Ron Levy (8/26):
The suit is just a publicity stunt because Mr. Brown has no more right to sue them and have a trial than you and I have to sue Mr. Brown and have a trial. Defense lawyers will make a motion to dismiss, which is a req1uest that the judge throw the suit out of court, and the judge will certainly grant the motion because Mr. Brown has "no standing" to sue. But Reverend Robertson's group will have had its publicity, and perhaps a substantial amount of money will be brought in by Rbertson fund-raisers from people who are mailed clipping reprints and urged to fight for "justice".
Although foreign-born Muslims came to our country and killed Americans--while American-born troops of many religions have gone abroad and killed Muslims--that does't give anyone a right to limit where Americans can build a church, synagogue or mosque. The very first words of the First Amendment to our Constitution are: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." There's no provision that this applies only to Christians and Jews, not also to Muslims.
PR Pro (8/27):
Roberston blamed America for 9-11. He also routinely if obliquely attacks Judaism. Does 5W really need this guy?
Ron Levy (8/27):
Just as Muslims, Catholics and Jews should be free to pray to whomever they want, 5W and all other PR firms should be free to counsel, then report truth and opinion for whomever they want. Years ago I did issue-oriented work in the morning for the cable TV industry, then work on the opposite side of the same issue for the networks. Each side had truths they wanted reported in newspapers of the wealthy suburbs, and on TV, and we were more than glad to help.
I once went to lunch with some of my delighted top people knowing that after lunch we were going to get work from Hill and Knowlton on "the Betamax issue"--whether consumers should pay money, when buying video recording tape, to compensate movie owners producers and other owners of copyrighted material being recorded from TV. We didn't know which side we'd be working on but we didn't care and talked eagerly about what we could do for each side. Freedom of the press--and fredom of PR firms to represent accounts--benefits not just the press and the PR firms but also the public. It's because the public NEEDS information, hence freedom to disseminate information benefits those who need it.
Joe (8/31):
Wait a minute, has not Ron Levy been in the forefront of asserting the rights of anyone and everyone to have some PR representation in this great land of ours? I have no sympathby for the client here at all, but Ron needs to have some sense of consistency.
Ron Levy (8/31):
I wouldn't say "anyone and everyone" but certainly everyone and anyone with an honest story to tell, truth that it wants to make known. 5W is known to be one of the world's great PR firms, both for clients and for itself, and Muslims are as honest as people of other religions so I think it's fine for Muslims to use 5W and for 5W to do the work. Like the Omnicom and WPP PR firms, 5W is well known to the world's editors and broadcasters as a reliable source of information, so the Muslims may get a better hearing with their information coming from 5W than if they tried doing it themselves. The Muslims DESERVE, as all major religions deserve, to have the media consider whether it's just for them to build a house of worship wherever Christians and Jews can build one. Can you imagine Christians or Jews being told not to erect a house or worship within two blocks of where other Christians or Jews once killed people? Americans have killed a lot more Muslims in Muslim countries than Muslims have killed Americans in our country. My preference is that Americans and Muslims should stop killing each other except in self-defense. I don't think that preventing people from building houses of worship will do anything to reduce the killing.
Anonymous (8/31):
What do you expect from a company that would represent a lowlife such as Stewart Rahr? |