitioners SIG will meet Friday, March 24, 11:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m. at Central Market, I-30 and Hulen Street. ... Inspired by both African-American History Month in February and National Women's History Month in March, Greater Fort Worth PRSA will have an enhanced focus on diversity in 2006, under the banner of "Diversity: Understanding Your Target Audience." Diversity committee members Dora Tovar and Glenda Thompson are developing a presentation for an upcoming luncheon, as well as a diversity-themed professional development session. Information on diversity subjects will be available at the monthly chapter meetings throughout the year. PRSA local update II: National PRSA is offering two one-hour teleseminars this month -- "The How of Wow: A Guide to Being a Great Speechmaker," 2 p.m. Thursday, March 9; and "Think Like a Reader and Get Read," 2 p.m. Thursday, March 16 -- and GFW PRSA will foot the bill and arrange a location if enough members express interest. E- mflake@tarrantcounty.com. Additional teleseminars may be offered in March through the chapter e-mail list. SPJ national update: One of them is lying; and O'Waffly. Jack Abramoff said in correspondence made public Feb. 6 that President Bush met him "almost a dozen" times, disputing White House claims that Bush did not know the former lobbyist at the center of a corruption scandal. "The guy saw me in almost a dozen settings, and joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids. Perhaps he has forgotten everything, who knows," Abramoff wrote in an e-mail to Kim Eisler, national editor for the Washingtonian magazine. The messages "reflect the feeling of frustration he has, not just with Bush but with all these guys claiming they didn't know him," said Eisler, who met Abramoff through a book he wrote about the Pequot Indian tribe. More here. ... Fox talker Bill O'Reilly now says that the United States should "hand over everything to the Iraqis as fast as humanly possible" because "[t]here are so many nuts in the country -- so many crazies -- that we can't control them." O'Reilly previously called those advocating immediate withdrawal from Iraq "pinheads" and compared them to Hitler appeasers. More here. SPJ national update II: Wiretap memos going public; won't talk, and you can't make me; church alliance denounces Iraq war; how much health care would that buy? Facing an FOI Act lawsuit, the Justice Department said it would begin releasing the internal memos the White House used to authorize its warrantless wiretaps. "There are real secrets and convenient secrets," said the National Security Archives' general counsel, Meredith Fuchs. "It may be convenient for the NSA to run this program in secret, but that policy debate, and consideration of the legality of the program, should be open." More here and here. ... Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich and his staff still don't have to talk to the Baltimore Sun. In a ruling in a lawsuit challenging Ehrlich's ban on talking with two Sun reporters, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the reporters "have not been chilled to any substantial degree in their reporting, as they have continued to write stories for The Sun, to comment, to criticize, and otherwise to speak with the full protection of the First Amendment." More here. ... Thirty-four U.S. members of the World Council of Churches on Feb. 18 sharply criticized the U.S.-led war in Iraq, accusing Washington of "raining down terror" and apologizing to other nations for "the violence, degradation and poverty our nation has sown." The U.S. groups in the WCC include the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church, several Orthodox churches and some Baptist denominations. More here. ... The Bush administration spent 1.4 billion taxpayer dollars on 137 contracts with ad agencies over the past 2 1/2 years, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Feb. 14. Spending trends were not documented, but a prior study by the minority staff of the Government Reform Committee found that PR spending under Bush increased to $88 million in 2004 from $39 million in 2000, or 128 percent. More here and here. SPJ national update III: Criticize the government, fear for your job; be a student, get a job; and it's important that the people don't know. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., asked Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson for an inquiry of his agency's investigation into whether a V.A. nurse's critical letter to the editor amounted to "sedition." In a letter to a weekly Albuquerque newspaper on the administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war, Laura Berg, a clinical nurse specialist for 15 years, urged people to bring criminal charges against top administration officials, including the president, to remove them from power because they played games of "vicious deceit." The agency seized Berg's office computer and attempted to determine if the letter was written on it. Berg reportedly thinks she could lose her job. More here and here. ... Two students will be selected for the SPJ Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information Internships in Indianapolis, and an opportunity is available in Indianapolis for the Archibald Communications intern. Apply by March 15. Details at spj.org/internships.asp. Meanwhile, SPJ seeks 12 bright, hard-working student journalists to staff The Working Press, the daily tabloid that will cover the national conference, Aug. 24-27 in Chicago. Application deadline is April 19. Info at spj.org. ... In a seven-year-old secret program at the National Archives, intelligence agencies have removed from public access more than 55,000 pages of documents that were available for years, including some already published by the State Department and others photocopied years ago by private historians. More here. Journalism Educator to Keynote First Amendment Awards Dinner Sreenath Sreenivasan is all over town. He is dean of students at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. He co-founded the South Asian Journalists Association and writes a weekly column for Poynter.org. For 10 years he advised Columbia's SPJ chapter and was named the national Faculty Adviser of the Year in 1998. He's also an expert on convergence journalism, teaching journalists to work in multiple media formats such as print, TV, radio and online. It's that last element that will bring him to Texas to address Fort Worth SPJ's Third Annual First Amendment Awards and Scholarship Dinner. How do reporters do First Amendment journalism in the new age? Sree knows. In addition to being dean of students at Columbia, he runs the university's new media/web journalism program. He also teaches workshops on "Smarter Surfing: Better Use of Your Web Time" in newsrooms and educational institutions around the United States and abroad. In the New York City area, he can be seen regularly on WABC-7, and he guest hosts segments of "Asian America" on PBS, a nationally syndicated English program on Asian American affairs. As a freelancer he has written for The New York Times, Business Week, Time Digital, National Journal, India Today, Newsday, Bloomberg, Forbes.com, Sesame Street Parents, Rolling Stone and the Fiji Sun (where his byline first appeared, at 15). He's the Web Geek for Popular Science's "Geek Chorus." Announcing the winners of the chapter's Third Annual First Amendment Awards and 2006 student scholarships Saturday, April 15, 2006 cash bar 6 p.m., dinner 6:30 Cacharel 2221 E. Lamar Blvd Brookhollow Tower Two, Ninth Floor Arlington, Texas *additional details next month* SPJ national update IV: