During the chat, we talked about how Utterz might be used for a client.

The idea of spot news, or breaking news, came to mind. Certainly it could be useful. With Utterz’ new cross-posting function, you can have it automatically post to many platforms like:

Blogger, LiveJournal, Tumblr, TypePad, Twitter, WordPress, MovableType, Flickr, YahooGroups, Twitxr, Drupal, LiveSpaces, YouTube, MetaWeblog API, Pownce, and blip.tv

For instance, I just set up my Utterz account to autopost to my Twitter account. I also set it up to post to this blog as a draft, so I may consider using it as a post.

News organizations could use this for spot news. Any organization could have a ready to luanch site set up for an emergency. Utterz could be just one aspect of the quick post / response site. The new ability to autopost makes it much more viable. Qik.com would be another useful crisis comms tool to add into a pre-built site ready to launch in case of an emergency.

The idea of using these tools to add content online without all the hoops we used to have to jump through kind of intrigues me. At the same time, it poses some problems re: vetting information that goes up online. I’d like to see a new crisis comms plan that has incorporated many of these new bits of technology into their practice. Anyone know of some such plan? It would be great to share with students.

Here’s an example of a brief Utterz post from our class this evening.

Zombie, in this instance, is a “zombie computer” that has been hacked into by some nefarious character.

This is a story about porn, hackers, trojan viruses, zombie machines and more.

For the PR practitioner, it is a story about crisis management, Web site choices, video, media relations and more.

Crisisblogger Gerald Baron covers the story of a real-time crisis management campaign underway today.

…the story about Matt Bandy. Matt is a 16 year old from Phoenix falsely accused and prosecuted of child porn because a few images of the nasty stuff was found on his computer at home. Despite the compelling evidence to the contrary, the prosecutor continued to push the accusations until the family accepted a plea bargain for a much lower charge–the equivalent of taking a Playboy to school. Still, he was branded a sex offender with the draconian restrictions applied to those who are thus convicted. (Source)

Jonathan Bernstein, of Bernstein Crisis Management (BCM), is leading the campaign for his client – the parents of Matthew Bandy. Already his work has led to a Web site, media placements and a feature on ABC’s 20/20 news magazine.

Beyond the existing tactics in this campaign, Bernstein is seeking to:

…get the word about this ongoing “cause” talked about rapidly on the “blogosphere”, the cause being preventing another person’s life being trashed like this, modifying laws accordingly, warning computer users that they could go to jail for illegal material placed on their computer without their knowledge. We’re doing a series of free press releases over the holiday weekend and PR Newswire on Tuesday, what else might we do?

So, I’ve posted the story in NewPR.CrispyNews.com and it is already in Digg. We’ll see if there is any uptake on the story.

The Web site Bernstein created is www.justice4matt.com.

You may view the complete interview/story from the January 12, 2007 episode of ABC’s 20/20 about Matt Bandy.

As of now, I can find only one blog that has picked up the story – Blogcritics.org.

Poor Pluto. “Controversy has dogged Pluto since its discovery in 1930.” CNN just reported the fate of Pluto. “The International Astronomical Union has stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930.” The union represents approximately 2,500 astronomers. Meeting in Prague, Czechoslavakia today, they have come down on the side of – size matters.

CNN does offer a video on “why some think planet size doesn’t matter,” but as of today Pluto is now just one more large object in the Kuiper Belt. Still, don’t lose all hope. There is another initiative underway that may give us “12 planets instead of nine under a proposed ‘Big Bang’ expansion by leading astronomers.”

So, what is the definition of a planet:

“A planet is a celestial body that (a) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (b) is in orbit around a star, and is neither a star nor a satellite of a planet.” (Source)

Yeah, I don’t know what that means either.

Beyond the devastation this brings to Pluto, the announcement today makes the search for Planet X seem so much more futile.

