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. ...
