AO HIRED TO COUNTER WEB 'GLOOM'

Alexander Ogilvy's Washington, D.C., office will spearhead PR efforts by The Association of Internet Professionals, which plans a $10 million communications campaign to counter media reports about the collapse of the dot-com sector.

Richard Graveley, corporate relations manager for the AIP, said he considered the "usual suspects" while conducting the search for a PR firm.

After reviewing two New York firms and another in D.C., Graveley decided AO was "best in the high-tech space."
Christian Pinkston heads the AIP account at AO. He expects major input from Jamie Moeller, Ogilvy's managing director for PA.

AIP has 160 corporate members and 11,500 individual members.

Stephen Lawson, its CEO, explained the need for PR, saying the media overlooks the "amazing breakthroughs," cost-savings and benefits that the Internet has brought to the public.

AIP wants AO to help redirect the media from its current focus on plummeting stock prices and mass layoffs in the dot-com sector.

LAUZIER, WSW'S COO, TO LEAVE

Marijean Lauzier, the No. 2 person at Interpublic's Weber Shandwick Worldwide unit, is leaving the firm in six months to pursue "entrepreneurial" opportunities.

Cathy Lugbauer, EVP-operations at Interpublic's Allied Communications unit, becomes COO at WSW.

Larry Weber named Lauzier president & COO of WSW, when he combined Weber Group and Shandwick to create a $300 million colossus last September.

Lauzier, who also is CEO of Weber Group, joined the firm in 1997, when Weber acquired her firm, Neva Group, a PR firm for emerging high-tech companies.

Phase Two Strategies, San Francisco, had $8.37 million in high-tech net fee income for 2000, putting it #9 on O'Dwyer's Ranking of Independent PR firms by specialty. DeVries, New York, ranks No. 6 on the healthcare list with $2.32 million in fees...Steven Goldstein, 48, SVP for the Insurance Information Institute, is joining Dow Jones & Co. on April 30 as VP, CC. He will replace Richard Tofel, who becomes assistant to the publisher of The Wall Street Journal in December.

RF GROUP FORMED; BINDER TO SPIN-OFF

Ruder Finn CEO David Finn has created a holding company to ensure a smooth succession plan, and help manage its next-generation of growth.

"I'm going to be 80 years old," Finn told this NL.

He becomes CEO of Ruder Finn Group, while daughter Dena Merriam has been named vice chairman.

Finn's children Kathy Bloomgarden and Peter Finn have been appointed co-CEOs of Ruder Finn Inc.

They are responsible for about 600 staffers and projected 2001 fees in the $85 million range.

Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Target Stores and the United Nations are among its clients.

Another Finn daughter, Amy Binder, becomes CEO of a new entity called RF Binder Partners.

It begins life with more than 100 communications pros and fees in the $15 million range.

That operation is to have its own separate headquarters on Madison Ave., and will focus on "cutting edge" communications strategies, said Finn.

Binder is joined by executive managing directors Robert Ferris and Frank Walton. George Drucker has been named chief marketing officer.

RFBP also will have offices in Boston and Raleigh. Its charter clients are Bank of America, Lexis-Nexis, Carter Wallace, Hunter Douglas, McGraw-Hill, Computer Horizons and the Netherlands.

Bloomgarden, Peter Finn and Binder join David and Merriam as members of the holding company's office of the chairman.

STEVENS WANTS ANSWERS ON GRISWOLD

Art Stevens, CEO of Publicis Dialog/New York and last year's official candidate for chair-elect of PRSA, said, "There has obviously been some great wrong done to the late Denny Griswold and her many friends. We demand answers."

Stevens backs the letter Women Executives in PR sent to the Wilton Meadows nursing home, where Griswold lived five years, and to the Connecticut Ombudsman program, which explored alleged violations of Griswold's rights at Wilton Meadows. The letter asked for an explanation of the circumstances of Griswold's final years.

Martha Meng, lawyer for the home, said only mail, phone calls and visitors approved by Susan Garrett, niece of Griswold, got through to Griswold in her first nine months at the home because the

(continued on page 7)

KEARNEY LISTS SEVEN BIG MERGER SINS

Fritz Kroeger, VP of A.T. Kearney, management consultants, told the Arthur Page Society April 4 that 58% of all mergers and acquisitions fail to reach stated goals such as higher profits and stock prices.

"In fact," he said, "in a shockingly high number of cases, mergers and acquisitions actually decrease those figures substantially."

