The Crowd is Watching

Dave Boyer writes in the Friday Washington Times about Vice President Joe Biden's recollection of being near a 2006 school shooting incident in Pennsylvania.

The context is the current gun reform talks, and Biden was sharing how even he was Bi­den re­calls be­ing near site of ’06 school shoot­ings in Penn­syl­va­nia.

“I happened to be literally — probably, it turned out, to be a quarter of a mile [away] at an outing when I heard gunshots in the woods,” Mr. Biden recounted. “We didn’t know. ... We thought they were hunters.”

The speculation is Biden, then a U.S. Senator from his home state of Delaware, was playing golf in the neighborhood of Charles Roberts IV's shooting of 10 at the West Nickel Mines School in Amish country.

Connection here? The paragraph that follows in the Washington Times:

An online search didn’t produce any earlier instances of Mr. Biden telling the story about having been within earshot of the school massacre.

Fact checking Biden's colorful stories is a national media pastime. In the wake of Te'o, it is a background reminder that for news events, the Internet is reasonably detailed into the early 2000s.  Subject dependent on previous digitization of records or recollections, consulting "The Book of Knowledge" aids in these circumstances.

Moral to the story? Not unlike asking for proof of life, speakers in the future must take great care in their details and illustrations.

Honolulu Advertiser Calls It

In a cover story for subscribers, the hometown paper of the Te'o family screamed in 144 point type:

DAMAGING SILENCE

Speaking with sports agents and others, the Advertiser covered how the damage is growing by the hour for the future NFL star.  The lead quote is the takeaway:

"If what he is saying is true, that he was a victim of a hoax, he should've come out right away and spoken.  If he was my client, I would have had him come out two weeks ago and been in front of the story."

Thus spoke Kenny Zuckerman of Priority Sports.

Later in the story, we get the advice of Frank Vuono, who's clients include the New York Giants and the NFL.

"The advice we give our clients is to tell the truth because as much as it hurts now, it only gets worse if you don't.  People in this country are willing to forgive."

Unless, you make it Watergate Bad.

The director of Rice University's sports management program, Clark Haptonstall, caps it off.

"When there is a crisis situation, it is always good to try and respond as quickly as you can, usually in the first 24 hours. He won't get his story across until he gets in front of people."

All sage advice.  Almost always falling on deaf ears in the college sports community.  Rare is the circumstance -- TCU football's involvement in a campus drug bust -- where that is the plan of action.

A tip of the hat to the Advertiser on the quotes, and a reminder to all:  Press Reader is your indispensable news tool.  The global subscription allows access to hundreds of papers, in PDF format, like the Columbus Dispatch (when Tatoo-gate exploded), Philadelphia and Chicago markets (during Penn State) and now the Advertiser.  If you are serious in this business -- sports or university side -- the $30 fee is money well spent.

The Truth is Out There

Resurrect Scully and Mulder.  Phone up JJ Abrams.  Cause alt reality is starting to make as much or more sense than the Manti Te'o saga.

At this point, one MUST believe this stuff because it is so incredibly implausible.  Fiction requires more substance than this.

Let's put aside the bizarro twist that turned on the light for Te'o: the sudden reappearance of his dead girlfriend on Dec. 6 claiming that she faked her death to avoid drug dealers.

I'd like to get back to a little reality check for the 99% of student-athletes (and just the rest of us folks).

Just a few days ago, I reminded the student-athletes at West Alabama that their digital world lives forever, that unless they are incredibly hacker skilled, the traces of what they leave behind will always be there.  That I knew from first hand knowledge of the screening that Fortune 500 companies inflict -- privacy rights be damned -- to get solid social media intel on their potential employees.

I want you all to marinate in a very important fact of this Te'o case that has gone completely overlooked.

Once they learned about and believed that Te'o had been the victim of a scam, Notre Dame hired, as described in the media, "private investigators" to trace down the hoax.

If we are to believe what we read, they assembled the ring, learned of the communications of the group and identified the perps.

That wasn't law enforcement.  That wasn't TSA, FEMA, Homeland, Janet Napolitano, NSA, CIA or Eschelon.

That was Notre Dame.  Private spooks.  And you gotta believe, more than a few hacks into some accounts and other interesting cyber-forensics.

Anybody want to say Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel, wasn't a profit when he famously said: "Only the paranoid survive?"

Stay frosty out there.

The Truth Will Out

In the growing swirl around Manti Te'o, there are some keys to remember.

Online, there are no secrets.

There is bad, and then there is Watergate Bad.

And above all, the truth will out.

The circle draws closer to Te'o.  First the girlfriend was a fiction, then a scam, then one perpetrated by a close friend.

The athletic department knew on Dec. 26.  But teammate suspected earlier.  Te'o knew as early as Dec. 6.  The department and Te'o continued the ruse through the media past the BCS Championship game, in part, to complete the investigation and not alert the hoaxer.

Or, so they say.

That's not to be cruel, but when your bad news gets exposed by Deadspin first, you officially lost control.  We will never know if Notre Dame made a conscious decision to hope this would not surface, or were they planning a mea culpa event with the investigation appearing to be complete.  Anticipate more questions about who knew what when a la Penn State.

UPDATE LATER TODAY RE: ABOVE STRIKETHRU: Notre Dame's AD didn't help this situation today with his comments.  Alternately, Jack Swarbrick said the school was waiting for the Te'o family to come forward first and that he had encouraged the now former team member to speak up as the victim. (Second similar story).

This is about to become it's own hot mess.

On Wednesday, when Deadspin.com broke the story, Swarbrick said Notre Dame did not go public with its findings sooner because it expected the Te'o family to come forward first.

