Comments on: Lipstick comes late on this pig

By: Valley PR Blog » Blog Archive » Next on your ‘To do list’ — SM crisis plan

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:28:08 +0000

[...] thanks to social media. Other examples such as KFC and Oprah, Motrin and the Motrin moms and Carnival’s response to the swine flu bring about the real need for social media crisis [...]

By: Quotes for the week ending 2 May, 2009 «

Quotes for the week ending 2 May, 2009 « — Sat, 02 May 2009 19:47:33 +0000

[...] Len Gutman, Editor of ValleyPRBlog, on the the potential cancellation of a crusie to the Mexican Riviera [...]

By: Colleen

Colleen — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 01:52:43 +0000

Oh for Pete’s sake, am I the only one who’s old enough to remember times when absenteeism at school hovered around 40-45% from the regular flu? Do we need to do what we can to stay healthy? Of course. But we’ve seen much worse spread of the flu than this. Of course back then we didn’t have 24/7 cable news networks trying to fill air time.

By: Pat Elliott

Pat Elliott — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:55:06 +0000

There is always a lag time between the suspicion of infectious disease and the 100% verification. Legitimate media outlets are often provided off the record information in the period in between in order to prepare their content more accurately and to disseminate it more rapidly. The behaviors of all media will be interesting to watch in the weeks ahead.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:31:57 +0000

On a local level – a kid in NW PHX got the swine and now the school is closed for a week – that’s a very real deal for parents, teachers and 800 students in the school – perhaps it’s too soon to shoot the media?

By: Angelo Fernando

Angelo Fernando — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:20:49 +0000

Rachel, Good comment. I have the same problem with misleading headlines, but turning this into a pandemic story, which it is not. For what it’s worth I have logged my protest here: http://ow.ly/4pDh even though I may get a lot of flack for it. Yesterday I complained to CNN for ramping up the fear factor. Information without context is just hype.

By: Rachel Carasso

Rachel Carasso — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:51:21 +0000

Hi Len,

I am getting married in 18 days in Mexico!!! I have been planning our wedding for over a year. My fiancee and I met at a volleyball tournament in Rocky Point and we wouldn’t dream of having our wedding anywhere else.

While not my specialty, I have taken on a role of crisis PR for my wedding destination and have unwittingly become the spokesperson on the drug cartel impact on Rocky Point (none) and on swine flu cases in Rocky Point (none).

There is a lot of fear media out there but I do also blame the public for the inability to read past a headline, and then in-turn spread the misinformation.