So, what do you think will receive more time on cable news today? Pluto or JonBenet? I think we all know the answer to that question. Our world of cable news is run by small minded people. So, JonBenet will be the lead.

The Kayak site introduces the ads with this: “We hope you’ll agree that we are equal opportunity satirists and will enjoy the ads in the humorous tone in which they were created.” Well, it hasn’t quite gone that way – for everyone.

Paul English, a co-founder of the site/company, has posted some of the more angry anti-Kayak.com emails they’ve received about the ads. (Danger, Will Robinson! Some pretty vulgar angry stuff in there.) The Alaska / Big Oil ad seems to have touched a nerve. OK, more like jumped up and down on it – with an ice pick.

Another aspect that interested me, even more, is how Kayak is incorporating consumer generated ads / media (CGM) in the mix via YouTube. David Weinberger, one of the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto, has even joined in the fray with a Joho post about the ads and developing his own Joho Kayak ad.

You may see all of the Kayak produced ads here and all of the consumer generated Kayak ads here. As of this post, there are 132 CGM ads in there. That’s impressive. The viewing numbers are impressive, too. Many ads have more than 100 views.

My thoughts? It is a crap shoot. Be edgy, but risk hacking off a lot of people. So, contingency planning is key if this plan is going to be implemented. This is a perfect example of how a company might want to involve PR in their advertising campaign planning. Hey, if you’re going to run ads that will inevitably make people mad, then be ready with a planned response strategy and implement it real-time.

I searched Technorati for posts about the ads, but didn’t find any – other than Joho. The rest were about – gee, kayaking. There are not any posts tagged kayak.com. So, I don’t know if Kayak has such a planned response in action. The meme hasn’t developed (and may not), but better to be prepared than caught flat-footed.

Paul English’s transparent post of the email flames is a refreshing touch, in a way. He writes, “Our goal was to be funny, and controversial. We wanted to take some risks, we knew some people would be offended. The response has been huge with overall positive comments.” Well, where are the positive ones, Paul. I don’t doubt you have them – and some are available in YouTube – but how about sharing those, too. Some are posted to the CGM ads available in YouTube.

One of the comments on the YouTube Kayak Alaska / Big Oil ad actually claims that the Kayak site and ads are part of an astroturfing campaign. (That will fit nicely into my next post.) The comment, from TheOrioleGuy, claims:

Desire: I want to promote my liberal agenda about the environment, plus vilify the Bush administration and oil companies. Problem: I need to bypass the laws and limits that restrain political action committees. Solution: set up a simplistic “travel search site” as a front business, and use the television advertising for it to accomplish my goals… thus bypassing PAC guidelines. Pathetic.

So, do we really want our new company / site to be dragged into some wild “George Soros / Al Gore (kind of) conspiracy theory” meme online? Hey, stranger things have happened. And, TheOrioleGuy has just started it for Kayak.

This will be interesting to watch. I’ve written to Paul English to ask about the campaign. Something tells me the guy is getting tons of email, so I won’t hold my breath for a reply.

Someone sent me a link to Steve Rubel’s blog where he posted a notice about Matt’s site – Buzz-o-phone. So, I thought I’d go look at what she was talking about.

Since Steve and Edelman have recently announced he “will be charged with helping the team win new word of mouth business as well as in developing/executing client programs” in his new role as a Senior Vice President for Edelman Worldwide, I thought he would be the perfect person to speak about the good and bad of these types of sites.

I thought an SVP would likely have some opinions about this kind of tactic. So, I commented on the post with some questions.

No commentary on the value of this? Good or bad?

How will businesses deal with the WOM this may generate? How would you counsel businesses to approach this new feed of consumer backlash for their product(s), service(s), brand(s) or company?

I would like to hear your counsel on these issues. I bet others would, too.

Richard Edelman believes Steve knows about WOM. He wrote, “I have always been impressed with his honesty, his passion for his craft and his commitment to changing the public relations business.” Even more important, in relation to this post – Edelman wrote, “What do we hope to achieve together? In short, we want to persuade our corporate clients to commit to the blogosphere.”