But Friday, Jan. 18, this word from Swarbrick was the family was set to go Monday, but as noted above, Deadspin beat them to it.  Hard to understand in his statement is did the Te'os plan to make a statement Jan. 14 and simply backed down, then got burned on Wednesday, Jan. 16, or that the family was set to go on Monday, Jan. 21, and got scooped.  If it is the upcoming Monday -- are they all insane?  You planned to bring out the details on Martin Luther King Jr. Day?

Swarbrick does make our point for us to the AP (underscore is my emphasis):

Sometimes the best laid plans don't quite work, and this was an example of that. Because the family lost the opportunity in some ways to control the story.

Apologies, but saying the ball was in the family's court -- especially if they had let the deadline of Monday come and go -- is similar to saying the institution has no fault because that's the story the agent gave us or we had discussed that internally.

Let's step away from the institutional aspect, and think about the people involved.  High profile student-athletes are at risk in ways we never imagined.

My first thoughts on the scam were dark.  I know the legends of CoSIDA from the 1950s and 1960s when organized crime and bookie syndicates were seeking information from athletic departments on injuries and other edges to influence gambling.  The threats that resulted from certain SIDs standing up to not providing data to the "tip sheets" or accepting advertising from them.

This isn't about having college moments like Johnny Football's visit to a casino (hmm, was that rocking the Winstar tweet an endorsement).  This is having a Te'o on the hook in a scam and then using it as leverage for blackmail.

Today, I don't have a bright solution, but I have one hint.  Those who are quick to try to limit the monitoring of student-athletes might take a second to weigh the protective role that plays against the privacy invasion or freedom of speech concerns.

Forbes jumped off the edge of the earth, resurrecting the idea that the NCAA might get into some "tipping point" moment and ban social.  Yeah.  That works out well.  Good job preparing students for the real world.

What the Forbes folks miss is the very beneficial and necessary trend in NCAA philosophy to mainstream student-athletes, to give them more of the general student body experience.  Sounds like a focus on the 1% of super visible Mantis and Johnny Footballs

Banning also destroys the chance for the other 99% of student-athletes to reach out and build relationships for their teams and sports -- and their career futures -- by networking with others online.

If Forbes wants a few tipping points, here are some more likely.

There are a few other "new normals" that are about to emerge.  The media HATES to be undercut by the digital or networked media.  Reprisals and recriminations all around for how this was missed and explanations of why.

It was George O'Leary who changed things in college athletics about needing to see transcripts to prove degrees.  Expect more desire to see "proof" on stories in the future.

As a parting update, ESPN and others have a confession now from the hoaxer, a friend of Te'os.  Ties up another important social media concept:  Your friends are what your online security is based.

Facebook Security

A great afternoon and evening talking with the coaches, administrators and student-athletes at the University of West Alabama about social media on Monday.  Taking two events and putting them together in this new presentation, I came to a new "meme" to share:

Your social media security isn't dependent on your settings, it's dependent on your friends.

Many remember a few years ago when cell phone pics of pro players and college stars became the rage all over the internet.  Tim Tebow at a bar and in particular, Steve Spurrier relieving himself in the woods at Augusta National in 2007.

There were only seven people who could have taken the picture of Spurrier and posted it online -- and four of them were the caddies who I seriously doubt would have done so (they'd be immediately fired, although Deadspin contended that is where the photo came from).  So that leaves the three golfers in Steve's foursome -- ostensibly one of his friends both took the photo and let it get into the wild.

Fast-forward to the Jacob Cox drunk driving parked car hit-and-run.  It was two of his friends that forwarded his Facebook post to the Astoria, Ore., police.

It reinforces the fact that no matter what protections you might take -- locking down a Twitter feed to private or Facebook to be viewed by friends only -- once it is posted for the world to see, those digital assets are easily copied and shared.

Active People Write in Active Voice

Here's a golden oldie from 2008 discovered while cleaning up some files.  It was placed inside our web writing style guide for ArkansasRazorbacks.com.  Enjoy.

TO BE, OR NOT TO BE

            It really isn’t a question.  In sports writing, the use of the helping verb “to be” weakens the action and implies passivity in the prose.  Sports are active, and the first enemy of creating that active voice that best expresses the tone of sports is passive verb choice.  During the editing of copy, any instance of is, are, was or were should serve as warning signs.  Changing from the perfect tenses – particularly the future perfect – achieves the goal: active voice and cleaner copy.

            As examples, simply the verbs:

Arkansas will compete this weekend becomes Arkansas competes this weekend

            Sometimes, a verb change is in order

Jones was presented the MVP trophy becomes Jones received the MVP trophy

            Another example:

            WRONG:  The Arkansas bowling team will be on the road this weekend . . .

            BETTER, BUT STILL WRONG:  The Arkansas bowling team will go on the road this weekend . . .

            CORRECT:  The Arkansas bowling team goes on the road this weekend . . .

EFFICIENT COPY VS. EXPRESSIVE

            There is a balance between common adverbs and florid writing.  Huh?  Perfect example.  Fancy writing, foo-foo writing, overly erudite writing – these are easier to understand than florid.  At the same time, florid – defined as very flowery in style or elaborately decorated – is correct.  Would ornate be a better word?  Perhaps.  Adverbs and adjectives can be a writers best friend and worst enemy.  Just like dropping in the helping verbs to add a grand tone, too many modifiers also lead to bloated text.

            A confident batter shouldn’t walk slowly to the plate.  They should saunter to the plate.  “Saunter” achieves two goals – it adds expression and it eliminates two words:  “walk slowly”.

            Extra modifiers lead to redundancies.  A performance cannot be “very unique” – by definition unique is one-of-a-kind.  A home run should not be an “enormous giant” hit.  A senior captain is not a “valuable treasure”.

