Friday Fish Wrap: June 25, 2010

Scanning the news in preparation for writing this post, one subject kept coming to the surface - rather like an oily slick down in the Gulf. The BP oil blowout isn’t anywhere near contained. Not only does BP not really know for sure all that might be wrong with the well, but they haven’t a clue how to fix it. They are in uncharted territory.

Last night, I wrote a post about hydraulic ‘fracking’ - a nasty technique used by BP and other oil and gas producers. My post was about the use of ‘fracking’ in the pursuit of natural gas and the truly nasty toxic effects resulting from that technique. One of my regular readers commented that she’d heard something to the effect that ‘fracking’ might have been used in the Gulf Deepwater Horizon well, and that methane gas and oil might be leaking from uncounted fissures in the seabed around the well.

This said, an idiot judge - Martin L. C. Feldman of the United States District Court in New Orleans -  has decided that a moratorium on more new drilling is a bad idea. You might think this is hard to believe, but the judge has personal financial interests in the oil industry.

Do you remember back in the day of the Challenger explosion?

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Monday musings: June 21, 2010

Did you have a good weekend? I did. The weather here in Reno, Nevada has been unusual to say the least. Every time the weatherman predicts seasonably warm and sunny, the temperatures drop and the wind whips up. There is still plenty of snow visible on Slide Mt. and Mt. Rose.  Last night it was 42 degrees. But all in all, yesterday and today were grand, with reasonably warm days suited to bike riding and gardening.

I found a great new bike route that gives me a solid 20 miles in. From my house in South Hills, it’s 10 miles to the end of the pavement on the old Toll Road, that parallels Geiger Grade on the way up to Virgina City. It’s a sweet ride, all on wide streets with ample bike lanes, then a short but pleasant wind through a subdivision and then up through the sagebrush on the Toll Road. I did it in 1.5 hrs.

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Friday Fish Wrap: June 19, 2010

Man, am I ever happy to get back to Nevada, no never mind how dysfunctional it may be! Thursday morning, I got up early to jump on my bike for a 12 miles jaunt to simply smell that relatively clean, crisp, cool Great Basin air. My lungs have craved it for the last week while sucking up that Gulf Coast stuff that passes for air. It was hotter than the back gate to hell, and was so humid that the effects of a restorative shower lasted at least five minutes.

There is no amount of hair product in the world that will keep a ‘do’ from giving up, collapsing into a lank, stringy mess in that climate.

Natacha has been provisionally accepted at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. Once you got past the professionally unpleasant ‘gate keepers’, the Director of Admissions and the Director of the Nursing program were delightful, and very helpful. So, she will be headed down there at the end of the summer to get through it as fast as humanely possible. She intends to stay so busy that she won’t notice how thoroughly dreary the town is.

Lafayette could be Tennessee Williams’ worst nightmare of a crumbling Old South. On deep fried steroids. And, the food sucks.

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Follow Oil Spill on ProPublica Facebook Site

This is exactly how the internet shines and enables us all to players in participatory democracy and the environment. BP and other corporations can no longer just ‘get away with’ their deeds in the vacuum of being remotely located or active in the dead of night … we can stay informed, and well informed at that.

ProPublica is stepping in where mainstream corporate journalism no longer has the ‘chops’ to go. Support them if you can and ‘Like’ their Facebook page - which is important. As a PR specialist, I can tell you that BP has their people watching the numbers of folks linking to sites that are not favorable of BP. That informs their decision making.

ProPublica: Covering the BP oil spill with excellent journalism

In this unfortunate age of sound bites and superficial reporting by the major networks and print media, it’s refreshing to get back in touch with journalism as it should be in covering the BP spill.

I recommend that my readers bookmark the ProPublica special page - dedicated to all news on the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico - for the latest in accurate and reliable information.

Friday Fish Wrap: June 3, 2010

Men, you’ve gotta love this: It only took ten minutes for me to get Mr. Maven into the Patrick James store here in Reno, saw the right sport jacket on the mannequin, asked Mr. Maven if he liked it (nod in the affirmative),  picked a 42 Regular off the rack, told Mr. Maven to try it on (nod in the affirmative), told the man to hold it until it went on sale next week … and out the door.

Badda bing, badda boom.