Wikipedia takes some lawmakers off-line; official resigns public TV post; and N.J. lawmakers big offenders. Reports about insults, selective erasures and dozens of other politically motivated revisions prompted Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia written and edited by anyone who wants to contribute, to block temporarily the Capitol Hill addresses of three Democrat senators' offices and two Republicans' offices. More here. ... The top television executive at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced Feb. 10 that he will step down. His is the latest in a string of departures of officials and consultants who played central roles in an effort by conservatives to bring what they called balance to public television and radio. More here. ... When New Jersey legislators began reviewing the system for regulating suspended drivers licenses last year, The Star-Ledger of Newark decided to look into the lawmakers' own driving records. Now a two-page report details the driving histories of each state senator and assembly member who has had a suspended license, moving violation or an accident. "Going back to 1980 was cheap, really cheap," said third-term Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, whose drivers license has been suspended twice and his registration once. More here. SPJ national update V: Government spying on students; candidate caught editing newspaper stories on campaign site; and photogs slam White House staged pictures. When California students protested military recruiters last year, they never expected to end up on a terrorist watch list. The ACLU of Northern California filed an FOI Act request Feb. 1 on behalf of two student groups requesting all information kept on them by several government agencies, including the Defense Department. More here. ... The GOP's New York gubernatorial candidate, William Weld, made changes to his campaign web site after being criticized because newspaper articles posted there were altered to remove criticism of him and any mention of a criminal investigation at a technical college he once led. More here. ... A review of AP archives found that the Clinton administration in its eight years distributed only 100 handout photos. During the first five years of George W. Bush's presidency, more than 500 have been distributed -- all taken at events that were closed to news photographers. More here. SPJ national update VI: Evangelicals fight global warming; Bush appointee lied on résumé, resigns; and Iraqi readers still getting paid-for news. Despite opposition from such high-profile conservative religionists as Chuck Colson and James Dobson, 86 evangelical Christian leaders have backed the fight against global warming, saying "millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors." More here. ... George Deutsch, the 24-year-old presidential appointee at NASA who tried to limit reporter access to outspoken climate scientist James Hansen and told a web designer to add the word "theory" at every mention of the Big Bang, resigned Feb. 7, the same day that Texas A&M officials confirmed that he did not graduate from there, as his résumé asserted. "He's only a bit player," Hansen said of Deutsch. "The problem is much broader and much deeper and it goes across agencies. ... On climate, the public has been misinformed and not informed." More here. ... Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a Feb. 17 speech in New York and in a television interview that day that the controversial practice of planting stories in Arab media had stopped. Four days later he said at a Pentagon news briefing that "I don't have knowledge as to whether it's been stopped. ... I just misstated the facts." More here. ----- Gaffes and Laughs: For Every Blooper, a Lesson Learned Ever seen a bandless parade, or attended an out-of-control job fair? Ever gotten lost while responding to a crisis situation, or had equipment failure, or watched your ice sculpture melt before you could show it off? Seasoned PR pros shared their bloopers and blunders with about 70 attendees at the February PRSA meeting. Included in the audience were 21 TCU and UTA students participating in the annual Pro-Am Day. About that bandless parade: Marc Flake not only saw it, he organized it. While part of a City of Dallas team publicizing the Dallas World Salute, he suggested the city put on a parade. Undaunted by the experts telling him he lacked sufficient preparation time, he worked hard to find participants. First he had a high school band, then he didn't. Then he had a Highland bagpipe and drum band, then he only had a piper. He couldn't find an oompah band at all, though he did locate a Chinese dragon dance team with a Hispanic lead. He had a Taiwanese official whose car broke down during the parade and a 40-horse riding group with 40 horses, but the riders had a scheduling conflict. The parade did go on, but it wasn't quite the success the city had envisioned. Not to be outdone, Lindsay Nantz shared the time the Fort Worth Zoo decided to reach out to the Hispanic community with a job fair. She distributed Spanish-language flyers and news releases and anticipated the usual turnout for such an event -- a couple of hundred people. Then more than 1,200 showed up. Oops. There were no Spanish interpreters, no applications printed in Spanish, no room. Lesson learned: Be careful what you wish for, or at least plan for contingencies. When it was her turn, Joan Hunter recalled the day, early in her career, when she was working on an employee newsletter and covering a story that required taking photos in every department. Can you see this one coming? The film never advanced. She had to reshoot all of the photos in about 10 departments. Wearing a firefighter's helmet from her days as the Dallas Fire Department's PR chief, Janie Loveless had the audience in stitches as she told of the first time she responded to a fire in the middle of the night. She had her official vehicle outfitted with transmitter. She had her response code. She had her helmet and bunker coat. She did not have her map. The call came in and off she went. Thirty minutes later, she was on the radio saying she was still on her way. An hour later, she was on the highway headed to Texarkana. Hopelessly lost, she turned around and went home. Fortunately, there were no media, so all she suffered was ribbing from the firefighters. And she's still directionally challenged. She got lost coming to the luncheon, a meeting she attends monthly. In contrast to Loveless' figurative meltdown, Bill Lawrence's was real. His hotel client had retained an international ice sculptor to create not your simple swan or hotel logo, but a stagecoach and six horses. Once installed in the hotel ballroom, though, the coach and horses couldn't take the heat. Guests were not allowed into the hotel until the sculpture was removed. A TV crew documenting the grand opening got dandy shots of the ice returning to its natural state. =================================================== PEOPLE & PLACES Perseverance pays off. After nearly four years of effort, InterStar Marketing & Public Relations secured a feature on Fort Worth's Renfro Foods in the March 2006 issue of Southern Living's special Texas Living section. Account executive Jane Cohen contacted the magazine in 2002, the interviews and photos were done in 2004, and throughout the process she never let Renfro drift out of Southern Living's rearview mirror. "Because there was continued interest in my pitch, I just kept at it," she says. The issue is out now. ... Jerrod Resweber has been promoted to group manager in the Dallas office of Weber Shandwick. He has been with the PR