Well, I think this discovery of yet another WOM site is worthy of Rubel’s commentary – as a leader online. It deserves more than just a mention … a link. As of today, no response from Rubel.

But, I did hear from the site’s creator – Matt Galloway. His site is getting attention. Today Matt made it to RocketBoom with Buzz-o-phone.

Matt saw my comment and contacted me. Matt wrote, “I saw your comments on Buzz-o-phone over on Steve Rubel’s blog. You ask some great questions. It will be interesting to see if Buzz-o-phone gets enough momentum to be taken seriously by marketers. If you write about this in the future, please let me know. I’d love to read your thoughts.”

So, I wrote back with some questions. The questions, and Matt’s responses are below. I appreciate and respect his open and honest sharing of information. I have only edited for some stray characters that were created by the email transmission. His responses, and my questions, are in their original form.

A Note: There are some references in here that might offend the truly faint of heart, but they are – compared to some of the things I hear students say – quite tame by comparison. Nonetheless, I offer that warning. Some might say, “Robert, that’s silly.” However, I think about audience a lot. And the audience for this post could be anyone in the world. So, there ya’ go.

Danger, Will Robinson. This is long.

Q: Are there any liability issues at stake here for you, or those that call?

Matt’s Answer: Probably. If somebody gets way off topic then I suppose it could be a problem, but you have to look at consequence and recourse. First off, libel and slander go out the window as long as the speaker is clearly stating an opinion. I think, almost regardless of what the speaker says that the context of the site itself clearly demarcates the “rant” as just that. Secondly, if someone gets too far off base, I’ll probably pull the opinion (more on this later). Thirdly, if someone does get miffed to the point of legal action it will likely start with a cease and desist, which I would probably obey – at least until I could seek legal counsel on that particular issue. As long as the site is framed as opinion, and I comply with cease and desists, it would be pretty hard (and expensive) to pull me into court. And if they did, what are the _real_ damages? But let’s say they did. Buzz-o-phone is not a business. It’s just me. I’m not a wealthy guy. Someone _could_ go after me but we have a blood from a turnip situation.

This is one of the points that I’m trying to make with Buzz-o-phone. In regards to free speech, in most cases the consumer is more free than the companies. Consumer can and do say anything they want in any forum. As long as we stick to opinions and anecdotes that are honest, they are very defensible – no matter how damaging. Companies, on the otherhand, are much more resticted in what they say – by regulation, by stockholders, by culture – and they have much more to lose.

Think of the Jeff Jarvis-Dell thing. Form a practical standpoint, can Dell openly bad mouth Jeff Jarvis? No. Can Dell refuse to sell Jeff Jarvis computers? Not really. Can Dell tell HP and Lenovo and Apple not to sell stuff to Jeff Jarvis because he’s a “bad customer”? Of course not.

Jeff Jarvis, on the otherhand can publically denigrate Dell to his hearts content – as long as he’s clear that it is only HIS opinion and that his accounts are accurate. Who has the power here?

Q: Did you consult an attorney before beginning this project?

Matt’s Answer: Nope. I talked with an attourney a few times when I started blogging. I also did some research on slander and libel. My general strategy at this point it to monitor for clear attacks – stuff that’s beyond heated opinion – and proactively pull it. I hope that I don’t have to do this but I am prepared to. Also, if I got a cease and desist, I’d pull a recording and then seek legal counsel.

Q: What safeguards (if any) have you installed to assure that no slander occurs using your service? Or would it libel because, although spoken words, they are actually data files? I don’t know.

Matt’s Answer: First off, I _think_ it’s slander. Second, no safegaurds other than faith in the consumer. I know that sounds silly but because of the reasons stated above, I haven’t risked a lot here. Since Buzz-o-phone was created in about 15 hours with a total investment of about $65, I can shut the whole thing down without losing any sleep if I have to. And again, as long as folks stick to clear opinion – there is no recourse. Of course someone could lie – and if that’s brought to my attention I’ll respond. I have caller-id info on all the calls and, if needed, I can pull the call.