Walking out of the store, I said to Mr. Maven “didn’t I tell you that it would be painless?” He’s walking his daughter down the aisle on July 31st, and like other men who’ve been retired for uh, ‘a while’, he’s getting a bit low on sport jackets that fit around the middle. Hmmmm.

When we pick up the jacket, I’ll select the perfect tie and we’re good to go. I only wish the Mother of the Bride dress was as painless. Yikes.

Can you say Spanx to the Higher Power?

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Question of the Day: BP vs illegal immigrants?

Mr. Maven and I were sitting across from each other over the breakfast table, when he came out with this:

“I wonder who has done the most damage. Illegal immigrants or BP?”

Last night, I read this - from economist and former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich - on my Kindle before turning out the light. I think this could be the right answer for the Obama Administration, the environment and the American people.

Why Obama Should Put BP Under Temporary Receivership

By Robert Reich

It’s time for the federal government to put BP under temporary receivership, which gives the government authority to take over BP’s operations in the Gulf of Mexico until the gusher is stopped. This is the only way the public will know what’s going on, be confident enough resources are being put to stopping the gusher, ensure BP’s strategy is correct, know the government has enough clout to force BP to use a different one if necessary, and be sure the president is ultimately in charge.

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I may know the reason that BP's early PR was so AWOL

Brent Boynton, formerly the news anchor on KOLO-TV, Reno’s ABC affiliate, conned me into attending this mornings monthly breakfast hosted by the local chapter of PRSA - Public Relations Society of America. We’re both stirring around, looking for our next professional adventure, and you have to do this sort of thing to keep your hand in, so to speak.

I’ve avoided getting aligned with this group simply because the great share of my PR experience has been for a large non-profit closely affiliated with the military, and was better fit with the NIOA - National Information Officers Association.

But Brent said, “oh, it’s going to be about Crisis Communications, and you’ll be interested in that.” True enough, and I thought the networking opportunity might be worthwhile, too.

Here was the official program:

“Successfully Responding to Crisis”

When things go wrong, what do you need to do as a communicator to get your organization back on track? What are the steps that lead to not only resolving the crisis, but also to repairing your organizations’ reputation?

The most well-intentioned projects and well-meaning companies can be rejected or ignored amid a chorus of naysayers drowning out their message. At our May luncheon, you’ll learn how to identify and refine the positive messages that will beat back that chorus and ensure the true issues are brought to the public’s attention. We’ll discuss how to create detailed message plans and outreach strategies to prevent misinformation from disrupting your efforts.

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BP offers new public service: How to mis-manage Crisis PR

Oh, yippee. BP is giving us crisis communications professionals a giant lesson in how NOT to manage a giant corporate screwup.

First: They can’t seem to agree on the number of barrels a day that are leaking out into the ‘used to be clear, blue waters’ of the Gulf of Mexico. 2,000, 5,000, a gazillion? Uh, it’s 5,000. But, lookit - you’ve got live feed of a boatload of oil still gushing out and you just said you’re sucking 5,000 up the tube. Could it be that NPR’s estimates of a much larger spill had to be true?  Do the math, dipshits. Somebody needs to grab hold of these numbers, right/wrong/or indifferent and ‘own’ them. Immediately.

Second: They need a single BP spokesperson as a reliable, likeable ‘face’ of the event.  That person should, of course, not be Bob Blankenship from Massey Energy. BP should get a Crisis Communication Professional who actually has some PR creds rather than a legacy of nasty anti-regulatory/anti-government videos on YouTube. Nice move there, Massey Energy. BP is damn lucky, in the absence of talent from their stable to have the Coast Guard’s Rear Admiral Mary Landry. Isn’t it interesting that women seem to gravitate to this sort of thing and be really, really good at it, while the suits stand there with hands folded and stupid looks on their mugs?

Third: Agree on a strategy and stick with it. Preferrably not the same lies and conflicting stories that even the corporate suck up professionals at Fox News ain’t buying. Your Board needs to quit micro-managing and let that suggested single spokesperson do their job within the fancy JIC.

Hey, BP … I’m available. I’m not cheap, but I’m good at trench/field Crisis PR, and did I say … available?

Here’s my point: BP has a truly lovely, enormously impressive crisis website, it’s a freaking techno wonderland, with more bells and whistles than any hundred PIO’s could jump over. What they lack is a human rather than corporate face. All that fancy website does is confirm the public perception that they are a giant, souless, faceless and uncaring corporation.

Not exactly what they need to be aiming for just now.