agency for more than five years and manages communications projects for American Airlines. In 2005 Greater Fort Worth PRSA presented him its Unsung Hero Award for outstanding contributions to the organization. ... Witherspoon Advertising and Public Relations turns 60 this year. Take a look back. =================================================== GET A JOB Delta Dallas needs a staff writer for an eight- to 12-week assignment. E- résumé and a published writing sample to angela@deltadallas.com. ... The McLane Co. in Temple seeks a senior manager for government affairs and corporate communications. "The good news is that you'll be responsible for all 50 states and get to see a lot of cool state capitols; the possibly bad news is that they will want you to be based in Temple," writes Barney White. If interested, contact him at barneywhite@houston.rr.com. ... JPS Health Network seeks a senior PR coordinator. Requires a degree, a minimum of two years experience and Quark proficiency. Apply online at jpshealthnet.org. ... Nolan Catholic High School seeks a communications director. B.A. or B.S. required, plus 1-2 years experience. Send application with references to the Rev. Larry Doersching, S.M., D.Min., president, at the school, 4501 Bridge St., Fort Worth 76103-1198. ... Envision Works seeks a full-time creative director. Requirements include a four-year degree and 5-plus years printing and agency experience. E- résumé and at least five portfolio projects (low-resolution PDF) to lauren@envisionworks.org. Phone interviews will be conducted the week of March 5. ... The Marketing Department seeks a part-time office coordinator. Candidate should know QuickBooks, Filemaker Pro, Excel, Word and PowerPoint. Send résumé and hourly rate requirements to Donna McFadden at dmcfadden@GetSizzle.com. =================================================== NEW MEMBERS SPJ ... Rebecca Bosquez, CBS 11 PRSA: Lindsay Houghton, Concussion LLC =================================================== COMINGS & GOINGS Promotions ... at the S-T: Rick Press, to assistant managing editor/online content ... Catherine Mallette, to assistant managing editor/features ... Terry Bigham, to sports editor/online Additions ... at the S-T: Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas grad Sandra Velázquez, Diario La Estrella sports editor Exits ... at the S-T: Boston U. grad and no-fear photographer Khampha Bouaphanh, to the AP in Phoenix; a seven-year S-T veteran, his work covering sports and in Afghanistan and Iraq, Sri Lanka and New Orleans earned him Employee of the Month three times, Employee of the Year two times and 2004 Photographer of the Year ==================================================== PRESIDENT'S CORNER Holly Ellman, Greater Fort Worth PRSA Don't go to the Petroleum Club at the regular date and time this month expecting a program, because we won't be there. Chapter members will attend the Southwest District Conference in lieu of the March meeting. "Life in the Fast Lane: Navigating Your Way to PR Success," March 2 and 3 at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in downtown Fort Worth, will be packed with exciting speakers on such topics as "Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina," "Measuring Communication Success," "Employee Communications in the 21st Century" and "Dissecting Investor Relations for the PR Professional." Tracy Sturrock and Ashley Antle have worked tirelessly with Ann Heidger of Dallas PRSA and many other volunteers to plan a conference that will provide insight and tested tools to advance and recharge your public relations career. Greater Fort Worth PRSA's first professional development seminar of 2006 unfolds in April. Paul Harral, Star-Telegram VP and editorial page editor, and J.R. Labbe, the paper's deputy editorial page editor, will lead a writers workshop in the morning Wednesday, April 12, then speak at the luncheon afterward. We are thrilled to share their expertise with our members and guests. Check fortworthprsa.org for details. The web site is also the place to learn about opportunities to get involved on committees and with the special interest groups. There's so much to learn and do. Join a committee today! ----- PRESIDENT'S COLUMN Richard Maxwell, IABC/Fort Worth Greetings and happy St. Patrick's Day (month) to you, my fellow communicators. Our February meeting topic was "Increase Communication Effectiveness with Images," presented by Susan Salvo of Salvo Photography. Susan is past-president of IABC/Houston and a board member of the IABC Southern Region. We learned about digital photography technology and took home guidelines for executive photo shoots. Visit her web site at salvophoto.com. And don't miss the half-day seminar and luncheon March 28 with consultant supreme Stacy Wilson. Jump back to p. 1 for details. Our annual Bronze Quill Awards luncheon will be Tuesday, June 27. The theme is "The World Series of Communication." Entry deadline is March 17, with late entries accepted through March 24 ($20 late fee per entry). Download the entry form and pay at iabcfortworth.com/bronze.html. Questions? Contact Betsy Boyett at (817) 832-7783 or betsy@boyett.com. March is IABC/Fort Worth membership month. For any new or lapsed member who joins or rejoins, the $40 application fee will be waived and he or she qualifies for the seminar member rate, which saves an additional $25, or one Petroleum Club meeting meal. Who says there's no free lunch anymore. Join today at iabc.com. IABC's 2006 International Conference will be June 4-7 in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. Register by May 8 and take advantage of early rates. Details at iabc.com/ic. ----- OVER & OUT John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ She's famous enough to have her name on a landmark college censorship case, so the least you can do is drive across town (or the county) to hear her. We're taking the show on the road this month as UTA Student Publications hosts a timely session with Hosty v. Carter plaintiff Margaret Hosty. She's a feisty person, I'm told. Worth your time. And if you've never been on the Arlington campus, you'll love it. Best big-scale grounds crew and landscaping anywhere. There is that matter of parking, though. Better leave the house now. ... New advertiser Magic Video didn't even think about dragging out that reasonable eChaser payment. Welcome, Jason Croft, and thanks for being so prompt. ... When ridicule is cool. It helps that the target is Bill O'Reilly. ... Closing words: "The most important thing in acting is honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made." -- George Burns Closing words II, G.W.B. & the Pharisees division: "If I can help people focus on preparedness, how to be better prepared in their homes and better prepared in their businesses -- because that goes straight to the bottom line -- then I hope I can help the country in some way." -- former FEMA director Michael Brown, heavily criticized for his agency's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, on the disaster preparedness consulting firm he has started to help clients avoid the sort of errors that cost him his job ... "I apologize for that if I'm indirectly responsible, which I'm not." -- Gov. Jeb Bush after Florida Republican Party officials ejected reporters trying to hear Bush speak to several hundred party activists in Tallahassee; the reporters had been listening through an open door ... "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq." And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me. "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.' " -- Palestinian minister Nabil Shaath, in a BBC interview