Q: Where does the ‘responsibility’ for ethical practice fall here …. with you … the callers … both? Or no one?

Matt’s Answer: Well, I certainly strive to act ethically and I feel that I have a responsibility to do so. We’ve been talking about detractors here – and I admit I’m afraid that Buzz-o-phone will skew negative – but so far there have been lots of positive calls. This whole thing is predcated on trust and also that CGM tends to be self-correcting. So I place a lot of trust on callers. If someone abuses that trust, I’ll take action. There are all kinds of things that I _could_ do to prevent abuse but I wnat to see if this can be done without those measures. If someone is out of line, I’ll pull their call.

Now, there is one call so far that I’ve gotten email about. The call sounds to be from a teenaged boy and he’s going on about getting a rash from applying K-Y Jelly to his “pecker”. I’ve chosen to leave this call alone. Why? Well, first off – as silly as it is – it represents how teenaged boys really talk about K-Y Jelly. Second, it’s clearly a prank – this is different from a shill or stealth marketing in that no reasonable person will listen and leave with the impression that K-Y Jelly causes skin irritation. Third, I think by leaving this recording up I create a sense of trust with the individual that left it – perhaps he’ll call back with a sincere contribution. And lastly, because it’s funny in its own juvenille way.

Now, if the boy had been more graphic than “pecker” then I would probably pull the call.

Can I tell when people are lying? Probably not but neither can you when you’re standing in the line at the grocery store and overhear a conversation. I think the platform of Buzz-o-phone is clear enough that people will be able to make up their own minds about what to trust.

As for legal ramifications – I’m taking a hide and watch approach.

Q: Since you are on iTunes, have you considered the inability to “un-ring the bell” in this practice. Once recorded and posted – then downloaded – there is no way to recall or recant anything malicious that has been posted. Do they now have liability in this process?

Matt’s Answer: Well, yes and no. When you have a podcast in the iTunes store, Apple only sydicates the RSS feed – not the MP3 files – they are still on your server. So I can always adjust the number of episodes available in the iTunes store.

However, once someone who is subscribed to the podcast downloads the file to their local computer, there is nothing I can do to “un-ring the bell”.

This is really the same thing that happens, for example, with television stations and ads. Here in Tulsa a while back, SBC ran some DSL broadband tv spots that talked about how horrible cable modem was. The local cable company (Cox Communications) sued SBC to stop airing the ads. Cox won.

Now, the televisions stations were not liable for SBC’s commercial content and all they had to do was stop distibution. The television station is not responsible for the TiVo’s and VCR tapes that now had that content on it. All you can do is stop distribution… and maybe publish a retraction.

To be clear though, I can prevent further distribution – even through iTunes.

Q: Certainly, if anyone gains from the service it will be great. But, like email stock hype scams, how will you defend that occurrence? Do you have any safeguards in place to monitor that?

Matt’s Answer: Right now all I’m doing is listening closely and recording caller ID information. I’ve already called some of the numbers back and talked with the people that left the messages. Right now I only have 19 calls and they all sound pretty reasonable and are all clear opinions. If this thing explodes than I might start thinking about doing something else, but I’ll also have to start thinking about revenue stream. And again, since it’s not a business and is not neccessarily intended to be, I can pull the plug on the whole thing if it all turns nasty.

Q: And, finally … if someone or some company does suffer discomfort (or worse, injury – whether financial or to reputation / brand) by any malicious or mis-stated commentary, do you feel any responsibility for that act?

Matt’s Answer: Well, if somebody clearly steps over the line I feel that I have an obligation to act. I won’t feel responsible if someone does post something out-of-line but I will take responsibility to take corrective action. If the experiment falls into chaos, then I feel that I have a responsibility to shut it down.