SECOND REFERENCES

            By the third time the athlete or school name appears, the reader gets bored.  Modifier second references to preface a school or name can break up the monotony of the repeated use of the object noun.  Like any writing tool, consider it a spice; not the meat.  It becomes obvious and distracting if every time an athlete’s name appears it is preceded or followed by a modifying clause.  Some details should be written into the prose in a straightforward subject-verb-object manner.

PASSIVE VOICE

            Keep action in copy by avoiding at all costs the passive voice.  One technique to remember the difference:  show the reader (active) rather than telling (passive).   The classic English class definition for the passive voice:  the recipient of the action is not at the lead of the sentence.  In the active, the subject does what the verb expressed.

            Look for these flags:

            Helping verbs and perfect tense – “to be” + the key verb

                        Arkansas will be the host vs. Arkansas will host

            Certain other words – had, that, which

            Passive verbs – thought, wandered versus think, ran.

            Verbs that are abstract nouns -- -ment, -ing, -ion transformations

            “It is” + “that” – It is said that Arkansas . . . .

As an example that we have all written:

            ACTIVE:  Smith scored the winning basket with less than a second on the clock.

            PASSIVE:  The winning basket was scored by Smith with less than a second on the clock.

            ACTIVE:  Smith checked the Wolverine winger into the boards.

PASSIVE:  The Wolverine winger was checked into the boards by Smith.

On the first read, the passive might sound a little more dramatic, but the helping “to be” verb (was) takes just a little strength out of the action verbs (scored, checked).

SIMPLE TENSE

            Copy for sports publicity should be straight-forward.  The perfect and progressive tenses rarely have a place in the day-to-day operations and press releases of an organization.  In long-form features (and long-form prose like season preview, season review, yearbooks, press guides), these tenses can move the story along.  In the following example, both sentences are grammatically correct, but which one evokes a sense of activity.

            Arkansas has been preparing for the NCAA Championship for three years.

            Arkansas prepared for the NCAA Championship for three years.

There is the added benefit of taking up two fewer works to say the same thing.

THE ULTIMATE CURE

            Read what you have written out loud.  Not to yourself.  Putting prose to voice reveals the sticking points.  Wherever a hesitation creeps into the reading, something is wrong with the writing.  For example:

Arkansas Razorback Robert Childers, a triple jumper on the track and field team, has been honored by the Southeastern Conference, it was announced on Tuesday. Childers was named the SEC Field Athlete of the Week.

            Two clauses are wrapped inside the first sentence, and the honor itself is set aside in a second sentence.  One might argue that “triple jumper” and “on the track and field team” are redundant.  To streamline this passage and make it active:

The Southeastern Conference honored Arkansas triple jumper Robert Childers as the SEC Field Athlete of the Week this Tuesday.

THE TIME AND PLACE FOR THE PASSIVE

            In the previous example of overlapping clauses and rough construction, we get a lead that is fine for the granting institution.  When issued by the league or organization, that group is almost always at the front of the story.  The emphasis should be on the recipient from the point of view of the school involved.  This is where the passive voice comes into play for athletics – we want to lead with our athlete.

ACTIVE:

The Southeastern Conference honored Arkansas triple jumper Robert Childers as the SEC Field Athlete of the Week this Tuesday.

PASSIVE:

Arkansas triple jumper Robert Childers was named by the Southeastern Conference as the league’s Field Athlete of the Week this Tuesday.

Childers is not the active noun; she is the object of the SEC’s action.  By adjusting the verb by eliminating the helping verb and swapping the direction of the verb, we can create active voice.

Arkansas pole triple jumper Robert Childers received the Southeastern Conference Field Athlete of the Week award on Tuesday.

Marketing as Journalism?

Just when I thought I was heading to bed, PRSA hits me in the mouth with this one -- and it's one of those stop in your tracks and think pieces.

Branded Journalism. (and in 2010, and in 2009, and in presentations back to 2007)

Hey, does that sound familiar?  Only because I've been preaching that for the last six years in this space.

It's plastics, the future.  Once again, don't believe me -- read this.

In his overview, Sam Slaughter goes over familiar ground.  I like this one pullout:

The best-in-class, like Red Bull, have built entire media companies within their brand.

Or, like most larger college athletic departments (ArkansasRazorbacks.com/RazorVision back in the day, hello).

This is not the Adam Savage School, either.  Slaughter's quick:

In practice, this means brands need to make a commitment to honesty and transparency in the content they create, even if it reflects badly on the brand itself. Customers know BS when they see it, and a story or video that contains an unapologetic plug will quickly be dismissed. On the other hand, leveling with customers about a brand’s own shortcomings is a great way to engender trust.

As we've said, who do you want to tell your bad news?

To mutilate the phrase, either get busy with your story telling and transparency, or get busy dying.

Intersection of History and PR

Michael Pollan spoke to the American Historical Association recently, specifically to admonish the "professional historians" for ceding the public marketplace of ideas to persons like himself from other fields.  He urged more context and more broad use of storytelling technique.  He also hit right down my favorite "We're History" program theme:

"We live in this fog of presentness. Every politician would have us forget what they said yesterday."

Or coach.  Or athletic administrator.

Readers groan.  What's the point of the academic exercise?

First and foremost, with all the detail available -- from online sources, social media, big data waiting for someone's FOIA -- it is absurd to continue operating as if no one will notice when the story changes.

Second and most instructive, one of Pollan's solutions:

"At a time where the information available to us is so rich and so chaotic, those who can provide the satisfactions of passing it all through that narrow aperture of a story are more prized than ever."

To the curators, the sorters, the presenters of larger narratives -- to they go the long term hearts and minds of our publics.  In turn goes their trust.

Thus, go with care when following the Adam Savage School and remember, if you have been upfront with your own narratives, you will have the chance to be the trusted source over others outside your group, even though you represent the vested interest of the organization itself.

