"We Have Met The Enemy...And He Is Us." - Walt Kelly

With such close ties between PR reps and journalists, and such similar passions, you'd think the two would be as complementary as Justin Beiber and nail polish...haha, that's actually a fantastic comparison!

Anyone in the industry quickly learns that journalists have some ancient grudge with PR reps. Why is this? Obvious things like: not researching your editors beat before pushing hoards of irrelevant press releases, calling all the time with "spam," carrying yourself as a gatekeeper to management rather than working with the press too, or not being adequately informed enough to support your story.

PR reps ill will toward journalists stems from terror of bad press, a blasé attitude and false pretentiousness.

I think the time has come that we can look past it. After all, we are obligated to admit we can’t live without each other. There’s the issue that perhaps we don’t get enough credit from the other, which may be true…. but who needs that? I respect journalists to the end of the world, they put up with antics most people in their right mind couldn’t, just to find the objective truth. I can’t even begin to explain the grievances PR reps deal with—they’re the face to a company nonetheless. 

Writers- Feel flattered you’re being chased. I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that journalists’ main issue is that they’re hounded with news. So the bicker is that you have to sit back and filter through the influx of material you didn’t have to find yourself? So sorry….

And PR reps- Don’t bite the hand that feeds. Journalists have unfortunate hours, as do we, and everyone bitches. The mouth behind the bitching is the one producing your needs though. Without them, we wouldn’t have a job. Or perhaps Twitter has come to save the future….

Either way, new innovations are lubricating the trails to a smooth relationship. RSS feeds, smart phones, social media, online pressrooms are all making the obstacle slightly smoother. Let’s aim our antagonism toward a more constructive field…. inane bloggers.

The Jurisdiction of Reality Repulsion

“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”—Andy Warhol

“In the future, everyone will be anonymous for 15 minutes.”--Banksy

We have entered ourselves in a nuclear holocaust. In a perfect world, I would never know the names Situation, Snooki, Lauren Conrad, or Danielle Staub...but this is what the current famous-for-nothing modern era has brought us. Reality stars. Why are they lurking in every dark corner of life with nauseating tenacity? Situational Mike is making 5 million this year. If that doesn't evoke the bile in your throat, then I envy your stomach. Why are these seemingly good-for-nothing-nobodies so popular in our culture? Owe it up to PR.

Now, this is not the type of industry I ever plan to engage in. I do have standards after all. Although, I will say reality stars' publicists are very impressive. Injecting meaning and value into a sub-par product.

While reality TV is much more prevalent than it has ever been, the credit to these asininity advocates belongs to the publicists tackle on smart business. If you plug “reality stars becoming stars” into Google, you’ll unearth plenty of sites teaching you how to constructively treat you’re newfound, undeserved stardom! It’s interesting how easily you can fudge up fame. Be careful not to “burn out your controversy,” or “be yourself, because real people are boring.” Hmmrmph…

When Jersey Shore aired an episode depicting a male character slapping another female, basically nothing happened. What did happen was a "suspended" Twitter account for illegitimate behavior. Fascinating. Don’t be quick discount the possibility this is a brilliant publicity stunt. This makes people have to figure out why! Behavior on the show has no cause and effect relationship with a Twitter account, so this character must be super enticing. Scandal and juicy controversy are sexy to society. We have to know more, even if our mind is tingling with numbness.

This epidemic conjunction with PR and reality TV has started to bleed out of the aorta and out of control. Now, public relations itself has become a target of the perverted humiliation thanks to the reality hooker herself, Kim Kardashian. Her newest reality show called “Spin Crowd” depicts the realm of entertainment PR in an exaggerated, morose way. At least she nailed the desired verisimilitude from the get go by graciously calling it the "Spin Crowd"....thanks Kimmy! Genuine publicists loooove the term "spin."

Whether reality television and their stars agree with us or not, they’re there, and successfully so. Publicity is an amazing tool that empowers the otherwise mundane, into an omnipotent, megalomaniac entity.

Obama Drama

People are talking about Obama's decision to offer waivers to mega-corporations for the new healthcare legislation like gossip hour at a gay tea party. It's everywhere. And people can't make sense of it. PR to the rescue! Maybe.

The president has found himself in a PR pickle. It's fair to speculate this is one of the most hated presidents in office in some time. His decline of popularity during the first year in office was worse than any other president in recorded history, just under 50 percent. I guess this objective statistic would suggest we have a hideously incompetent monster leading us...if one actually rests faith on the judgment of our American people. As offensive, or insulting this may seem--I am not comforted by the flagrant display of ignorance I see every day....CBS News wrote a great article talking about the expectations and inevitable "failure" Obama was set up for since the beginning. I don't need to remind people what the 43rd administration left behind, insurmountable to tackle. So with the gumption to take on this preposterous task.... Obama’s options were....what??

His decision for mandatory healthcare was refuted by big corporations like McDonalds that proclaimed they would "re-evaluate their plans" regarding their employee health insurance if they did not get a waiver. Obama's choice was literally between raising healthcare costs, or no health insurance at all. So he offered exemptions that will allow 30 companies to pay below the minimum annual benefit in low-cost insurance plans.

There are two perspectives to this situation. McDonalds and the United Federation of Teachers represent a portion of the 1 million people, the very worthy and deserving people, which would lose their insurance. Small business owners are furious that they didn't get a healthcare waiver as opposed to mega-corporations. But it's not about them. It's about the little person, the worker, the one that's earning the business owner's profit for them. Secondly, the congressional election is approaching in early November, and with such steep popularity, there's a chance Obama will be politically overrun by Republicans. All effort is futile. Sigh....

His PR guy probably has more gray hair and frown lines than Obama. How do you deal with this? Infuriate 1 million people that lost their insurance they rightfully need, or continue to piss off all of the people that have always been blogging and tweeting "nobama" hate messages, while they sit on their golden toilet made of full-coverage PPO plans. There's no way around it, you're absolutely going to enrage legions of people. I congratulate his decision, sticking to the ideals and priorities he spoke about since running. I have the utmost respect for political PR reps.