The failure rates "make the U.S. divorce rate look like the honeymoon suite at the Waldorf-Astoria," he added.

The only consistent winners in the 80% of the deals that never created the value that managers and shareholders expected "were the shareholders of the acquired company who sold for more than the company was worth at the time," said Kroeger.

Kroeger said there have been 34,000 mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. between 1997 and 2000 and that 9,602 took place last year. The value of last year's deals was $1.4 trillion, about equal to the $1.45 trillion value of mergers in 1999.

In its most recent study, Kearney looked at 230 acquiring companies, checking the market values and performance before and after the deals.

The firm then asked the leaders the reasons for the success or failure of the deals.

Less than one-third of the 230 deals (worldwide) resulted in higher profits. There was no change in 14% and 57% had a decrease in profits. Three years after any merger, most companies had shown a 10% drop in profits. About 60% of all merging companies had a drop in stock prices at a time when the market was up, Kroeger noted.

Record Bad for Top 50 Mergers

Kearney and the Chicago Tribune studied the 50 biggest mergers in the U.S. between 1990 and 1999 and found 69% lagged their industry average in total shareholder return two years later. Only 31% did better than their industry peers.

Kroeger said "seven deadly sins" afflict companies in mergers including focusing on cost-cutting (closing plants and reducing staff) instead of growth; failure to work hard enough on staff coordination before the merger; waiting too long after the merger to set up a leadership team, and failure to deal with risk in an organized way. The other three "sins" have to do with difficulty in merging corporate cultures and setting a common "corporate vision." Overcoming differences in corporate culture was the greatest challenge for more than 70% of the mergers.

NBC CHIEF HIT FOR LOBBYING FOR GE

Robert Wright, president of NBC and vice chairman of parent General Electric, has been criticized for lobbying against a bill that endorses the dredging of the Hudson River in upstate New York.

Wright met in early April with members of the City Council of New York. He and others had two private meetings March 28, one with Councilman Gifford Miller, co-sponsor of the bill, and another with John Banks, chief of staff for Council speaker Peter Vallone.

GE is spending tens of millions on an ad/PR campaign fighting the five-year cleanup proposed by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency.

"This is a crystal clear conflict of interest and an outrageous breach of propriety on behalf of GE and NBC, said Democratic Congressman Maurice Hinchey, a supporter of the dredging project.

Joan Gerhardt, GE spokeswoman, said Wright's views on the matter have not influenced NBC's coverage of the story. Since 1997, "NBC Nightly News," "The Today Show," and CNBC have presented at least eight segments on the dredging, said Gerhardt.

The City Council is to vote on the bill April 17 after a period of public comment ends.

FIRESTONE WOOS CONSUMERS

Bridgestone/Firestone began an ad campaign aimed at restoring consumer confidence in its tires.

TV commercials and print ads feature CEO John Lampe, the first non-Japanese to head the unit of the Tokyo-based company, and race car drivers Mario and Michael Andretti.

The theme is "Making it Right," a reference to the recall last August of 6.5 million tires linked to crashes that killed at least 174 people and injured more than 700 in the U.S.
Firestone, which said the accidents may have been caused by underinflated tires, will also give out tire gauges to customers. Ketchum is B/F's PR firm.

O'DWYER WEBSITE HAS 1.6M HITS

The O'Dwyer website (www.odwyerpr.com) had 1,693,127 "hits" in March, up from the previous high of 1,312,724 in January.

"Hits" measures images or stories on a page. The site averages about eight images per page.

Page views (users clicking from one part of the site to another) rose to 210,460 from the previous high of 167,595 in February. There were 67,663 visitor sessions, up from 51,849, and 19,198 unique visitors came to the site, up from 15,838 in February.

The site, besides carrying breaking news throughout the day, has the Dow-Jones and Nasdaq stock averages and the prices of nine ad/PR stocks such as Omnicom, Interpublic and WPP. About 430 PR firms have their logos, agency statements and accounts listed on the site.

TOUGH TIMES IN PR: Morgen-Walke Assocs., New York, slices 35 staffers to cope with downturn on "Wall Street and Main Street," according to Terry Rooney, a managing director at the financial communications firm. The firm's top 15 execs agree to a 10 percent pay cut...Ogilvy PR Worldwide eliminates another 24 staffers, this time just in its New York office. The firm lopped off 70 high-tech staffers in February...Burson-Marsteller cuts 20 due to losing the Sun Microsystems account. It reassigns the other 40 people who worked on Sun.

