Month: September 2018

Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, has engaged in conduct unbecoming for a leading business person.  He boasted publicly that he could beat President Trump in an election because he is “smarter” and he is as “tough” as Trump. Such self-promotion is out of order for a leader, and to Dimon’s credit, he realized it right away and backed off of his comments.  It is too much already to listen to Trump’s ego-filled speech. The country doesn’t need another leader who is so high on self regard.  It takes overwhelming ambition to run for President because the road is long, difficult and thankless. But,voters don’t want to hear from a candidate that he is smarter than other candidates.  IQ alone doesn’t make a leader and the public knows it.  Maybe Dimon will run, maybe not, but he will need to live down his gaffe.

PR practitioners should read this article in its entirety. It discusses search engines and what they are. The author makes the point that they are no longer indices of the internet but much more, which makes them complex to operate and to understand. Anyone engaged in Search Engine Optimization will recognize caveats the writer raises. Why should we care? Because for most organizations and individuals today, information about them comes through Google rankings or a similar result from other search engines, such as Bing or Firefox. What the world knows about you is directly dependent on them. Hence, it is best to understand how they work and what they can and cannot do. The author explains the transformations underway and the future of the software. It is worth the time to read.

Google committed an unforced error in failing to show before Congress to explain how it is protecting social media and search from outside influences. Congress took note. There was an empty chair in both hearings with the nameplate of Google before it. The embarrassment was heightened by the presence of the CEO of Twitter and the COO of Facebook. If they could come, why not Google? To be fair, the company offered to send an attorney to testify, but that is not what the Congressmen and Senators wanted. They demanded top executives. To say that it was political theater is understatement, and Google certainly knew that, but in a spirit of public relations, it should have complied. The next time the company needs a favor from Congress, it will have explaining to do.

In PR, we tell companies to speak out in a crisis and to be transparent, but sometimes silence might be better as events unfold because there is little one can say credibly. This might be the tactic the pope is following in the face of allegations that he tolerated sexual abuse by one of his cardinals. If so, it isn’t working. Even his allies in the Church are urging him to talk. So far, he has not done so. While it might be Christian to remain silent in the face of calumny, the pope is carrying the credibility of the church in his person. As the leader of Roman Catholics, he has a duty to represent the faith in the best light possible. There may be no good stance to take if the allegations against him are true. Should he resign or weather the accusations and try to do the best he can? There is no good answer. Conservatives in the church want him gone and have for some time. The charges against him were brought by a high-ranking conservative bishop who is avowedly the pope’s enemy. Perhaps the pope has chosen to ignore the source because the bishop is a partisan. Even so, abuse victims are waiting for him to address their pain.

At a funeral one is supposed to deliver a eulogy, not a diatribe based on one’s personal obsessions. That is why Aretha Franklin’s family is miffed about this pastor’s 50-minute speech. The fellow should have known better. He had presided at numerous funerals before this one. But, apparently he saw a chance to air his views, and he took it. As any PR practitioner could have told him, that is a no-no. There are conventions in many aspects of life, and a funeral is for celebrating and mourning the death of a loved one, not for discussion of grievances with society. Maybe the pastor has learned his lesson but his faux pas was on an international stage before millions of bereft. He might not get another chance to do better.