Welcome to our newsletter ...

Society of Professional Journalists, Fort Worth Professional Chapter

Public Relations Society of America, Greater Fort Worth Chapter

International Association of Business Communicators, Fort Worth Chapter

The University of Texas at Arlington
VMS
Weber Shandwick Worldwide
Wise County Messenger
Witherspoon Advertising and Public Relations

March 2006

Next at IABC/Fort Worth ...

Lasso the Moon: Managing New Technology with Real People

Blogs. Wikis. Portals. What's next? More importantly, who's going to keep it all fresh? Bells and whistles don't do anything for an organization if they aren't managed with the same forethought that brought them in-house in the first place. A half-day seminar March 28 will explore legal issues and how to identify bottlenecks that may stifle creativity and great content.

Stacy Wilson, ABC, president of Colorado-based Eloquor Consulting, will lead the seminar and also speak at the chapter's regular monthly meeting on "Get a Seat at the Table: Become an Internal Communication Consultant." She will examine the skills needed to deliver precise strategic consulting to your own organization and teach how to measure your consulting success.

Time & date: 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, March 28

Place: Petroleum Club, Carter-Burgess Plaza, 777 Main St., 39th floor

Parking: $2.50 in parking garage at Seventh and Commerce streets

Cost: seminar and lunch $70 members, $95 nonmembers

RSVP by noon March 24: Julie Trowbridge,

julie.trowbridge@c-b.com

-----

Next at Greater Fort Worth PRSA ...

Gone fishing. Actually, no, gone to the Southwest District Conference, participation in which replaces the luncheon and program this month. The regular schedule will resume in April.

-----

Next at Fort Worth SPJ ...

Censorship or Editing? Free-speech Strangulation or
Preparation for the Real World of Editors and Supervisors?

Margaret Hosty and her fellow editors took their fight over control of content in The Innovator, the student newspaper at Governors State University, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. They were turned down, leaving intact an appeals court ruling that may imply that college administrators have as much authority over college journalists as high school administrators have over high school journalists -- which is considerable.

At the March SPJ meeting at UTA, co-sponsored by UTA Student Publications, Hosty will fly in from Illinois to talk about her legal battle. Organizers also will present an administration (UTA, not Governors State) perspective. Afterward, student journalists will network and get help on their résumés from editors who see lots of them.

Students from UTA, TCU, UNT, SMU, TCC, Texas Wesleyan and Arlington and Mansfield high schools have been invited.