SMALLER DROPS CAN LEAD TO PLACEMENTS

Berry Assocs. PR believes smaller drops, such as guest columns and letters to the editor, are effective publicity tools that can generate a tidal wave of placements.

The Cedar Knolls, N.J.-based PR firm, which was opened in 1972 by Robert Berry, said it's called "filling the pipeline," and it's one important aspect of a good PR strategy because guest columns allow a company to spout off about a subject you know very well, with very little editorial direction from anyone.

"Your company may not be launching its great new music product for three more months, but your CEO can be out there writing about the impact of the Napster ruling," said Berry in the current issue of Berry Briefing.

Guest columns need to "really have an opinion," backed up with facts, figures and solid logic.

While guest columns need to be arranged with the editors and are rarely published completely unsolicited, letters to the editor is the "forum for unsolicited opinions," said Berry. "These few column inches are diamonds in the rough," said the agency.

"Pick up any publication in which you would like to be featured. Find an article on a topic that you know rather well. Then, if possible, pick up something in the article that you disagree with and put your two cents in," said the Berry Briefing.

"Better yet, explain why you feel the author missed an opportunity to discuss another very important aspect of the topic, then proceed to explain it yourself. The more opinionated you are, the better. Just keep in mind, you usually won't get more than a hundred words, so get to the point quickly."

VETERAN ANCHOR RAPS TV NEWS COVERAGE

Larry Kane, veteran news anchor for KYW-TV's "Eyewitness News" team in Philadelphia, said local stations have crossed the line from "truth to tabloid" in the hopes of boosting ratings.

Writing in The Philadelphia Inquirer on April 1, Kane said the term "breaking news has become a joke in Philadelphia TV. News has to be breaking at that moment to really be breaking, but stations call almost any news `breaking' to hook the audience-some of whom are getting wise to the scam," said Kane, who believes the problem is not so much the hype, but the misinformation and irresponsibility.

"It is one thing to overpromote and even frighten viewers with alarming headlines. It is another to ignore the basic responsibilities and ethical values of journalism," said Kane.
"In the quest to be first, news executives are often first and wrong, or first and grievously unreliable. No one station has the franchise on bogus reporting, although some stations are so deep in the mire that they need hip-boots.

"All seven of the TV news operations in our community make mistakes; I've made my share. But there is a stark difference between making an honest mistake and going to broadcast with information that is unchecked and unready," Kane said.

TV, RADIO JOURNALISTS MOVE AROUND

The average TV newsperson moves to a different station every three years and radio's counterpart stays in one only 2 1/2 years, according to a Univ. of Missouri-Columbia researcher.

Vernon Stone, MU professor emeritus of journalism, conducted a mail survey of 2,195 news professionals at U.S. commercial TV and radio stations and found the moving rates are linked to age.

TV news staff in their twenties had been at the same station a mean of two years, compared to five years for those in their 30s and 10 years for those 40 or older.

Radio journalists in their 20s had typically worked at their stations two years, compared to three years for ages 30 to 39 and six years for 40 and older.

In both radio and TV news, only about one in five was 40 or older.

Journalists who had never changed stations numbered 22% in TV and 25% in radio newsrooms. A few had been at the same station for 30 to 40 years.

Stone said broadcast journalists often move for career advancement and expect to do so.

DJ RELAUNCHES BANKRUPTCY NEWSWIRE

Federal Filings Business News has been relaunched as the Dow Jones Corporate Filings Alert.

The newswire, which covers everything from initial public offerings to Chapter 7 liquidations, will open its first news bureau in Wilmington, Del., to enhance its corporate bankruptcy coverage. The identity of the bureau chief is expected shortly.

DJCFA will continue its principal mission of bringing subscribers the "story behind the story" by analyzing Securities and Exchange Commission documents and bankruptcy court filings, said Jean Meacham, who is managing editor of DJCFA. She said DJCFA's reports provide information and analysis beyond news available in press releases.

The newswire also provides news on insider stock transactions, detailed quarterly and annual reports and proxy statements that disclose plans for share authorization increases as well as executive compensation packages.

William VanWinkle of LapTop Magazine and David Bernstein of Contract Professional were winners of the fifth annual Awards for Excellence in Technology Journalism, sponsored by PR Society of America's technology section.

(Media news continued on next page)

ROSIE BARS PRESS FROM LAUNCH PARTY

Reporters and photographers were not allowed inside at a launch party for Rosie magazine that was held the evening of April 2 in New York.