There's No Statute of Limitations on Stupid

While prepping for a talk at West Alabama next week, a gift from a former student, USATF PR director Jill Geer.

Let's run through the givens: Jacob was toasted, not thinking things through and way oversharing.  These are generous allows.

He committed a hit and run.  He admitted he was drinking.  He is 18, which is underage for consumption of alcohol.  And he posted, according to the ABC affiliate in Oregon:

Drivin drunk… classsic ;) but to whoever's vehicle i hit i am sorry. :P

In social media training, I call this a self inflicted wound.  Best case, you look like an ass.

In the story, Jacob claims he was just joking.  I await the outcry of the freedom of expression supporters, the privacy rights advocates, the opportunistic politicos who pass useless legislation like the New Jersey restriction on student monitoring.  (As a side note, it's already started. One of the first comment posts on the original news story called out his friends as snitches.)

The Astoria, Ore., police department is making extremely clear how they got the info.  One of Jacob's friends called in and another forwarded the post to the PD's own Facebook.  After all -- if you see something, say something -- says Homeland Security.  In their PIO post you even have "Media looking for a larger picture of the Facebook post screen capture can find it here."

What if . . .

Jacob was a student at Enormous State University.  ESU has a student conduct policy that would cover underage drinking, and perhaps has a program looking to reduce it's impact.  What would the Dean of Students do next.

And let's add, Jacob is a member of the ESU student government, in a leadership position among his peers.

Perhaps Jacob was a scholarship member of the ESU debate team, or the first chair of the ESU orchestra.

Finally, Jacob was a student-athlete.

What is ESU to do?  If ESU is in New Jersey, or one of the other states trying to limit "monitoring", they'd be in a pickle.

Jacob apparently did this as an open post on his Facebook page.  We don't know what his privacy settings were like before the event -- maybe he was set to only friends.  If so, we return to this time-tested advice: Once Posted, Always Available and Digital Assets are Extremely Portable.

No amount of laws, regulations, restrictions are going to protect Jacob when Jacob is the source.  Again, you are your own reporter, editor and publisher -- and that means no one else to blame for your misquote, misinterpretation or mistake.  For an old-school look back at some of these, go here.

In some ways, I feel for Jacob.  He's in for a time in the 21st century version of the stocks in the public square for the next 24-48 hours, and as one very apt anonymous commenter on the story said stuck for the rest of his life on background checks with employers explaining this.  Gee, reckon his call-backs for interviews might be limited based on concerns about trust issues after a hit and run?

He claims it was a joke (enter the freedom of expression crowd).  Unfortunately, you don't get to joke around much in social media when dealing with real events.  Jacob also told KATU-TV that he hit ice and slid into the car.

Ah, so you did hit the car?  And you did flee from the scene of an accident?  And you then posted it on Facebook.

Guess what?  The PD was NEVER going to arrest you for drunk driving, or even underage drinking.  Can't prove a thing.  (Now, if you have a bong in your dorm room on Facebook or pictures of doing shots from your MixMaster, well, different story . . .)

Because of the post, police matched up Jacob's car damage with the hit-and-run report that would have gone down as an unsolved insurance claim.

Won't do much good at that point to delete the post -- the evidence is in.

When Someone Else Says It, Sometimes It Sticks

Shea Bennett's admonition to the digital that You Are What You Tweet is a great resource to share with those who don't get it from you.

Bennett speaks to what the spies once called "signals intelligence" that people can mine from your social media.  The military might not get clear air discussions of operations, or an operative might not get a copy of the plans -- but you can sure learn a lot about how something is going to act, perform and react from listening to lots and lots of what seems to be random data.

I like how Bennett describes when people think they are "being real" and alternating that with a more refined projection of who they want you to think they are.  Conclusion:  "It makes you look fragmented, and random. Unpredictable. Even dangerous."

Wonder why you didn't get that call back now? 

One of the other lines that caught my eye:

It’s readable by everybody else on the network (bar those that you’ve blocked, although there are many ways around that)

I point at this to bring in a discussion currently rolling on the CoSIDA LinkdIn site about New Jersey's new restriction on universities requiring students to give up log-ins to participate in monitoring.  These new laws -- four states so far -- are pretty bad political theater.  Chris Christie is just upholding what Facebook and others EULAs already require -- you can't give your log-in credentials to a third party for access to your account.

These laws DO NOT absolve students of legal or administrative ramifications of their actions.  A public post of underage drinking in a campus facility or use of illegal drugs is still going to lead to sanctions.  Violating the company policy on social media is still going to get you fired, and the sooner you learn that in college (help me out here, we are suppose to be preparing young people for the real world, yes?) the better.

Why then the pull quote above?  Just to have someone else remind you that just because you set your social media to private or to just friends, digital assets are extremely portable and easily copied.  Today's friend can copy and paste you into trouble.  And just because you didn't give up your log-ins doesn't mean people -- the government, the university, stalkers, etc. -- aren't monitoring you.  Why yes, they can get your texts, and often do so.  This is likely to become even easier as Congress is being pressed to revise privacy acts to force carriers to record and store of as much as two years of data.

Pretty soon, it won't just be Twitter that is a permanent record.

Show, Don't Tell

This Lifehacker article about the science of storytelling says it all.

It reminded me of one of my history student's comments about being in class.  It seems like you're just telling us stories each day.  And THAT was the point.

I can tell you all day long about how Northwestern State is a family.  When we show you examples of that, like an 86-year-old graduate, you get it.

If you'd like to read me rattling on, some previous suggestions include The Keys to Engagement, It's All About Voice and how a meme becomes that Whisper to a Scream.

Oh, and Happy New Year.

Are You Anti-American?

Listening to Grammar Girl last week, Mignon Fogarty covered hyphen rules.  One of her points was the need for a hyphen for prefixes attaching to proper nouns, and her example was "anti-American."