Speakers: Margaret Hosty, plaintiff in Hosty v. Carter, and UTA President James Spaniolo, a former Knight Ridder executive and communications school dean

Time & date: mingling 5:30 p.m., pizza and program at 6, Wednesday, March 22

Place: Concho Room, E.H. Hereford University Center at UTA; park in lots F12 and 38 (see the enclosed link)

Cost: $15 members, $20 nonmembers, $5 students

RSVP by May 20: Kay Pirtle, mkpirtle@yahoo.com

===================================================

STRAIGHT STUFF

'59 TCU grad Bob Schieffer, interim "CBS Evening News" anchor and moderator of "Face the Nation"; Jill Abramson, managing editor of The New York Times; Larry Kramer, founder of Marketwatch.com and president of CBS Digital Media; Judy Woodruff, former anchor of CNN's "Inside Politics" and a correspondent for PBS's "NewsHour"; and Len Downie, executive editor of The Washington Post, will discuss the factors affecting the ways in which news is distributed and received at the TCU Schieffer School of Journalism's second annual Schieffer Symposium, "The Changing Communications Landscape," at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 5, in TCU's Brown-Lupton Student Center Ballroom. Tickets are $15; call (817) 257-5976. Area students will be admitted free with a student ID. ...

Fast times at Journalism High. The SPJ workshop for Fort Worth j-students will be Saturday, April 8, in the Student Center at Tarrant County College Northeast Campus. E- Mark Horvit at mhhorvit@yahoo.com. ...

Full-time newspaper people -- copy editors, page designers, editors, reporters, photographers -- are eligible for scholarships to attend any accredited college or university course in religion, online courses included, through the Religion Newswriters Association's Lilly Scholarships. Recipients receive up to $5,000 per course to cover tuition, books, parking and other expenses. Application deadlines are April 1, July 1 and Oct. 1. The RNA has $100,000 in scholarship funds available. See rna.org/scholarships.php, or call Amy Schiska at (614) 891-9001, ext. 3. ...

The National Academies' 2006 National Academies Communication Awards recognize excellence in reporting on science, engineering and medicine during 2005. Three $20,000 prizes will be awarded to a book author, print or online journalist and a producer or reporter in television or radio. Online nominations must be completed by April 7. See keckfutures.org/awards. ... The Scripps Howard Foundation's Roy W. Howard Collegiate Reporting Competition will select nine undergraduate j-students to participate in a 12-day tour of Japan and South Korea. Apply by March 31 at the foundation's web site.

IABC local update: A guide to IABC and its programs is available for members at iabc.com/members/pdf/membershandbook.pdf. ... Consultant and Bono pal John Bourke will present "Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High" at the Tuesday, March 14, IABC/Dallas luncheon. More here.

PRSA local update: The Independent Practitioners SIG will meet Friday, March 24, 11:15 a.m.-12:45 p.m. at Central Market, I-30 and Hulen Street. ... Inspired by both African-American History Month in February and National Women's History Month in March, Greater Fort Worth PRSA will have an enhanced focus on diversity in 2006, under the banner of "Diversity: Understanding Your Target Audience." Diversity committee members Dora Tovar and Glenda Thompson are developing a presentation for an upcoming luncheon, as well as a diversity-themed professional development session. Information on diversity subjects will be available at the monthly chapter meetings throughout the year.

PRSA local update II: National PRSA is offering two one-hour teleseminars this month -- "The How of Wow: A Guide to Being a Great Speechmaker," 2 p.m. Thursday, March 9; and "Think Like a Reader and Get Read," 2 p.m. Thursday, March 16 -- and GFW PRSA will foot the bill and arrange a location if enough members express interest. E- mflake@tarrantcounty.com. Additional teleseminars may be offered in March through the chapter e-mail list.

SPJ national update: One of them is lying; and O'Waffly. Jack Abramoff said in correspondence made public Feb. 6 that President Bush met him "almost a dozen" times, disputing White House claims that Bush did not know the former lobbyist at the center of a corruption scandal. "The guy saw me in almost a dozen settings, and joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids. Perhaps he has forgotten everything, who knows," Abramoff wrote in an e-mail to Kim Eisler, national editor for the Washingtonian magazine. The messages "reflect the feeling of frustration he has, not just with Bush but with all these guys claiming they didn't know him," said Eisler, who met Abramoff through a book he wrote about the Pequot Indian tribe. More here. ... Fox talker Bill O'Reilly now says that the United States should "hand over everything to the Iraqis as fast as humanly possible" because "[t]here are so many nuts in the country -- so many crazies -- that we can't control them." O'Reilly previously called those advocating immediate withdrawal from Iraq "pinheads" and compared them to Hitler appeasers. More here.

SPJ national update II: Wiretap memos going public; won't talk, and you can't make me; church alliance denounces Iraq war; how much health care would that buy? Facing an FOI Act lawsuit, the Justice Department said it would begin releasing the internal memos the White House used to authorize its warrantless wiretaps. "There are real secrets and convenient secrets," said the National Security Archives' general counsel, Meredith Fuchs. "It may be convenient for the NSA to run this program in secret, but that policy debate, and consideration of the legality of the program, should be open." More here and here. ... Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich and his staff still don't have to talk to the Baltimore Sun. In a ruling in a lawsuit challenging Ehrlich's ban on talking with two Sun reporters, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the reporters "have not been chilled to any substantial degree in their reporting, as they have continued to write stories for The Sun, to comment, to criticize, and otherwise to speak with the full protection of the First Amendment." More here. ... Thirty-four U.S. members of the World Council of Churches on Feb. 18 sharply criticized the U.S.-led war in Iraq, accusing Washington of "raining down terror" and apologizing to other nations for "the violence, degradation and poverty our nation has sown." The U.S. groups in the WCC include the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church, several Orthodox churches and some Baptist denominations. More here. ... The Bush administration spent 1.4 billion taxpayer dollars on 137 contracts with ad agencies over the past 2 1/2 years, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Feb. 14. Spending trends were not documented, but a prior study by the minority staff of the Government Reform Committee found that PR spending under Bush increased to $88 million in 2004 from $39 million in 2000, or 128 percent. More here and here.