Newspeople who were sent to cover the party had to wait behind a velvet rope outside the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers, according to The New York Times.

A reporter for the Times quoted O'Donnell as saying the reason was "because otherwise when you're in there and the celebrities are in there, and the whole night people are coming in with tape recorders and going, 'Can I just get one thing?' And you never get to have a fun party 'cause it's all about quotes, so we said we'd do all the press outside and no press inside."

The reporter was able to find out from Fran Drescher, who is on the cover of the premier May issue, that O'Donnell uses a tape recorder when interviewing celebrities for Rosie.

BRILL MEDIA BUYS POWERFUL MEDIA

Brill Media Holdings LP, the publisher of Brill's Content, is acquiring Powerful Media, the publisher of Inside.com and Inside magazine.

One result of the deal will be combining Inside magazine with Brill's Content, which will be renamed Inside Content.

Inside.com, which was started last spring as a free and subscription site that offered information on the media and entertainment business, will continue.

The new magazine will focus on the business of media instead of emphasizing a watchdog role. The magazine will also cover movies, TV and music.

Fourteen people at Brill's Content and about half of the 100-person staff at Powerful Media were let go following the acquisition and closing of Inside magazine by Brill Media.

The dismissals at Brill's include four staff writers, two contract writers and all of the top editors except for David Kuhn, Brill's editor-in-chief, and editor Eric Effron.

Richard Sirlos, who was editing Inside, was offered a new job at the new Inside Content magazine, but Kim Masters, a senior correspondent, and film editor Chris Petrikin in the Los Angeles bureau of Inside were dismissed.

Michael Hirschorn, who was editor of Inside. com, and Kurt Andersen, one of the founders, have signed two-year employment agreements as vice chairmen of Brill Media.

FOX TOPS CNN DURING PRIMETIME

For the first time, Atlanta-based CNN was not the No. 1 news network in the primetime period for a full quarter.

Fox News Network, in New York, scored a 0.9 rating compared with CNN's 0.7 for the Jan.-March quarter, according to Nielsen Media Research figures analyzed by the networks.

Ratings measure the percentage of households with access to a network that actually tune into it.

CNN, which is trying to infuse more personality into its evening programming, attributes Fox's rise to "The O'Reilly Factor," with Bill O'Reilly.

CNN's "Earth Matters," once billed as "the world's only global environmental newsmagazine," has been yanked.

PEOPLE _________________________

Gersh Kuntzman, a reporter and columnist for The New York Post, and Newsweek.com, is author of a new book, entitled Hair! Mankind's Historic Quest to End Baldness<D> (Random House).

Bryan Brumley, a technology writer based in London for The Associated Press, was named bureau chief in Portland, Ore., succeeding Elaine Hooker, who was named bureau chief in Hartford, Conn.

Other AP promotions include Jennifer Yates to news editor in New Jersey, based in the Trenton bureau, and Beth Grace to chief of bureau for upstate New York, based in the AP's Albany bureau.

Anthony Wilson-Smith was named editor of MacLean's magazine, based in Toronto.

Richard Herzfeld, co-owner of TechComm Associates, a Milwaukee-based PR firm, was named U.S. contributing editor of International Sheet Metal Review, based in England.

PLACEMENT TIPS _________________________

The Los Angeles Times has started a new celebrity column, written by Ann O'Neill and supported by reporters Gina Ricalo and Louis Roug.

The column runs on Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday in the "Southern California Living" section, which covers fashion, design, and culture in California and beyond.

Called "City of Angles," O'Neill will cover the Los Angeles social scene and celebrity culture.

"In our column, we'll talk to the celebrities, rather than about them," said O'Neill. "We won't just be on the red carpet asking starlets to name their favorite lip liner. We'll also be digging through court files, and other public records," said O'Neill, who had written the celebrity lawsuit column for the newspaper.

The New York Daily News has extended its coverage of Long Island beyond Sunday and Thursday.

The News currently allocates about four pages on Sundays to coverage of Nassau and Suffolk counties and an additional two pages on Thursdays.

Brian Harmon, who was named Long Island bureau chief, will oversee coverage of news, features, politics and government, crime, the courts, schools and education, plus he'll produce columns about Long Island and Long Islanders.

STEVENS WANTS ANSWERS (cont'd)

nursing staff "misunderstood the effect of the power of attorney that Susan held" (for Griswold).