At this point though, how much harm could a call on Buzz-o-phone cause? Now, if it grows exponentially, I might have to rethink that. At this point though, I’m getting 2 to 4 calls per day and there is a very small listening audience, it’s pretty easy to stay on top of it.

I liken it to owning a movie theater. I can’t stop somebody from spontaneeously standing up in the front and yelling obscenities at kids. But once they start, the theater owner has a responsibility to react.

One of the amazing things about CGM though is how rarely this actually happens. Jeff Jarvis never seemed irrational when berating Dell. If you listen to the people that have actually taken the time to call Buzz-o-phone so far, they all sound amazingly sincere. Even the detractors seem to be offering suggestions for positive change more so than flat out bitching.

People, especially online posters, seem to be a lot more reasonable and compasionate than marketers tend to give them credit for.

Matt’s closing comments:

Thank you for your interest. You’ve really given me some food for thought.

I do want to re-emphasise that Buzz-o-phone is a hobby experiment and not a business model. I’m not professionally involved in marketing, PR or business communications. Some of the comments I’ve gotten feel like folks overlook this fact. This is really more about consumer empowerment and new media experimentation than it is about the viability of Buzz-o-phone as a business – which, at least at this point, it’s not.

Once you’ve digested this stuff, feel free to call 800-591-5375 and share your opinion about Buzz-o-phone -

good, bad or indifferent.

Thanks for your time,

Matt

My Comments

I appreciate Matt’s willingness to answer these questions. He appears open and honest in his replies.

I have added my thoughts about WOM – in general – in this post from earlier today. Please note that I raise the questions, not only for myself, but for my students to consider in their thoughts about social media and the effect it will have on their future PR experiences.

I do not think that Matt is malicious in his intent. I do think that the site poses risks for him and everyone out there.

There is a saying that comes to mind when I see sites like this. “Just because you *can* do something, doesn’t mean you should.” Now, the reality is that blogs are doing this kind of thing every day. They are spreading word of mouth opinions and claims – often sans evidence or credibility – and I wonder about the consideration given by the site owners (and participants) as to those pitfalls. Matt has simply taken podcasting and blogs and tied it into a social sharing experience not unlike the numerous 1-800 numbers out there today – just a lil’ bit different.

Matt’s site, even if well-executed technically, is also – sadly – just another open hole for juvenile nonsense to be poured into. Can it be postivie? Sure. Do I think it will be a positive experience overall? No.

I think of the possible victims. Who, in their creation of site’s like Matt’s or Facebook or any other site that encourages the sharing of “your recorded diatribe or approbation” thinks about those people – before creating their sites. In PR, this is called continency (or outcome) planning and strategy. I don’t see much of that kind of planning going on here. Yes, it is a reality. This site is here and there will be numerous spinoffs to social communities and sites like this down the road. So, we have to consider how to deal with them. We need strategic thinking from those touted as leaders in the field. And, we need that information shared in the community those experts profess to love, but often fail to use for these types of activities.

I doubt Facebook or MySpace has *really* considered what might happen if someone misuses their sites. Do they have PR counsel? Matt doesn’t. Should they both have it? You bet they should.

Most of these sites have not done much (if any) training – or heightening of awareness – among their users with regard to the possible harm that may come their way.

That, as a person, makes me sad. As a PR practitioner, it scares the heck out of me.

So, this most recent incident with their customer service failures offers an excellent opportunity to discuss the use of social media in crisis communication.

When will blogs not work?

Well, first of all – they won’t work if you don’t use them. In the October failure, Six Apart didn’t use their support blog – hardly at all. People were mad. They did do some emails to ‘select’ customers. That just made some users even angrier. Then, it took them quite awhile to get around to addressing grievances. Certainly, their offer of refunds – and allowing users to choose how much they received – was a good move. It was just late in coming.

