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Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: Run Silent, Run Cheap-Shot


On Friday, Mar 28, 2003, at 20:37 US/Central, Mark Steed wrote:

> Michael: You do have a good point and certainly worth considering. The 
> state agency I retired from has a written policy that no one is to 
> grant interviews,give news releases,etc, without notifying first and 
> recieving clearance from their immediate supervisor. It keeps 
> everybody "clean" and a perfect way to exercise CYA. I think it is 
> ultimately up to Ray and Jonathan as they will be ones the newshounds 
> go for first. One of my brothers is a professional journalist and 
> government speech writer. You should hear some of the arguments we 
> have! PR ain't my field. Best regards, Mark
> [mike:]Do we want to develop a philosophy or guidelines about how
>> psubbers will work with the media?    Given Pat's experience,
>> it might be a good thing to have some basic outline of our
>> expectations of their reporting on us.

Important lesson: other people aren't necessarily *like* you. Sadly, 
it's like with the police: while we don't have anything to hide, might 
be naturally gregarious and want to be helpful, curious about 
everything, and want to know how things work... these people are NOT 
necessarily your friends. They might not have the same values. They 
might actually say or act one way -- and then turn around and do 
something totally different. I have been burned many times by assuming 
my air of universal benevolence with people who just didn't work on the 
same principles. My biggest problem is assuming other people are 
basically just like me on the inside --and I think that has to go 
double for anybody who's actually going to broadcast what you say to 
zillions of people.

(I, too, would be interested in specifics of what displeased Pat. I 
looked quickly at the article and thought it was cool -- but that's 
just because it had pictures and the names of people I was familiar 
with.)


- - -

David
buchner@wcta.net
Osage, MN, USA
http://customer.wcta.net/buchner