Meng, a specialist in nursing home law at Murtha Culina, Hartford, 100+ lawyer firm, said that after May of 1996, when an ombudsman visited Griswold, she "did receive mail, phone calls and visitors as she chose." If staffers did not deliver phone messages to her they were not doing the right thing, she added.

"There most certainly was no effort by the nursing home to keep Ms. Sullivan (Griswold's married name) isolated," said Meng.

This NL, which called the home in April 1998, was told: "The family has asked that no messages go through to her without their approval." James Tolley, former VP-PA for Chrysler and a member of Griswold's advisory board, said he was told the same thing when he called the home "at least a year" after Griswold's admittance on Aug. 7, 1995.

Tolley said Griswold once showed him "boxes upon boxes" of PR memorabilia in her townhouse that she wanted donated to a museum of PR.

Sheila Kelley, a member of WEPR, said that the closest friend of Griswold, the late Phyllis Berlowe, became "distraught" when she was unable to reach Griswold by any means in the late 1990s.

Federal law requires the nursing home itself to "protect and promote the rights of each resident" including the right to mail, visitors and phone calls.

Wilton Meadows is owned by TransCon Builders of Cleveland, which also owns the 217-bed Greenwich Woods Health Care Center in Greenwich and the 153-bed Hamden (Conn.) Health Care Center.

Peter Rzepka, chairman of TransCon, has not answered this NL's phone calls to him.

Corbett Recalls Griswold's Wishes

William Corbett, Floral Park, N.Y., a member of Griswold's advisory board and former president of the International PR Assn., said Griswold asked him to help her find a prestigious college for her case histories and other papers. Corbett said she had rejected offers from several lesser schools. He said his cards and letters to her in recent years were never answered and he lost track of her.

At least three negotiations were held with PRSA leaders about Griswold donating all or part of her New York townhouse to PRSA. PR pro Norma Lee was present when officials of the Metropolitan Museum of New York were assessing furniture and art for possible donation to the Met.

Griswold was a substantial donor to the Met, entitling her to dine at the exclusive Trustees' Dining Room, said Terry Mayer, a longtime friend. She said Griswold often told her of her desire to make contributions to the museum.

Townhouse Sold, Weston Property "Gifted"

Griswold's townhouse at 127 E. 80th st. was sold May 26, 1998 to Jean and Kimberly Putzer for $3.6 million. The deal was made by Garrett using the power of attorney given her by Griswold.

Using the same power, Garrett on March 17, 1999 gave to herself and her husband, Russell, 18.5 acres in Weston, Conn., and buildings on the property owned by Griswold. No money was involved in the transaction. Assessor's records indicate the property's value could exceed $3 or $4 million.

Margot Grosvenor, stepdaughter of Griswold, who had been married for 45 years to the late Langdon Sullivan, said she does not know what happened to the Colonial furniture and art items that were in the townhouse and Weston home.

Also unaccounted for are nearly 50 years of PR papers and items that Griswold had accumulated. The Garretts have been unreachable by this NL.

Caretaker Knew Susan Garrett

David Morris, who was vacant property manager of the Weston property for 11 years until the mid-1990s, said that he and Susan Garrett graduated from Great Neck, N.Y., high school in 1957.

He said she was one of the "most beautiful girls in the class" and had the nickname, "Mickey."

The yearbook notes she was in the "Radio Workshop," modern dance, a theatrical group, choral group, and a sports cheering group.

He said that around 1995 Susan Garrett sent him a copy of the power of attorney and said that henceforth she would be in control of the property. His services were dropped shortly thereafter.

Morris heard Griswold was at Wilton Meadows and went to visit her in early 1996 because he "got along famously" with Griswold and her husband. "I loved them, they were wonderful people," he said.

He explained to the desk he was the caretaker and just wanted to see her for a short time. He found her eating lunch in the dining room with a woman who had served as her nurse in Griswold's Weston home.

Visitor Makes Griswold "Ecstatic"

"Denny was ecstatic to see me...she was in no way senile. She said she didn't understand why no one was coming to see her," said Morris. She seemed to hear all right but wrote a note about her lack of visitors because other patients were nearby, he said.

"The aide took me aside," he continued, "and said, `She has no friends coming in here and Denny had a lot of friends...Susan will not let anyone see her or talk to her." Morris said that when he got home Russell Garrett called to criticize him for making the visit and told him to stay away from Griswold.