In the second episode, they did post a bit more in their “Everything Typepad” blog. They use that for support. As of today, they have not stated if they will be giving refunds again. One would think they will, but – just how much is all of this costing them? Will they be bold enough to this time give everyone the two days of service (plus a little more) off on their next bill?

However, that isn’t enough. The word “sorry” – as in apology – did not appear on their support blog until yesterday. That should be the first thing you say to your customers when you make a mistake. It was a nice apology, just too late. (See pull quote to your right.) Thdy did cause the mistake, even if they claim hardware failure as the cause. Among the steps they could have taken are (1) having redundant hardware on hand in case of a failure and (2) sufficiently testing the upgrade before implementing it. Sure, the cost may have been high for a redundant server(s), but what value do they place on their reputation and the best interests of their customers?

A simple first rule to remember? When the problem is one ‘you’ cause, then it is your responsibility to be proactive and go to the customers. Now, in a way they did do that with a message in their login area. If you wanted to get into your blog, apparently you were redirected to the support area – or, were given a brief message about the outage. I don’t know which (or if both) were applied.

Still, not enough. Why not have an email waiting – in advance – before someone goes to their blog? Seems like a simple and quick form of communication. They certainly have email addresses – probably ready to go (think billing) – for their customer base.

Is email the total answer? No. But it does show your customers that you are making all of the available efforts to reach out to them.

Is it really that hard? No. Can you tell me any other single tactic / strategy they have at their disposal to immediately contact all of their Typepad users? No. Or, maybe you can tell me yes on either (or both) of those options. I’d love to hear it.

They could even use SMS + RSS. And do it, for free! Again, make it opt-in/opt-out. The latest Yahoo! announcment (their new partners) makes it possible.

Further, in the time between October and the recent server crash, Six Apart could have instituted an opt-in/opt-out traditional email subscription process for any user that ‘does’ want to be warned – immediately – when the entire blog service goes down. Now, how hard would that be to implement? Really?

I posted a comment at JEremy Pepper’s Pop-PR Jots blog. It covers, what I think are some key failures in the Six Apart handling of the events. I honestly do not think they had any strategy in place.

That is strange considering they just had a similar problem in October. They had plenty of time to prepare a crisis communication plan in the interim. The comment points to specific instances of company leadership either sitting silent, posting places – other than at Typepad – and the most bizarre one … writing about music and other goofiness while it all happened.

When people praise some new tactic as a powerful tool, and pitch their services to business (as Six Apart has been doing) for all the great things it can accomplish for them – then, fail to utilize the great tool…. well, it is just mind-boggling. If you can’t put the products you pitch into useful practice, what kind of credibility do you have?

The following goes a bit deeper into specific examples of Six Apart’s failures. (Update: Just found where the comment was quoted at association inc. in a post by Kevin Holland entitled: Email Still Matters.)

This is the comment I posted at Pop-PR Jots:

Six Apart has not done enough to fully address their users.

Some examples.

Barak Berkowitz, Chairman and CEO of Six Apart, gave a very contrition filled nice explanation of the problems … in Debbie Weil’s CEOBlogWrite site, as a comment. It is not on the Typepad site. In fact, no explanation with any depth appeared until today, on their site.

Barak hasn’t posted one word on his blog since December 10, 2005.

Mena Trott is apparently still healing wounds from her Les Blogs meltdown. No posts from her since then.

Benjamin Trott has been writing about music and other such frivolities while this all came down.

MSNBC, Forbes and countless others pointed to them and said “failure” by pointing out their foibles.

A podcast with Technorati was their strategy for crisis response? Please.

They failed, again, to implement any customer base emails – on a wide scale – and although a bit better about posting to the support blog, they just dropped the ball again.

Why they cannot learn from these mistakes is a mystery.

Email could help. Offer an opt-in/opt-out support list for members to subscribe to for such instances.

Six Apart seems to think that the customers should come to them (visit the blog) when problems occur. When the problem is Six Apart’s, they should be proactive and go to the customers. The blog isn’t enough.