SPJ national update III: Criticize the government, fear for your job; be a student, get a job; and it's important that the people don't know. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., asked Veterans Affairs Secretary James Nicholson for an inquiry of his agency's investigation into whether a V.A. nurse's critical letter to the editor amounted to "sedition." In a letter to a weekly Albuquerque newspaper on the administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war, Laura Berg, a clinical nurse specialist for 15 years, urged people to bring criminal charges against top administration officials, including the president, to remove them from power because they played games of "vicious deceit." The agency seized Berg's office computer and attempted to determine if the letter was written on it. Berg reportedly thinks she could lose her job. More here and here. ... Two students will be selected for the SPJ Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information Internships in Indianapolis, and an opportunity is available in Indianapolis for the Archibald Communications intern. Apply by March 15. Details at spj.org/internships.asp. Meanwhile, SPJ seeks 12 bright, hard-working student journalists to staff The Working Press, the daily tabloid that will cover the national conference, Aug. 24-27 in Chicago. Application deadline is April 19. Info at spj.org. ... In a seven-year-old secret program at the National Archives, intelligence agencies have removed from public access more than 55,000 pages of documents that were available for years, including some already published by the State Department and others photocopied years ago by private historians. More here.

Journalism Educator to Keynote First Amendment Awards Dinner

Sreenath Sreenivasan is all over town.

He is dean of students at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. He co-founded the South Asian Journalists Association and writes a weekly column for Poynter.org. For 10 years he advised Columbia's SPJ chapter and was named the national Faculty Adviser of the Year in 1998.

He's also an expert on convergence journalism, teaching journalists to work in multiple media formats such as print, TV, radio and online.

It's that last element that will bring him to Texas to address Fort Worth SPJ's Third Annual First Amendment Awards and Scholarship Dinner.

How do reporters do First Amendment journalism in the new age? Sree knows.

In addition to being dean of students at Columbia, he runs the university's new media/web journalism program. He also teaches workshops on "Smarter Surfing: Better Use of Your Web Time" in newsrooms and educational institutions around the United States and abroad.

In the New York City area, he can be seen regularly on WABC-7, and he guest hosts segments of "Asian America" on PBS, a nationally syndicated English program on Asian American affairs.

As a freelancer he has written for The New York Times, Business Week, Time Digital, National Journal, India Today, Newsday, Bloomberg, Forbes.com, Sesame Street Parents, Rolling Stone and the Fiji Sun (where his byline first appeared, at 15). He's the Web Geek for Popular Science's "Geek Chorus."

Announcing the winners of the chapter's

Third Annual First Amendment Awards
and 2006 student scholarships

Saturday, April 15, 2006

cash bar 6 p.m., dinner 6:30

Cacharel
2221 E. Lamar Blvd
Brookhollow Tower Two, Ninth Floor
Arlington, Texas

additional details next month

SPJ national update IV: Wikipedia takes some lawmakers off-line; official resigns public TV post; and N.J. lawmakers big offenders. Reports about insults, selective erasures and dozens of other politically motivated revisions prompted Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia written and edited by anyone who wants to contribute, to block temporarily the Capitol Hill addresses of three Democrat senators' offices and two Republicans' offices. More here. ... The top television executive at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced Feb. 10 that he will step down. His is the latest in a string of departures of officials and consultants who played central roles in an effort by conservatives to bring what they called balance to public television and radio. More here. ... When New Jersey legislators began reviewing the system for regulating suspended drivers licenses last year, The Star-Ledger of Newark decided to look into the lawmakers' own driving records. Now a two-page report details the driving histories of each state senator and assembly member who has had a suspended license, moving violation or an accident. "Going back to 1980 was cheap, really cheap," said third-term Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, whose drivers license has been suspended twice and his registration once. More here.

SPJ national update V: Government spying on students; candidate caught editing newspaper stories on campaign site; and photogs slam White House staged pictures. When California students protested military recruiters last year, they never expected to end up on a terrorist watch list. The ACLU of Northern California filed an FOI Act request Feb. 1 on behalf of two student groups requesting all information kept on them by several government agencies, including the Defense Department. More here. ... The GOP's New York gubernatorial candidate, William Weld, made changes to his campaign web site after being criticized because newspaper articles posted there were altered to remove criticism of him and any mention of a criminal investigation at a technical college he once led. More here. ... A review of AP archives found that the Clinton administration in its eight years distributed only 100 handout photos. During the first five years of George W. Bush's presidency, more than 500 have been distributed -- all taken at events that were closed to news photographers. More here.

