Chrysler: If you can find a journalist for sale, buy him
You might recall the 1980s Chrysler ads where then-chairman Lee Iacocca challenged buyers: “If you can find a better car, buy it!” A post from Jalopnik site suggests Fiat-Chrysler has a new line: “If you can find a journalist for sale, buy him.” Automotive News journalist Nick Bunkley noted that the company, at a media […]
Where do we teach ethics in branding? Debbie Millman doesn’t fully say.
The School of Visual Arts in New York City is cranking up the nation’s first-ever master’s program in branding, led by Debbie Millman to help students focus on what Pacific-Standard magazine calls “the intricacies of how words, images, and design help shape public perception, opinion, and belief.” But something clanged at me in Paul Hilbert’s […]
Spongebob Squarepants episode teaches journalism ethics, sort of
Some say the journalism business is so bad that reporters have to work a fast-food job to make ends meet. It’s just the opposite for Spongebob Squarepants, the fry cook turned reporter in “Krabby Kronicle,” a 2008 episode that raises a semi-serious ethical dilemma. (Jim Romenesko highlighted the episode after seeing a Tweet from Hollywood […]
Do journalists work for readers — or their (bosses’) bosses? A CNET and CBS vs. Dish example
Journalists running afoul of the real-or-imagined business interests of their bosses is nothing new. As a technology columnist for The Birmingham News and Newhouse Newspapers in the 1990s, I remember being told I couldn’t mention AT&T’s debut of its online, searchable Yellow Pages because they competed for ads with the newspaper. (Seems quaint now, doesn’t […]