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| Sarah Huckabee Sanders |
Sarah Huckabee Sanders aced the audition and "officially' will become a Fox News contributor on Sept. 6.
As White House press secretary, Sanders was a Fox contributor in all but name. And once she killed the daily press briefing, Sanders planted herself on Fox taking questions from anchors and singing praises of Donald Trump.
The only new wrinkle: she will be paid next month by Fox and not by the White House.
Sanders will make her debut appearance on "Fox and Friends," which is "must-see" TV for the president.
Her recruitment may put Fox back into the good graces of the president. Trump flew into a tizzy and even questioned Fox's loyalty after it deviated from its normal "fake news" beat to report that Democratic presidential wannabes Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris are whipping him in polls.
"There's something going on at Fox," said the president on Aug. 18. He complained that his worst polls have always been on Fox and that the network "is a lot different than it used to be."
Brett Baier, Fox host, defended the reporting, saying the coverage is "fair, balanced and unafraid." We will see how Brett's bluster turns out.
My hunch is that Sanders will help Fox get back into the president's good graces.
After all, there's a presidential election coming up and Fox has big ratings to pursue. There's also a new kid in town: Sinclair Broadcast Group poses a new challenge to Fox from the right.
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| Rafael Reif |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology apologizes for providing PR cover for Jeffrey Epstein by accepting about $800K from foundations of the disgraced and now dead financier.
University president Rafael Reif posted the following Aug. 22 on MIT's website:
"To Jeffrey Epstein's victims, on behalf of the MIT administration, I offer a profound and humble apology. With hindsight, we recognize with shame and distress that we allowed MIT to contribute to the elevation of his reputation, which in turn served to distract from his horrifying acts. No apology can undo that."
That's a good start for MIT. It promises to donate $800K to a charity that benefits victims of Epstein and other victims of sexual abuse.
MIT hardly stands alone in providing reputational cover to the detestable Epstein. What institution will be next to admit to burnishing the image of the sexual abuser.
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| Jamie Dimon |
The PR community praised Business Roundtable's decision to say increasing stockholder value should not be the only objective of companies.
There is some pushback from those who wonder how do you put a value on or prioritize the sometime conflicting interests of various stakeholders?
Shareholders may cheer a CEO's decision to close a money-losing plant, but what about the interests of workers, suppliers and the local community? Class action lawyers are going to have a field day.
One thing is for sure: corporate PR people will be busy revising corporate mission statements to adapt to BR's revised statement of purpose.
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WPP CEO Cindy Rose works to manage shareholder expectations ahead of the Oct. 29 release of financials. Don't expect a miracle turnaround... Kudos to Skydance chief David Ellison for keeping CNN CEO Mark Thompson on the job. Now he has to expend Thompson's contract... Vast majority of Americans want federal government to regulate AI. They obviously don't trust the "super intelligence" president to oversee AI.
Don’t believe what your eyes see and ears hear is the mantra of Donald Trump who claims his propaganda advertising designed to boost his fragile ego are “clearly not campaign ads”... Democratic National Committee steps up outreach to Jewish Americans as antisemitism rises and traditional support for Israel tanks. 
The Trump administration's crackerjack team designed America.gov, which puts all services offered by US agencies under a single AI roof. What could possibly go wrong?... ESG pioneer Starbucks jumps off the sustainability train in favor of corporate cost-cutting... Perception of press freedom plummets to all-time low, according to Gallup survey.
China's president Xi Jinping won the PR battle over Donald Trump as the American groveled before his guest of honor on the tarmac of Joint Base Andrews. Trump’s kowtowing to Xi is a sign of both his personal weakness and of America’s decline on the global stage.