Morris said that when the Garretts initially came to Wilton they rented a home and drove an older model Japanese car with plates of some western state. They kept the plates for a couple of years, he said.

Russell Garrett worked as a disk jockey for the KOOL late night show of WKHL in Norwalk. An employee said he worked "on and off" and was not currently with the station. The employee said he believed Garrett had a record promotion business on the West Coast.

PR OPINION/ITEMS

The A.T. Kearney study describes the dark side of mergers-the sad fact that 58% of them fail to reach stated goals such as higher profits and stock prices.

The real winners, according to Kearney, are those who sell their companies at inflated prices. The buyers are often conglomerates playing to Wall Street's demands for overall growth and ever-higher earnings per share. What's not so obvious is growth in debt and the liability for managing large numbers of companies founded by individualist entrepreneurs.

Failure to integrate different corporate cultures and an almost knee-jerk move to trim staff and close plants are two of the major "sins" committed by the merged companies, says Kearney.

Almost no field has been more merger-prone than the ad/PR field. Omnicom owns hundreds of big and small firms and in one recent year owed half its growth to acquisitions. Interpublic acquired 56 companies in 1999 (which it won't identify) and added another 73 in 2000 (also unidentified). IPG is currently making a mega-merger in acquiring True North.

Very little is heard from companies once they enter the OMC or IPG orbits. Do they have the problems described in the Kearney report? Most of what we hear is how rosy everything is. Each year a new onslaught of acquired companies joins the conglomerate, which puts out releases trumpeting increased revenue and higher earnings.

Conglomerates often stress what their earnings would have been without the "one-time" costs of their acquisitions although making numerous acquisitions is their normal way of doing business.

The tragic last years of Denny Griswold's life, in which she was denied access to her many friends and admirers (based on statements by these friends), continues as an issue.

Martha Meng, lawyer for the Wilton Meadows nursing home and its owner, TransCon Builders of Cleveland, has made a remarkable admission, that Susan Garrett, niece of Griswold, provided a list of "approved" people who could visit, phone or write to Griswold for about the first nine months of her stay at WM. The nursing home employees "misunderstood" the power of attorney shown them by Garrett, said Meng.

This was some "misunderstanding" when an estate worth upwards of $10 million hung in the balance.

Meng says that mail, visitors and phone calls were allowed after complaints were investigated in mid-1996 by the state Long Term Care Ombudsman.

However, friends of Griswold complained to this NL that they couldn't reach her in 1997-98. When we called the nursing home, asking for Griswold, we were told, "The family has asked that no messages go through to her without their approval."

Griswold's intentions of leaving her papers to a college, some of her antiques to the Met, a scholarship in her name to PRSA and WEPR, and possibly her townhouse to PRSA were heard by numerous PR people. These intentions have been disregarded as far as we can determine.

Garrett has thus far erected a wall of silence about what is happening to the estate of Griswold. Real estate records and Probate Court actions, however, are public record.

The U.S. Postal Service told us it is concerned with nursing homes, college dorms and other living places where individuals do not have their own mail boxes. There is the chance for someone to interfere with the sacred right of a person in good mental health to get mail.

For $100,000 a year, Griswold, who was in sound mind, should have had her own mail box and so should all residents of these homes.

We wonder how many "grandmas" are having their mail from the Red Cross or other charity denied to them because they once expressed the desire to leave something to the charity.

A "Great Wrong Has Been Done"-Stevens

Art Stevens, who should have been elected chair-elect of PRSA (the national board improperly intervened in the election process), said that a "great wrong" has been done to Griswold and her friends.

The Long Term Care Ombudsman, created to protect the rights of the elderly in nursing homes, failed in its duty in this case. It should question under oath all staffers at Wilton Meadows who told visitors, "The family has asked that no messages go through to her (Griswold) without their approval."

Alice H. Hedt, director of the National Ombudsman Center, said the nursing home itself is responsible for seeing that residents get phone calls, mail and visitors. The "first responsibility of a home is to the resident," she told this NL.

If a patient's family ordered the home not to give the patient food, the home would not obey that. By the same token, the "food" needed by Griswold was contact with her many friends and business associates.

PR pros who believe Griswold's rights were violated should contact the Federal and Connecticut Ombudsman about this case. Hedt is at NCCNHR, 1424 16th st., N.W., Washington, DC 20036, and Teresa Cusano, Connecticut Ombudsman, is at 25 Sigourney st., Hartford, CT 06106.