COUNTERCOLUMN: All Your Bias Are Belong to Us

Dateline, AP. 2:06 AM on a sunday, eastern time, on labor day weekend. Likely after the print deadlines for the sunday papers, at least on the east coast.

President Barack Obama's adviser Van Jones has resigned amid controversy over past inflammatory statements, the White House said early Sunday.

So it's not a matter of news delay. The most transparent administration in history didn't even announce it until sometime after midnight.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: Obama, Politics, public relations, Van Jones

This song - as I'm apparently the last f***ing Guardsman to learn - was written by a twelve-year-old daughter of a National Guardsman and her 16-year-old sister.



I think they did a wonderful job, don't you?

P.S., The price of peace is steep. Freedom, on the other hand, costs a buck-0-five.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: marketing, Music, music business, National Guard, public relations, reserve issues, soldiers' issues

The Service Employees International Union has, amazingly, released a statement claiming that their thugs didn't attack a tea-party-style protester, but it was the tea-party protesters who attacked them!

St. Louis - Today, the SEIU Missouri State Council released the statement of Executive Director Brandon Davis:

"Last night, in St. Louis, a Reverend and SEIU member was assaulted at a town hall dedicated to discussing our national healthcare crisis. The incident, along with a town hall in Tampa, Florida, has been all over the radio and cable news shows. GOP operatives are rushing to paint it as SEIU thug violence. That couldn't be further from the truth.

"In fact, the Reverend, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter, and others who attended in hopes of a peaceful dialogue about our nation's healthcare crisis, endured the latest attempt by right-wing fringe groups to hijack the democratic process through violence if necessary. Last night, the Teabaggers' violent tactics broke and dislocated the shoulder of the Reverend.

Most tellingly, the SEIU has already produced a video attacking what their juvenile press office refers to as 'teabaggers.'

Watcb tbe vid at the Michelle Malkin link. Watch the end closely. It shows an SEIU member on the ground. The audio continues, though, with a witness yelling "you attacked him" after the video fades to black.

Why?

What are they trying to conceal?

"You attacked him for no reason!"
"He attacked America!"

Here's an idea:

You could cease patronizing SEIU establishments, but that signal is pretty indirect and tough to do in some areas. If you must visit an SEIU establishment, don't tip SEIU employees. Instead, hand them a note telling them exactly why you're not tipping them, and what union leadership has to do to restore them in good graces: retract this press release, apologize to Kenneth Gladney, and cease sending goons to intimidate Americans.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: culture, health care, labor, law, public relations

McDonald's, on CNN's front page story on the unrest in Honduras.



I'm lovin' it.

Labels: CNN, food, Humor, public relations

So asks Megan McArdle.

I'll tell you why. Because, by and large, our financial media sucks.

Here's my comment, crossposted from her blog.

Tanta. She was doing the heavy lifting for our intellectually bankrupt financial press when it counted. Too bad all of you guys were too busy playing stenographer for your sources to notice when it could have counted.

But financial journalism as a whole is pretty useless.

They flopped on the S&L scandal until it was too late.
They whored themselves out hawking Internet stocks and funds at the worst possible time. Check out The Fortune Tellers for details.

They elevate chronic money-losers like Jim Cramer and idiotic concepts like Mad Money. Ed Slott should have Cramer's show. But he won't.

They promote self-promoting mental midgets like Suze Orman, who couldn't plan her way to Starbucks for a cup of coffee, rather than real planners.

They sat approvingly on the sidelines while Dave Ramsey insisted growth stock mutual funds average a return of 12% per year while leading hapless investors out of their guaranteed contracts, whole life insurance, fixed annuities, bonds, and EIAs like the the Pied Piper leading children to oblivion, and fell all over themselves quoting how much good he's done, when taking his advice was devastating to families in 1999 and devastating in 2007-2008, and never once called him on it.

You pay lip service to 'buy and hold' investing, but every cover on the big-circ glossies screams '10 mutual funds to buy now'

Your covers feature flights to safety AFTER the market crashes, and feature aggressive investments AFTER large rises in the market.

The financial media is the reason real-life, real-world investors only realize less than a quarter of actual market gains (I'm citing DALBAR here.).

Elaine Garzarelli makes one lucky call in 1987, and you idiots are still calling her for market predictions, 22 years later. How did that work out last time, when Smart Money called her? In their December 2007 issue, She recommended Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and predicted Dow 16,000.

I guarantee you she'll still be getting calls from drooling reporters 5 years from now, if she's still working, and hasn't been shot by a client.

Smart money regards the financial media as a contrary indicator. The media is always the second dumbest guy at the poker table. The only dumber guy at the poker table is the guy who reads them.

They're asleep at the switch, by and large, while our pension crisis continues to build. They're asleep at the switch even now, while unrealistic GMIB riders threaten to cut the legs out from under major, major insurance companies, while there isn't close to enough capital in reserve at state insurance funds to make up the shortfall.

The financial media doesn't deserve Pulitizers. It deserves a kick in the nuts by an outraged public.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: bloggers, economy, finance, journalism, McCardle, Media, public relations, The media

Obama-nable servility.

All the more dismaying when one stops to consider the torture endured by men like Bud Day and John McCain for refusing to grant our enemies far less a media coup than this one.

Labels: Islam, Obama, Politics, public relations, War on Terror

CNN actually asks with a straight face: "Is Ann Coulter the worst guest ever?"

And these drooling simians actually think this is bad PR for Coulter!!!!

These fuckers just don't get it at all.

Splash, out

Jason

PS: Here's the Coulter appearance on The View they were referring to:

Labels: CNN, Humor, Media, public relations, stupid, The Left

Rusty Shackleford has the goods.

Too much to excerpt...just keep reading.

This is textbook black hat PR stuff...and it's exactly the kind of crap that gives public relations professionals a bad name.

For comparison purposes, here is the Public Relations Society of America's Code of Ethics


Exerpt:

Examples of Improper Conduct Under This Provision:

A member employed by a “client organization” shares helpful information with a counseling firm that is competing with others for the organization’s business.

A member spreads malicious and unfounded rumors about a competitor in order to alienate the competitor’s clients and employees in a ploy to recruit people and business.

Think the PRSA will expel these goons? Not a chance.

It's looking like this video was DEAD ON!



Splash, out

Jason

Labels: Democrats, Media, public relations, The Left

I saw that professional agitator in the red pigtails on TV...and I knew he would turn violent. It was only a matter of time.

Unfortunately, this latest tragedy is simply the latest in an ongoing string of Wendy's-related violence.

As for Wendy's itself, this tragic and senseless event http://www.wendys.com/about_us/news/- although a statement on their home page said that Wendy's is passionate about giving people what they deserve.

Splash, out

Jason

Labels: Crime, Humor, public relations