SPJ national update VI: Evangelicals fight global warming; Bush appointee lied on résumé, resigns; and Iraqi readers still getting paid-for news. Despite opposition from such high-profile conservative religionists as Chuck Colson and James Dobson, 86 evangelical Christian leaders have backed the fight against global warming, saying "millions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors." More here. ... George Deutsch, the 24-year-old presidential appointee at NASA who tried to limit reporter access to outspoken climate scientist James Hansen and told a web designer to add the word "theory" at every mention of the Big Bang, resigned Feb. 7, the same day that Texas A&M officials confirmed that he did not graduate from there, as his résumé asserted. "He's only a bit player," Hansen said of Deutsch. "The problem is much broader and much deeper and it goes across agencies. ... On climate, the public has been misinformed and not informed." More here. ... Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a Feb. 17 speech in New York and in a television interview that day that the controversial practice of planting stories in Arab media had stopped. Four days later he said at a Pentagon news briefing that "I don't have knowledge as to whether it's been stopped. ... I just misstated the facts." More here.

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Gaffes and Laughs: For Every Blooper, a Lesson Learned

Ever seen a bandless parade, or attended an out-of-control job fair? Ever gotten lost while responding to a crisis situation, or had equipment failure, or watched your ice sculpture melt before you could show it off?

Seasoned PR pros shared their bloopers and blunders with about 70 attendees at the February PRSA meeting. Included in the audience were 21 TCU and UTA students participating in the annual Pro-Am Day.

About that bandless parade: Marc Flake not only saw it, he organized it. While part of a City of Dallas team publicizing the Dallas World Salute, he suggested the city put on a parade. Undaunted by the experts telling him he lacked sufficient preparation time, he worked hard to find participants.

First he had a high school band, then he didn't. Then he had a Highland bagpipe and drum band, then he only had a piper. He couldn't find an oompah band at all, though he did locate a Chinese dragon dance team with a Hispanic lead. He had a Taiwanese official whose car broke down during the parade and a 40-horse riding group with 40 horses, but the riders had a scheduling conflict. The parade did go on, but it wasn't quite the success the city had envisioned.

Not to be outdone, Lindsay Nantz shared the time the Fort Worth Zoo decided to reach out to the Hispanic community with a job fair. She distributed Spanish-language flyers and news releases and anticipated the usual turnout for such an event -- a couple of hundred people. Then more than 1,200 showed up. Oops. There were no Spanish interpreters, no applications printed in Spanish, no room. Lesson learned: Be careful what you wish for, or at least plan for contingencies.

When it was her turn, Joan Hunter recalled the day, early in her career, when she was working on an employee newsletter and covering a story that required taking photos in every department. Can you see this one coming? The film never advanced. She had to reshoot all of the photos in about 10 departments.

Wearing a firefighter's helmet from her days as the Dallas Fire Department's PR chief, Janie Loveless had the audience in stitches as she told of the first time she responded to a fire in the middle of the night. She had her official vehicle outfitted with transmitter. She had her response code. She had her helmet and bunker coat. She did not have her map.

The call came in and off she went. Thirty minutes later, she was on the radio saying she was still on her way. An hour later, she was on the highway headed to Texarkana. Hopelessly lost, she turned around and went home. Fortunately, there were no media, so all she suffered was ribbing from the firefighters. And she's still directionally challenged. She got lost coming to the luncheon, a meeting she attends monthly.

In contrast to Loveless' figurative meltdown, Bill Lawrence's was real. His hotel client had retained an international ice sculptor to create not your simple swan or hotel logo, but a stagecoach and six horses. Once installed in the hotel ballroom, though, the coach and horses couldn't take the heat. Guests were not allowed into the hotel until the sculpture was removed. A TV crew documenting the grand opening got dandy shots of the ice returning to its natural state.

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PEOPLE & PLACES

Perseverance pays off. After nearly four years of effort, InterStar Marketing & Public Relations secured a feature on Fort Worth's Renfro Foods in the March 2006 issue of Southern Living's special Texas Living section. Account executive Jane Cohen contacted the magazine in 2002, the interviews and photos were done in 2004, and throughout the process she never let Renfro drift out of Southern Living's rearview mirror. "Because there was continued interest in my pitch, I just kept at it," she says. The issue is out now. ...

Jerrod Resweber has been promoted to group manager in the Dallas office of Weber Shandwick. He has been with the PR agency for more than five years and manages communications projects for American Airlines. In 2005 Greater Fort Worth PRSA presented him its Unsung Hero Award for outstanding contributions to the organization. ...

Witherspoon Advertising and Public Relations turns 60 this year. Take a look back.

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GET A JOB

Delta Dallas needs a staff writer for an eight- to 12-week assignment. E- résumé and a published writing sample to angela@deltadallas.com. ... The McLane Co. in Temple seeks a senior manager for government affairs and corporate communications. "The good news is that you'll be responsible for all 50 states and get to see a lot of cool state capitols; the possibly bad news is that they will want you to be based in Temple," writes Barney White. If interested, contact him at barneywhite@houston.rr.com. ...

JPS Health Network seeks a senior PR coordinator. Requires a degree, a minimum of two years experience and Quark proficiency. Apply online at jpshealthnet.org. ... Nolan Catholic High School seeks a communications director. B.A. or B.S. required, plus 1-2 years experience. Send application with references to the Rev. Larry Doersching, S.M., D.Min., president, at the school, 4501 Bridge St., Fort Worth 76103-1198. ...

