The Drudge, The Grudge, Oprah….. and Me
I talk a lot about the intersection of traditional and digitial media, and, in turn, traditional and digital PR.
In great part because I see it unfolding before my eyes every day. And quite often I am swept up in its vortex.
Just recently, The Drudge Report ran a now-infamous story that Oprah flashed thumbs down to Governor-turned-rock star
Palin’s requested appearance on her show. The Gov’s PR people who made the request moved quickly to a counteroffensive, alerting the global media, traditional and digi, that the diva from Alsaska had been snubbed by the czarina from Chicago.
Within moments, all manner of reporters, editors, pundits, PR people, campaign aides and the like – the whole media zoo and more- were in a frenzy:
* Was Oprah biased in favor of Obama? (I don’t think that’s a tough one to figure out.)
* Was this a form of blacklisting?
* Does Oprah talk the open minded talk but fail to walk the walk?
* Was Oprah simply adhering to her programming policies?
Within hours, I was swept into this carnival. At 1 pm on the day the news broke, I was in a studio recording an audio book. My producer stopped the tape, rushed into the booth and announced I had a call from Fox News, where I am a regular guest on the business channel.
Anyway, they wanted to usher me onto a 4 pm show to opine about, you got it, the Oprah/Palin bout. I said sure, rushed home to don a suit and prepared my thoughts in the limo on my way to the News Corp building.
Think of this chain reaction that is at the center of our world today:
1. A PR person leaks a story to Drudge
2. Traditional media catches wind of it and confronts Oprah’s PR people.
3. Oprah’s PR people come out with a statement seeking to establish the czarina’s neutrality.
4. Fox sees a bigger story here and calls me to get my slant on it all.
5. Now I am recounting the story in my Blog which will be spread virally by its readers.
The moral: PR today is not simply a profession. It’s a mash up.
on September 25th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
So what’s the take-away?
PR has always been a mash-up. Leak the information when and where it will benefit your client, be parsimonious (never squirelly) when it’s called for, then sit back and let the natural forces take over. Not much has changed since Walter Winchell’s day, except the speed with which the news lives and dies.
on September 27th, 2008 at 8:22 am
What’s new here is that the media is serving as a witting (as opposed to unwitting) extension of PR machines. Any true journalist would have seen this situation as the non-story it is and would not have gotten sucked in. “Fox sees a bigger story here” should read: “Fox sees a chance to parrot a partisan talking point by portraying Sarah Palin as a victim of the liberal media bias.” In the parlance of the street, PR used to “play” the media; now the media is playing at PR.
on October 18th, 2008 at 11:47 am
actually it seems more like Fox News was using you as a defacto conservative pundit since they don’t book guests on their network that will undermine their agenda.