Disclosure: I do not use Typepad. I did use it for a ‘brief’ period. I could not justify the expense of the account while comparing it to a WordPress blog or a Movable Type blog (or any other, for that matter) that I hosted myself on some shared-hosting provider or my own servers. It just didn’t make sense – for me.

I am discussing this solely as a public relations best/worst practice issue. That’s all. I honestly wonder if Six Apart will ever create a crisis communication plan. We’ll see. Isn’t there a saying about bad things happening in threes? That is a funny blog, by the way. And, she appears to be a loyal Typepad user. Member since 07/2003

A New Weapon for Wal-Mart: A War Room – New York Times

BENTONVILLE, Ark., Oct. 26 – Inside a stuffy, windowless room here, veterans of the 2004 Bush and Kerry presidential campaigns sit, stand and pace around six plastic folding tables. Open containers of pistachio nuts and tropical trail mix compete for space with laptops and BlackBerries. CNN flickers on a television in the corner.

Two of the players are “Michael K. Deaver, who was Ronald Reagan’s image-meister, and Leslie Dach, one of Bill Clinton’s media consultants…”

I’m posting a suggestion passed along from Victoria at The Depot about how to help.

A firm down there is setting up “a Tourism Communication and Media Center for the ’1500 journalists roaming the city looking for news.’”

How You Can Help

Up there with “how are you,” the most common question I hear is “what can I do to help.”

There are several outstanding charities managed by wonderful people and organization, but there is another crucial, desperately needed part you can play in rebuilding Louisiana better than ever:

Visit Louisiana.

Explore the state. North and Central Louisiana, Cajun Country and Southwest Louisiana were completely spared, and are ready to host you today. New Orleans will be ready to greet you again soon.

Bring a business meeting or conference here.

Plan your next vacation here. Bring the family.

Visiting will be a concrete and appreciated way to help the region rebound.

And, (to close with a Cajun phrase) we’ll pass a good time too, cher.

Now, to help all of the afflicted areas, I’d just insert visit Mississippi and Alabama, too.

A good idea from the firm in NO. Don’t know their name, but they deserve credit for the idea and effort. If I find it, I’ll post it here. Update: And here it is …. John Deveney, ABC, APR at Deveney Communication – Top 5 Boutique PR Firm in the U.S. — PRWeek, 2004

EDITORIAL FROM NOLA.COM

NOLA.com: T-P Orleans Parish Breaking News Weblog

OUR OPINIONS: An open letter to the President

Dear Mr. President:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, “What is not working, we’re going to make it right.”

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a “Today” show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: “Buses! And gas!” Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, “We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day.”

Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, “You’re doing a heck of a job.”

That’s unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud.

On August 28th, Kaye started her Hurricane Update Blog:

you asked for a hurricane blog

So now you get it.

I’m in Baton Rouge, La., & watching the hurricane warnings swirl around me (no pun intended). Since Dave Winer & others seem to be interested in people blogging the event from a local perspective I decided to start up a new blog & post as long as I have power.

If you’re interested in my little citizen journalism dispatches about Hurricane Kristina, then check out http://hurricaneupdate.blogspot.com/.

There, Kaye writes about immunizations & medical concerns and the effect the storm has had on LSU’s students and faculty.

Kaye kept going right through the storm, too.

Within hours my readership expanded from my family in Florida, Kansas and Texas to people in Israel, Germany and across the United States. With A-list blogs (whose audiences rival those of small weeklies) linking to my site, the word that I was blogging the storm spread quickly.

As the storm approached, it was never a question of whether power would go out but when and for how long. I knew that silence would cause concern. I soon discovered that I could continue my humble dispatches from my BlackBerry, which could transfer data, though no calls could come in.

Our blogging friend and contributor Josh Hallett, who participates in MarcomBlog is mentioned, too.

Great work by Kaye Trammell. My Dad and Mom, both LSU grads, will applaud.