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Wotta week.
Rarely in the annals of public relations has there been
such bountiful seven-day stanza of the best and worst of this
strange, little field.
This was the week that Cardinal Law got PR religion.
The Boston prelate realized the error of his ways and acted
forcefully to change his battered public image.
Public comments (and
tears) rescue Law from PR purgatory. |
In a turn of events not seen since the ‘69 Mets, Cardinal
Bernard Law, chief of the Archdiocese of Boston, in effect
acknowledged how wrong he had been to look the other way with
pedophile priests under his charge. Cardinal Law cried openly
at a series of well-choreographed public meetings to cleanse
his soul, not to mention his reputation.
"I did assign priests who had committed sexual abuse,"
he tearfully admitted for the first time.
The priestly PR blitz worked wonders.
The New York Times noted on page one as to how the
Cardinal's orchestrated campaign to resurrect his image had
rescued him from his 10-month descent into the pit of public
relations purgatory and stifled the crescendo of calls for
his resignation.
Law's PR advisors deserve the commendation of the week for
a miraculous transformation.
But what of the PR Boob of the Week?
Here the competition stiffens.
The nominees:
Bobby Knight
The world's most boorish basketball coach, famous for smacking
around college players, throwing chairs, and whining ad nauseum
when Indiana University President Myles Brand finally had
the guts to throw him out -- couldn't leave well enough alone.
Last week, he sued Indiana for "wrongful dismissal,"
thus reprising the extended embarrassment he delivered to
the university two years ago, just when people were starting
to forget how infantile and self-serving pompous egotist could
be.
For his consistency, Coach Bobby wins second runner up award
for the PR Boob of the Week.
William "Hootie"
Johnson
Rarely has there been such a burst onto the national scene!
Last week, Chairman William "Hootie" Johnson of
the "males only" Augusta National Golf Club went
public with a vengeance, leaving stunned feminists in his
wake.
The object of Hootie's PR initiative was one, Martha Burk,
who has led a coalition for years, bent on opening the legendary
home of the Masters Golf Tournament to women.
After months of suffering Ms. Burk's bombardment and remaining
silent, Hootie started hollering.
The club's chairman selected a handful of national journalists
to express the view, he said, of 90% of his club's members.
The position of Hootie and the blowhards at Augusta was stated
as follows:
"Augusta is a private club," they said defiantly,
"free to make its own rules and admit its own members."
Johnson's statement said
Augusta is free to make its own rules and admit its own
members. |
Citing the parallels of institutions that admit only women
and minorities, Chairman Johnson said his golf club had the
same privilege. He further pointed out that the Club, itself,
would henceforth subsidize the annual CBS broadcast of the
Masters. So sponsors couldn't be pressured into backing out.
What was clear and unmistakable from Hootie's harangue was
that the ladies may have to wait a bit before sampling the
famous Masters green jacket.
Hootie's adamance also created a confrontation with at least
two Augusta members, Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill and American
Express CEO Ken Chenault, both of whom previously renounced
the anti-women policy.
Undoubtedly Weill and Chenault will soon resign from Augusta.
(They really have no choice.)
And CBS and its chiefs, Sumner Redstone and Mel Karmazin,
will begin to feel intensified pressure to drop the Masters
show in the light of the Hootie hysterics.
Augusta, in time, will also change its policy.
But for the moment, in light of his week in the sunshine
of disclosure, Hootie Johnson earns the first runner up PR
Boob of the Week Award.
Elliott Spitzer
And the winner is…
The New York State attorney general, suspected as the ultimate
publicity seeking, political climber before he took office,
has, since his family-financed election, acquitted himself
surprisingly well as the exposer of securities fraud.
Spitzer single-handedly made Merrill Lynch change its dubious
policies and got deadbeat analysts like Henry Blodgett and
Jack Grubman off the street and into the courtroom.
Earns PR boob honors
for rotten, tasteless, below-the-belt publicity stunt,
designed to embarrass Institutional Investor. |
In fact, few public officials have acted more nobly to rid
the nation of the high tech bubble crooks than Elliott Spitzer.
Until last week.
Last week, Spitzer showed his true colors, with an act so
classless, it made you almost feel sorry for securities analysts.
(But not quite.)
As keynote speaker at Institutional Investor magazine's
annual dinner to announce its All America Research Team Awards,
after gregariously sharing food and drink with I.I. editors,
Spitzer pulled the rug out from under his hosts ---- vilifying
the magazine's analyst awards as little more than a bogus
scam, designed to fool individual investors and allow investment
firms to brag about incompetent employees.
Spitzer backed up his assertions by unveiling a secret study
commissioned by his office, showing that over the last three
years, most of the I.I. All America analysts, selected by
institutional investors, turned in lackluster stock-picking
performances.
"The I.I. ranking has been used as a proxy for good
stock picking, and that is a leap that is simply inaccurate,"
Spitzer intoned, as the editors and their analyst guests sat
in stunned silence.
Talk about "biting the hand that feeds you" - Spitzer
devoured the whole arm.
Don't get me wrong. What Spitzer said was essentially correct
- that stock analysts, in effect, are the lowest form of human
life (next to lawyers, of course). They are often dead wrong
in their categorical predictions and are rarely held accountable.
But where and when Spitzer made his declaration was wrong.
If he was going to trample on Institutional Investor, then
he never should have accepted the invitation to speak at the
magazine's dinner. He should have chosen another place and
another time to trash I.I.'s most public claim to fame.
It was a rotten, tasteless, below-the-belt publicity stunt,
designed to embarrass his host. And Spitzer and his PR advisors
ought to be ashamed of themselves for such a cheap shot.
Mike Carroll, the editor of Institutional Investor and (full
disclosure) a friend of mine, handled the Spitzer spit firing
with undeserved dignity. He refused to criticize the attorney
general for his low blow.
"Every year, we ask institutional investors who they
think has done the best work, and we ask them what criteria
they use," Carroll said. "This year, stock picking
was the 11th most important criterion."
Editor Carroll was as magnanimous and understanding as Attorney
General Spitzer was mean-spirited and unethical.
Wotta boob.
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