Not "Anti-American."

Because you can be "anti-intellectual" according to the AP Stylebook, just not "all-American."

Shouldn't it be the same?  Yes, it should, and without going into the depths of this running error within the logic of the AP Stylebook (the provenance of the "All" relates to AP's claim to trademark on the naming of all-American teams in football and men's basketball; and was struck from the guides in the early 1980s leaving behind the misnomer that any all-America team should be All-America).

If you want to delve further, here's the link back to my justification to AP of why they should change the stylebook from 2011.

Unfortunately True

Right on the heels of yesterday's post on internet rumor and meme, I see this link from two friends on my Facebook feed.  OK, I'm skeptical.  Surely this is a PR blowout like the would be $35 Indian tablet for school kids.

No, Facebook really is trying to turn Instagram into the greatest repository of stock artwork.

That was at 3 p.m.

Now by 7 p.m. central time, they are backing down.

I say, for now.

A standing line I present to students or the public in talks about social media is this.

So, what is Facebook?

Get lots of different answers before I flash mine on the screen.

"The largest voluntary data mining and information collection system in the history of mankind."

Think about it.

What If Everything You Read Was Wrong?

Oh.  Isn't that a sweet picture.  And wasn't that something what Morgan Freeman said?  How terrible that they banned Bibles there.

Welcome to the social media, where everything can be, and likely in some part, is wrong.  More times than not recently, maliciously wrong.

They call them "memes", and we talked at length about what they mean and their impact -- good and evil -- on society.  I subscribe to the theory they are mental viruses.  The bad ones spread with an r-naught of frightening scale.

No, Ben Stein didn't write that about Christmas.

Hey smarty-pants, how did you get so smart?  First, when you see those juicy long stories -- particularly the ones that you need to "see more" -- that should be the first indicator.  Second, if it's too good (or to bad) to be true, it probably isn't, and a quick visit to snopes.com can clear that up.  The website specializes in vetting internet and urban rumors.

In a world where being "true enough" and trading in the fark of the day goes for news, we miss the vetting that came from timely journalism.  Problem there is in the rush to first, the truth is the first casualty.  Report then verify from the twitter world.  Adding more memes, eroding a little more of our confidence in what we read.

Why Craig Silverman made a book and a career out of tracking those infamous Regret the Error statements in print.  Now working at Poynter, he just issued his 2012 best and worsts of media.  You might give it a read to see what story you might still believe is true because you missed the retraction. What, Morgan Freeman is not dead (and others)?

(Total sidebar: my sports industry friends MUST read the Silverman piece and scroll to the bottom to find what might be the most true piece of sports journalism of the year -- many a truth is told in jest).

The New Normal is Just the Forgotten Past

Who financed the great aeronautical achievements of America?  Private investors literally provided the fuel for the great speed, altitude and endurance records prior to the Cold War.

Why do you think it was called The Spirit of St. Louis?

The reason some find the Red Bull Stratus work with Felix Baumgartner distasteful is generations grew accustomed to both human flight achievement and the promotion of it linked to the government.  The main reason we have not had a private space industry was the limitations, no, more like outright bans, on non-NASA or DOD space work.

Hardly the case in the 1920s and 1930s as individual daredevils sought funding for their literal flights of fancy from the aviation industry, or those who wanted to advertise with the new entertainment vehicle.  More than a few aircraft sported the old Texaco star -- and many of them live today within the Smithsonian.

Anyone remember the Vin Fiz?  Let's call it the Red Bull of the 1910s.  The first airplane to cross the United States carried the advertising under its wings for a new grape soft drink from meatpacker J. Ogden Armour.  There was a support team following on train tracks, flyers, maps of the achievement.

Where can you find the Vin Fiz today?  That would be in the Pioneers of Flight Gallery in the main atrium of the National Air and Space Museum.  Wait, excuse me, that would be the Baron Hilton Pioneers of Flight Gallery.  Near the Bud Light Spirit of Freedom capsule Steve Fossett soloed around the world.  Just around the corner from that civic-sponsored Ryan monoplane that Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic.

"No bucks, no Buck Rogers," was a perfect throwaway line in The Right Stuff, and exciting America about spending taxpayer dollars on human space flight was vital.  Scaled Composites fought to remain independent of government funded corporate aviation, and today Burt Rutan's unique visions continue to inspire -- the Rutan Voyager and the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipOne (and Two). 

Fair to say that Red Bull will get its chance to stand alongside Vin Fiz in the gallery, almost one century later.

If you want, a very nice piece from On The Media talks about this classic case of presentism -- forgetting our past -- and the shock and "dirty" nature of corporate sponsored science.

Literally Shooting the Messenger

Holidays are for catching up, and while this episode from On The Media is now two months old, it speaks to a timeless problem: confusing bad news with bad people.  The first package seems like a really poorly written Sasha Cohen routine.  What to do if the tide of public opinion turns against you because someone actually reported on the bad things you do?  Kill them.

That was the Taliban strategy -- along with intimidation that you'd be next -- after the shooting of Malala Yousafzai, the teen aged girl who dared stand up to their lack of education for young women and other issues.  Actually, that's a two-fer -- they first killed the tribune of the people then the messengers.  It's a tried and true method, just ask the Russians.  Now if you're really No Agenda-ish, you'd add lots of whistle blowers here who got "suicided".

The On The Media piece covers how apparently surprised the Taliban was at the blowback from a quite sensible honor killing.  Well worth the listen. 

Second up from OTM was a package on the fate of scientists who wrote reports on the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout.  It is a more nuanced, because at the end, you must consider that while BP did nasty things and asked for lots of info, it was -- and still is -- trying to defend itself against extinction level legal battles.