Envision Works seeks a full-time creative director. Requirements include a four-year degree and 5-plus years printing and agency experience. E- résumé and at least five portfolio projects (low-resolution PDF) to lauren@envisionworks.org. Phone interviews will be conducted the week of March 5. ... The Marketing Department seeks a part-time office coordinator. Candidate should know QuickBooks, Filemaker Pro, Excel, Word and PowerPoint. Send résumé and hourly rate requirements to Donna McFadden at dmcfadden@GetSizzle.com.

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NEW MEMBERS

SPJ ... Rebecca Bosquez, CBS 11

PRSA: Lindsay Houghton, Concussion LLC

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COMINGS & GOINGS

Promotions ... at the S-T: Rick Press, to assistant managing editor/online content ... Catherine Mallette, to assistant managing editor/features ... Terry Bigham, to sports editor/online

Additions ... at the S-T: Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas grad Sandra Velázquez, Diario La Estrella sports editor

Exits ... at the S-T: Boston U. grad and no-fear photographer Khampha Bouaphanh, to the AP in Phoenix; a seven-year S-T veteran, his work covering sports and in Afghanistan and Iraq, Sri Lanka and New Orleans earned him Employee of the Month three times, Employee of the Year two times and 2004 Photographer of the Year

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PRESIDENT'S CORNER

Holly Ellman, Greater Fort Worth PRSA

Don't go to the Petroleum Club at the regular date and time this month expecting a program, because we won't be there. Chapter members will attend the Southwest District Conference in lieu of the March meeting. "Life in the Fast Lane: Navigating Your Way to PR Success," March 2 and 3 at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in downtown Fort Worth, will be packed with exciting speakers on such topics as "Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina," "Measuring Communication Success," "Employee Communications in the 21st Century" and "Dissecting Investor Relations for the PR Professional." Tracy Sturrock and Ashley Antle have worked tirelessly with Ann Heidger of Dallas PRSA and many other volunteers to plan a conference that will provide insight and tested tools to advance and recharge your public relations career.

Greater Fort Worth PRSA's first professional development seminar of 2006 unfolds in April. Paul Harral, Star-Telegram VP and editorial page editor, and J.R. Labbe, the paper's deputy editorial page editor, will lead a writers workshop in the morning Wednesday, April 12, then speak at the luncheon afterward. We are thrilled to share their expertise with our members and guests. Check fortworthprsa.org for details.

The web site is also the place to learn about opportunities to get involved on committees and with the special interest groups. There's so much to learn and do. Join a committee today!

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PRESIDENT'S COLUMN

Richard Maxwell, IABC/Fort Worth

Greetings and happy St. Patrick's Day (month) to you, my fellow communicators.

Our February meeting topic was "Increase Communication Effectiveness with Images," presented by Susan Salvo of Salvo Photography. Susan is past-president of IABC/Houston and a board member of the IABC Southern Region. We learned about digital photography technology and took home guidelines for executive photo shoots. Visit her web site at salvophoto.com. And don't miss the half-day seminar and luncheon March 28 with consultant supreme Stacy Wilson. Jump back to p. 1 for details.

Our annual Bronze Quill Awards luncheon will be Tuesday, June 27. The theme is "The World Series of Communication." Entry deadline is March 17, with late entries accepted through March 24 ($20 late fee per entry). Download the entry form and pay at iabcfortworth.com/bronze.html. Questions? Contact Betsy Boyett at (817) 832-7783 or betsy@boyett.com.

March is IABC/Fort Worth membership month. For any new or lapsed member who joins or rejoins, the $40 application fee will be waived and he or she qualifies for the seminar member rate, which saves an additional $25, or one Petroleum Club meeting meal. Who says there's no free lunch anymore. Join today at iabc.com.

IABC's 2006 International Conference will be June 4-7 in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. Register by May 8 and take advantage of early rates. Details at iabc.com/ic.

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OVER & OUT

John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ

She's famous enough to have her name on a landmark college censorship case, so the least you can do is drive across town (or the county) to hear her. We're taking the show on the road this month as UTA Student Publications hosts a timely session with Hosty v. Carter plaintiff Margaret Hosty. She's a feisty person, I'm told. Worth your time. And if you've never been on the Arlington campus, you'll love it. Best big-scale grounds crew and landscaping anywhere. There is that matter of parking, though. Better leave the house now. ...

New advertiser Magic Video didn't even think about dragging out that reasonable eChaser payment. Welcome, Jason Croft, and thanks for being so prompt. ...

When ridicule is cool. It helps that the target is Bill O'Reilly. ...

Closing words: "The most important thing in acting is honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made." -- George Burns

Closing words II, G.W.B. & the Pharisees division: "If I can help people focus on preparedness, how to be better prepared in their homes and better prepared in their businesses -- because that goes straight to the bottom line -- then I hope I can help the country in some way." -- former FEMA director Michael Brown, heavily criticized for his agency's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, on the disaster preparedness consulting firm he has started to help clients avoid the sort of errors that cost him his job ... "I apologize for that if I'm indirectly responsible, which I'm not." -- Gov. Jeb Bush after Florida Republican Party officials ejected reporters trying to hear Bush speak to several hundred party activists in Tallahassee; the reporters had been listening through an open door ... "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq." And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me. "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.' " -- Palestinian minister Nabil Shaath, in a BBC interview