Trump’s shifting positions, outlandish policies, and tweets criticizing the media that covers him have challenged organizations like The New York Times. After predicting Hillary Clinton would win the election, the Times is having an identity crisis. Now they’ve emailed their subscribers to say “Hey, we’re doing fine.” The letters communicate the exact opposite. The Times asks subscribers…
Soundview, a company that serves business people with book summaries and webinars, is putting me on in a free Webinar. This is unusual — they usually charge. It’s this Thursday, November 10, at 12 ET (9 PT). To sign up, click here.
FBI director James Comey has now dominated election news with his letters to Congress and to his staff about new developments in the Hillary Clinton email investigation. But the letters are the political equivalent of a rice cake: crunchy, but with no actual nutritional content. First, the sordid background. The FBI is investigating former Congressman Anthony…
In the early 1900s, the physicist Ernest Rutherford discovered the emptiness at the heart of everything. In 2015, so did I. Ernest Rutherford, born in New Zealand, was an early experimenter in the field of radioactivity. Working at the University of Manchester, England, he investigated the mineral uranium and the stream of particles it emitted, which he…
It’s time to take this show on the road. I’ll be tearing up the Public Relations Society of America Conference with a talk on this Sunday, October 23 at 2:45 PM (room “White River E”). Given all the press releases I’ve ripped apart on this blog and my recent exhortation to give them up, this should…
The New York Times published an article about Trump sexually assaulting two women. Trump threatened to sue for libel. The letter that the Times‘ lawyer sent in response really hits you smack on the forehead, because it’s so different from anything else you read in the paper. I’ll analyze. There are three kinds of things you…
A groundswell occurs when a large number of people each do something very small. Those people don’t even realize they’re part of a movement until they see something to get behind, and to share. If you’re against bullshit, I’d like to give you something to get behind, and a way to make a difference quickly. Here’s…
David Ortiz, “Big Papi,” played his final game last night. The warmth I feel about this player has no limits. Why? How did I come to admire a black man from the Dominican Republic with a heavy Spanish accent? What could I possibly have in common with this man? And why is Ortiz so popular with so…
The US Census Bureau released figures yesterday showing that, in 2015, the median annual household income in America increased by 5.2% over a year earlier. That’s an increase of $2,798, to $56,516 per year. Why talk about the “median” and how is that different from an average? I’ll explain. Put simply, when you’re talking about income, the…