Children’s of Alabama, a major pediatric center, is not living up to its promise to educate about children’s health because there is nothing about the dangers of Wi-Fi and other radiation on its website but plenty about lightning, bike safety and poison snakes.
The mission statement of the third largest pediatric center in the U.S. says it is to “provide the finest pediatric health services to all children in an environment that fosters excellence in research and medical education. Children’s will be an advocate for all children and work to educate the public about issues affecting children's health and well-being.”
Deaths and injuries from lightning are “incredibly rare” says one statistical report. For Americans, chances are one in 10,000 over an 80-year life. Deaths average under 30 yearly.
Bikes, lack of enough sleep, and need for playground safety are also health concerns but they don’t match millions of students throughout the U.S. sitting in classrooms and being radiated the entire day by industrial-grade Wi-Fi routers. Children also need to be told not to press cellphones their ears or carry them in their pockets. They need to regard cellphones and computers with caution bordering on fear.
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CEO “Mike” Warren Is Responsible
Responsible for the failure to highlight EMF dangers is CEO William “Mike” Warren, who joined the hospital in 2008 from Energen Resources, Birmingham, oil and gas exploration company, where he was chairman and CEO. Warren has a B.A. from Auburn and a law degree from Duke.
Garland Stansell, chief communications officer at Children’s, could not be a national board member of the PR Society of America without the permission of Warren. PRSA should take up the campaign to warn about the dangers of excessive radiation. Members work in offices and at home that are afflicted with excessive radiation.
Warren must take a good look at the Society including its press-boycotting, New York-avoiding, communications-blocking and anti-democratic practices and its 16-years of selling hundreds of thousands of copies of authors’ articles without their permission.
The Society’s blatant anti-press policies include barring all reporters from its annual Assembly from 2011-13 and after letting them in, threatening them with lifetime expulsion should one of them take a picture or record anything. Up until the crackdown, the Society had published a transcript of the Assembly and accompanied it with a tape recording.
South “Rises Again” (at the PR Society)
The South lost the Civil War but it has won the war for control of the Society. Many of the key Society posts including chair of the Universal Accreditation Board are in the hands of Southerners. They have pursued their anti-New York policies by removing national h.q. from midtown in 2004 where most of the PR, ad agencies and media are located, and sending it downtown to Maiden lane.
There has been only one national conference in New York since 1994 when it should be in NYC every year since that is where the biggest audience is and where the biggest profits are. No NYC conferences are planned for the future. In recent years, Washington D.C. has had the conference twice (2010 & 2014) and Philadelphia twice (2006-2013).
The corrupt governance of the Society is evidenced by 16 of the 17 national directors holding “APR” credentials when only 18% of the members have bothered to obtain that designation. A $100K-plus study by the Society in 2013 called it a worthless bauble because it is self-awarded.
Rickey Was Flaw In Anti-APR Move in 2010
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Dave Rickey of the Birmingham Business Alliance, who joined Richard Edelman, Bill Doescher and Art Stevens in leading the “Committee for a Democratic PRSA” in 2010, failed to help that initiative which failed miserably. It was only able to get 400 signatures on a petition towards its goal of 1,000.
Rickey, national secretary in 2010, should have won the right of the New York chapter to send their arguments to the entire 22,000 members via email. The Society also banned all mention of the Committee from its Tactics monthly and Strategist quarterly. Rickey did not help that effort. He did not belong on that Committee.
Doescher and Stevens, longtime leaders of the New York chapter, Doescher being the current chapter president, should have pulled the 700-members from the national Society upon experiencing this anti-democratic blockage. Why they didn’t deserves conjecture. National h.q. gets numerous requests for PR counsel by prospective clients. These RFPs are never advertised on the Society website but are doled out to favorites.
Why is the New York chapter leadership so subservient to the national staff?! The leadership has failed the large New York PR community. Members have to pay $255 national dues plus another $90 chapter dues, fourth highest in the nation. The chapter was booted from national h.q. in 1992 and employs an outside service at about $70K a year.
Southerner Laura Kane Heads PR at Society
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Laura Kane, who was at Aflac insurance in Atlanta from 2003-2014, the new chief communications officer of the Society, is continuing its anti-press and press-boycotting policies. She refuses to talk on the telephone or answer emails of O’Dwyer staffers.
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We lay the abuses at the Society at the feet of the employers of the elected officers, who in 2013 gave up the title of CEO to the staff. No other “professional” association does that.
That move was made when Joe Cohen, a 14-year veteran of MWW Group, was chair-elect. Michael Kempner, CEO of MWW, should not have allowed Cohen to have so many Society posts leading to chair in 2014 when the Society was riddled with so many anti-democratic, anti-member, anti-New York and anti-press policies and practices.
Current chair Mark McClennan, an executive of the MSL Group of Publicis, which is celebrating its 90th birthday this year, cannot remain in that position without the permission of CEO Maurice Levy.
New Hospital Mission Needed; Stansell from PRSA
Children’s of Alabama needs a new mission statement that warns both adults and children of the dangers from cellphones, computers, cell towers, in-home and office routers, Wi-Fi at work, schools, doctors’ offices, classrooms, libraries and businesses and other places.
Stansell must press the PR Society to institute reforms or should resign from it. McClennan should demand reforms or resign.
National focus will be on the Wi-Fi industry when the world’s first Wi-Fi national conference takes place in Tysons Corner, Va.. from April 19-21. The voices of the alarmed EMF health advocates community will be heard. It is an unprecedented opportunity to get its message across.
Lo Isidro, senior director at Real Chemistry with more than a decade of strategic communications and PA experience, has joined Narrative Strategies.
Nelson Fernandez, former North American chair of APCO Worldwide and managing director of Burson-Marsteller, has joined Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires as director of communications and PA.
Lilit Bargar, who was most recently an EVP in the healthcare practice at Weber Shandwick, comes on board at GCI Health as EVP, corporate practice lead.
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