A Universal action: When PR’s goal is to hide the truth
By Chris Roberts Very few people knew just how devastating was the June 2008 fire at the Universal Music Group’s archives that destroyed the master recordings of thousands of musical artists – from Count Basie to Snoop Dog, Chuck Berry to Nirvana. The company made sure. In fact, it took 11 years before the public […]
The New York Times talks about its own diversity. Shouldn’t everyone else?
The New York Times issued a press release in March 2018 noting its commitment to diversity – and backing it up with statistics. The nut graf: Over the past three years, representation of women has increased at every level of The Times. Over all, our employees are now evenly split between men and women. Women […]
Ram ad was bad, but Bell Pottinger story shows worse persuasion ethics
Discussions of the fundamental flaws of a Super Bowl truck ad are soaring higher today than any missed field goal during the game played Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018. But that’s not the bigger story in persuasion ethics today. You’ll read much righteous indignation of the ad that peddled Ram trucks using Dr. Martin Luther King’s […]
Amazon vs. The Times vs. Journalistic Ethics
By Emily Williams “Nearly every person I worked with, I saw cry at their desk.” That was the quote shared round the Internet in August 2015, when the New York Times published a scathing story taking down retail giant Amazon for its hyper-competitive corporate culture and unfair treatment of its employees. The story garnered massive […]
New York Times’ ‘Vows’ column comes up short in its New Age-y glossing over of a child’s death
By Kelcey Sexton On Sept. 20, 2013, a column titled “Found, a Soul Mate” was published in the “Vows” section of the New York Times, chronicling the relationship of two yoga-lovers, Erika Halweil and Corey De Rosa, in Sag Harbor, N.Y. Halweil meets and begins regularly bumping into De Rosa, “an intense, thoughtful yoga teacher” […]