This Blog Reports, Twitter Confirms

So forget the Mayan apocalypse.  The end of the world for Twitter bloviating is Feb. 20, 2013.

Seems like years this space has preached less than 120 characters on tweets, to not mix your Facebook and Twitter together and that in general, less is more when crafting your messages.

Now Twitter requires it -- a new policy limiting the message to 117 or 118 characters when including a link -- is being reported to start in February.  More from Mashable and a link to the technical info from Twitter itself.

Start practicing now.

Here's a primer -- and with inks to other posts on Twitter etiquette.

Is No Answer the Best Answer?

Everyone agrees, open comments are the bane of the internet age.  The recent case of Rhonda Lee, former TV meteorologist here in my neighborhood, brings up two distinct issues.  Should you respond to comments on Facebook?  And, yes, you can get fired for violating company policy on social media.

Like any good internet case, this one has plenty of plot turns.  I'll take it from my P.O.V.

This morning, I see that KTBS has a lengthy Facebook post that begins:

Typically this station does not comment on personnel matters, but due to the publicity and interest about this issue, the station has included the following statement. 

OK, you officially have my interest.  Reading on (from the post):

On November 28, 2012, KTBS dismissed two employees for repeated viola

tion of the station’s written procedure. We can confirm that Rhonda Lee was one of the employees. Another employee was a white male reporter who was an eight year veteran of the station. The policy they violated provided a specific procedure for responding to viewer comments on the official KTBS Facebook page. Included is an email that was sent to all news department employees informing them of this procedure. This procedure is based on advice from national experts and commonly used by national broadcast and cable networks and local television stations across the country.
Unfortunately, television personalities have long been subject to harsh criticism and negative viewer comments about their appearance and performance. If harsh viewer comments are posted on the station’s official website, there is a specific procedure to follow.
Ms. Rhonda Lee was let go for repeatedly violating that procedure and after being warned multiple times of the consequences if her behavior continued. Rhonda Lee was not dismissed for her appearance or defending her appearance. She was fired for continuing to violate company procedure.

Attached was an email that had everyone's name blacked out except for Ms. Lee -- including the sender.  Highlighed in the email was the statement:

"When you see complaints from viewers, it is best not to respond at all."

This was the basis of Lee's firing, according to the station.  I can't say that works, and it sounds like advice from the Age of Cronkite when the mode of communication in the pre-social media days was broadcast -- one to many -- not interactive -- one to one.

Let's accept the premise, however, that the "advice form national experts" is to not reply to comments.  One of the viewers hits the nail on the head in comments on the post: "You should have never allowed that negative comment to stay on YOUR page!"

No one believes there is a right to leave derogatory comments online.  A well curated page will delete them, and have a clearly stated policy to that effect so no one can then say you squelched free speech.  You're free to say what you want on your page, not necessarily on mine.

Here's the bottom line:  if a brand decides that not commenting is policy, what happens when the brand decides to comment?

On the one hand, KTBS honors the free exchange of the social media by bringing out its point of view and it has a right to say its piece.  But is the station now fired for violating it's own policy -- after all, it has now commented.  That was my first thought -- and not lost on the commenting public (and to the tune of 293 likes on that one).

If the goal was to put this to rest, that was a huge miscalculation. I follow the KTBS page and Twitter for news -- I had no clue this was going on until KTBS brought it to my attention.  Nor did national outlets, for that matter, like Poynter.  After 10 hours, the post is at 83 shares, 93 likes, but the real numbers are inside the comments, where 808 people have responded, and isolated comments have picked up north of 350 likes -- and mostly comments negative toward the station.

At this point, KTBS has to weather the storm and let the public have it's say.  To it's credit, it is.  Meanwhile, is a question worth asking -- what is the station's curation policy for its page?  Why did an inflammatory comment linger?

And whoever drafted that email on the policy -- I can see some level of privacy for not revealing the rest of the news staff names (although, kinda silly since all their names were likely on the station's website and it just looks like you're hiding something) -- why did they feel the need to not stand behind it by blacking out their name?  But left their title?  So that took five seconds of Google to figure out who wrote it.  How would any TV station respond to a government agency that did that?

Nobody Said Social Wasn't Cruel

Welcome to the gallery of rogues Lindsay Stone.  She is on leave for being a prankster, and we all get to pillory her thanks to Facebook.

Life, Lindsay, isn't fair, and we just looooove to cluck at screw ups.  She gets her own Facebook page where people throw stones (to the tune of 19K "likes" at this posting) and call for her firing.

I recall the last mass bludgeoning -- the Texas Ranger couple blasted by Yankees commentator Michael Kay for "taking" a kid's foul ball.  After helping blow the whole thing up, ABC News at least tries to close the book with the "whole story."

I'm certain I'll get smacked down for saying so, but doesn't this all smack a little bit of cyber-bullying?  Certainly elevating the discourse by screaming at each other.  Fire her.  Freedom of speech.  (We've been watching this since 2011, and of course, last month was one of the multiple anti-bullying months.)

Some advice?  First, think twice (or a whole day) before you post your jokes and spoofs.

Second, when the media firestorm hits, there is precious little you can do.  Going on TV won't really help.

Finally, as the living proof that this digital stuff lives forever, Stone made her post in mid-Oct.  Reaction started around Oct. 20.  Today, she gets to be the pre-Thanksgiving smorgasbord of the media as HuffPo and others make big deals of it.

And why?

Because we're about to hit that ever so slow period of a holiday that no one likes to work.  Lob some pre-chewwed red meat to the masses and we can all go home for early deadlines.

The Social Web We Weave

Can we all declare calling in bomb threats to a college campus a trend that's passed?  If you still feel the urge to disrupt thousands of lives and cost lots of money for a prank, at least make sure you're not doing it with Facebook friends.

