Ted Cruz

Texas publicity hound Ted Cruz is milking Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney PR disaster for all that it’s worth.

The Republican Senator co-authored a May 17 letter with Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn to Brendan Whitworth in his capacity as US CEO of Anheuser-Busch and chairman of the Beer Institute.

They want the Beer Institute to probe whether A-B’s partnership with Mulvaney violated the organization’s guidelines prohibiting marketing to individuals under the legal drinking age.

Cruz then offered Whitworth, as head of A-B, a way to avoid a lengthy investigation by the Beer Institute.

A-B should “publicly apologize to the American people for marketing alcoholic beverages to minors and direct Dylan Mulvaney to remove any A-B content from his social media platforms.” Let bygones be bygones.

Cruz, who must fancy himself a marketing genius, also demanded documents from A-B to help clarify how it vets partnerships and how it “failed in assessing the propriety of a partnership with Dylan Mulvaney.”

Ted’s ready to pounce on the next PR disaster.

Media rapped for over-the-top mass coverage of mass shootings. The Norman Lear Center at USC Annenberg has faulted the coverage of mass shootings, which are six times more likely to make the news than any other kind of gun-related deaths.

In its “Trigger Warning: Gun Guidelines for the Media,” report released May 23, the Center blames the media for going overboard on their mass shooting coverage, while downplaying the daily damage of gun ownership when it comes to suicides, domestic violence and unintentional shootings by children.

The Center notes that coverage of mass shootings often repeatedly presents the shooter’s image, manifesto, life story and details of the event.

It quotes a paper by researchers James Meindl and Jonathan Ivy called “Mass Shootings: The Role of the Media in Promoting Generalized Imitation.”

“Social status is conferred when the mass shooter obtains a significant level of notoriety from news reports. Images displaying shooters aiming guns at the camera project an air of danger and toughness. Similarities between the shooter and others are brought to the surface through detailed accounts of the life of the shooter, with which others may identify. Fulfilled manifestos and repeated reports of body counts heap rewards on the violent act and display competence.”

The Center recommends that the media present the shooter’s actions (preparation, planning, shooting) as cowardly and shameful, since associating observed behavior with punishment has been shown to decrease the likelihood of imitation.

Reporters should avoid in-depth descriptions of the shooter’s rationale for engaging in the behavior.

Limit the use of live press events immediately following a mass shooting. This would minimize the perceived reward and help decrease overall interest, by not adding “excitement” to the event.

Frantic, breathless energy around the coverage of a mass shooting might look like a reward to a would-be imitator, according to the Triggered report.

The less the behavior is described, the less likely it is to be imitated.

Donald Trump’s anti-Midas Touch hits CNN. CNN, which rolled out the red carpet for the former president, is now reeling from the town hall disaster.

Since Trump’s off-the-wall May 10 appearance, CNN’s chalked up its lowest week of ratings since June 2015.

And adding insult to injury, CNN’s star Anderson Cooper has on some nights trailed the hard-right Newsmax in the ratings game.

CNN chairman/CEO Chris Licht should think twice before inviting Ron DeSantis to a town hall.

He can take a bit of solace as CNN’s archival Fox News has suffered a fall in viewership following the exit of Tucker Carlson.