The latest round in Texas involved a threat at Texas State in San Marcos and Texas A&M in College Station.  In Lone Star State terms, two schools not THAT far apart.

And who knew they shared a connection through their fake bomb threats.  Yes, when Dereon Tayronne Kelly was arrested for the TAMU call, police noticed he had a Facebook photo with a young woman, Brittany Henderson, the week before was arrested for the TSU call.

Actually, not just a picture with her.  It was Dereon's profile picture.

It Can (And Will) Be Worse

Ah fall.  The leaves.  The colors.  The insane schedules of events.  Sorry to be away, but projects have a way of soaking up energy and time.

Nevertheless, the great faux pas of Facebook roll on.  While we have survived our own trying start to the semester courtesy of a new student records system (lots of one-on-one relationship work there), it can, and will, be worse.

Consider the dilemma of Green Mountain College in Vermont.  A private school that has a strong sustainable footprint mission.  Including making full use of the livestock.  As in putting down old Ox when the time comes, and turning it into, well, what you do on the farm.

But in this case, the ox comes with a name, Lou, and even after the student referendum of how best to take Lou's fate -- the vote was for fulfilling the mission of sustainable farm management -- imagine the feedback.  Kudos to Kevin Coburn, the director of communications for GMC, for fostering a transparent process, including lengthy posts on their Facebook and not (one assumes within the reasons of good taste, language and decency) squelching the commentary.

Here's a small liberal arts institution with just under 3,000 likes but a current traffic of almost 1,000 discussing the end of Lou's career.  Takes some commitment to that transparency and a willingness to engage the students to stand up to that social media microscope (might seem like a proctoscope) at times.

WEDNESDAY PM ADDITION:  The Chronicle of Higher Ed weighs in with a nice background look.

Just to show it's at both ends of the spectrum, our colleagues to the south at LSU -- close to three-quarters of a million like -- are working through a controversy of photoshopping photos of student groups that had body painted crosses at a recent football game.  Same type of passionate opinions, and after their less than rapid early response to the September bomb threat on social media, we'd be curious to see the reaction.  Kudos there as well as once the issue became apparent, the LSU team cross posted the student opinion and sought to be more open regarding the changing of the photos.  That honesty is limiting what could be a pretty nasty exchange.

WEDNESDAY AM ADDITION: A tip of the cap to Chris Syme for adding this link from ABC News which gives you a look at the photo and other overview of the decision.

So whether you're big or small, there are social media constants:  Be open.  Be transparent.  Tell the truth.

World Bullying Day Starts Out West

I see that today, Oct. 1, we're suppose to wear blue in support of anti-bullying.  Sure hope that's not UCLA Bruin blue based on today's dispatches from the West Coast.

Seems one of the assistant SIDs let media wander to the wrong spot in practice, and new UCLA head coach Jim Mora Jr. let him know about it in front of the whole team.

I pick it up from one of the Bruin blogs via a colleague on Facebook.  Frankly, the Los Angeles Times source for the story is far more cutting than the blog.

Not gonna act like I haven't received or seen such ass chewings -- just not usually in full view of the public, the team and the people you're suppose to work with.

T.J. Simers, the LA Times columnist, picks it up:

It's what we've come to expect from our really good college coaches as they set out to make men out of the kids in their programs.

And you know the Bruins had to just love it, with UCLA fans no doubt also admiring Mora's drive to be the very best at whatever the cost of human dignity.

That's when a program knows it has the right guy, or as Mora put it: "I'm not going to jeopardize what we're doing as a football team because of the incompetence of some people."

I think it's pretty well understood football is the most important thing going on at UCLA, and every man, woman and child needs to understand that.

UCLA is 4-1.  It's all good.  Nothing to see here.  More along.  Just inside the house banter.

Sports might not build character, but it sure can reveal it.

Before I get emails and calls from colleagues in the field, look, you all know that you do that behind closed doors.  Even that is tantamount to creating a hostile workplace and sooner or later, it is a college campus.

Another colleague said it: coaches at that level are kings.

The collective we allows this.  Don't forget, they're winning.  Before you cluck about your school or your rival, ask yourself an honest question: would you let the coach go bat guano crazy on helpless staff if you thought it would lead to a 4-1 mark?  Hell, they'd volunteer for it (and at many institutions, functionally speaking, they do).

Oh, and by the way, that Stomp Out Bullying Day artwork?  Yeah, it's blue and gold.

Where Did My Likes Go?

Speculation that Facebook's total membership was inflated by as much as 25% and that the number of actual live users (discounting those who legitimately made accounts but do not participate on a regular basis) could be as low as 15% of the total number got a boost last week as the social media giant began purging known bad accounts.

So if your Facebook page's growth stalled last week, it's likely you didn't really drop meaningful members.

Read more.

The Best Politics is No Politics

Growing up in Louisiana, there were notable political legends, and epic reactions to same.  The way that Huey Long politicized the state's employees led to some fairly draconian restrictions on political activity by classified workers.  If you worked for the state or city, no yard signs.  No bumper stickers.  No political rallies.  In some ways, quite a limit on your freedom of speech.

Today, that still applies to classified workers -- unclassified are no held by that law.

Maybe they should.

Civil servants have to work with whoever gets elected.  On the sports side of college, Lou Holtz can tell you that handing out endorsements has a way of biting you.

The state of Louisiana issued its semi-annual list of thou shalt nots for classified employees during elections, and I was pleased to see the addition of the social media realm to the list.

Employees in the classified service are prohibited from engaging in political activity. Political
Activity means an effort to support or oppose the election of a candidate for political office or to
support or oppose a particular party in an election. Therefore, you cannot display political signs
in your yard, bumper stickers on your vehicle, or wear a button or pin that could be perceived as
supporting a person or party. Also, you cannot “like” a candidate or party on Facebook or follow
on Twitter or any other social media.

At the same time, I have to ask this question of the regulators.  Yes, "like" can equal endorsement, but what if a voter is simply trying to stay up with the news?  Is following both sides to make a decision?  What I believe they intended was to prevent partisan posting in the wall -- which is really your "endorsing" or "engaging" in political activity.

The regulation is intended to prevent political activity.  What this does not directly address within social media is just that.  By reading what was said, an employee can't "like" the party on Facebook, but they could share and post all the obnoxious campaign fodder they want.  Later in the circular, the commission says the very limited things a classified employee can do:

You may vote, you may be a commissioner or poll watcher, you make express your opinions
privately, and you may sign a recall petition.

Expressing opinion on Twitter much different from prohibiting someone from simply following and consuming the information.

The Make It Viral Spiral

Walking away from a meeting at which the subject of the conversation was creating something for video that would "go viral" reminds me that the desire to be the flavor of the day is strong among this generation of marketers and communicators.

The smart money says you can't "make" anything viral -- the meme rolls or it doesn't.  What separates PSY from PS2?  Aside from good coding, one is catchy.  The other was the 1980s failed attempt to get everyone excited about an operating system that just didn't have it.

It is the magic.  It is doing something slightly out of the ordinary.  Doing it well.  And doing it over and over.

Thus the exact lessons proffered by Deborah Marquardt in a Q&A with Ad Age sent out last week via the PRSA feed.

Here we have another storyteller in Marquardt:

Story is already at the center of marketing, and we need to keep it central to the process when there are so many touchpoints for consumers and people aren't reading your story in a linear way.

 OK, you want the spark approach.  Sure, create a video INTENDED to inflame and you might get the job done.  Or, you might not.  There are literally hundreds, thousands, of pot-shots taken at Islam on-line.  What separated the recent from previous?  What made it viral?

It is the same in the political races.  The ginned up Romey killed by wife commercial isn't having the same viral impact of his own words (the 47%).  And all the Obamacare scares in the world didn't have the traction of the president's misstep (you didn't build that).

Some tips?

Genuine beats designed (again, look to politics)

Take the viewer where they can't go (our POV stuff with the 50-yard line is extremely popular -- both band or sports)

Best possible quality.

Relate it back to your story.

And stop trying so hard.  Make it good -- your people will appreciate and spread it.

Al Qaeda Sleeper Cell Sex Video

See, so maybe the point of The Atlantic article that written media needs better headlines to draw attention is overstated.  Then again, you did click on it.

Boring Headlines by Conor Friedersdorf makes his point with good examples of how to do it wrong.

Let me suggest to you who is doing this right -- NPR News.

Without undercutting their credibility, NPR gives me the level of "attitude" that is appropriate.  In fact, I've wondered if they hired a former Onion editor to write for them.

Seriously -- that funny. 

The key, however, is they do these tease headlines for real news on social media -- links in Facebook and Twitter -- where that voice is appropriate.

Consider -- which of these are NPR and which are Onion:

Freedom Soda: New York's Ban on Big Sodas Hitting Us Where We are Human

Report: Majority of Americans Stopped Paying Attention Several Words Ago

Are Today's Millenials The "Screwed Generation"?

If you don't want to click, just like a sandwich, the NPR links are the bread around the Onion.

No snark from NPR on things like the killings in Libya or other "hard news", but what is wrong with standing out from the crowd?

Obama Campaign Not Reading This Blog

Obviously.

The case for putting more human in the loop for social was made by the President's campaign this week.  Did they really mean for the first thing from the official Twitter feed on Sept. 11 to be a shameless plug to volunteer for the campaign?

I doubt it.

Did someone think, hey, I can automate a tweet every Tuesday heading down the stretch.

To quote another politico, you betcha.

And, the campaign that was so in tune with the online world in 2008 looked tin ear in 2012.  The reaction was quick and visceral.  Defenders were quick to say the President followed later in the AM with his personal "-BO" tweet.

I'm not going to act like I have never used scheduled tweets.  In particular, on a football game day there are certain things (gates open 3 hours out, etc.), but I also carefully watched that A) the tweets actually went [no small issue] and B) things didn't change.  Nothing like a thunderstorm and lightning to change your pregame schedule, and you have to be ready to delete those messages.

To reference back, here's the previous tweet about People Matter.

Shocking Social News: People Matter

Have I mentioned lately the best $300-ish you can spend is on PRSA membership?  If only for the daily brief, because you're going to get curated news gems like this one.

It's a Business Week story about the more we automate, the more the human element becomes crucial.

I could not agree more.  The more social tools are employed, the more significant it becomes to have trained people to handle them.  And by that, I don't mean a student worker ('cause you know, kids get these interwebs) or a minion.  Front line reputation management folks who know your operation front to back, and can stay disciplined in the storm to carry forward a message.

Or, I might opine, not run away if the heat turns up.  But I digress.  Here is your rock solid 140-like takeaway from Business Week:

The lesson here is simple: People matter more than ever. When things go wrong, as they inevitably will, you’ll be glad you made people a priority.

Winners know that.  Penny pinchers and the petty don't.

CoSIDA Presentation

For those wanting the slides, I've turned it into a PDF that you can download.

Some Columns from the Weekend

Tim Dahlberg's summation of the events of Happy Valley are succinct and prescient -- the coverage of the Cult of Personality at PSU are far from over.

In my own head, I have had to reconcile Joe Paterno (and other college football coaches) with the Lance Armstrong case.  Finding myself somewhat conflicted -- is Lance no different than Joe -- I discovered this column from Philip Martin of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (pay link) which at least began to sort it out.  It will suggest it is worth the day access to read as Martin brings Barry Bonds, Armstrong and the opening question "What if there was a pill you could take to lose 50 pounds overnight?" together.

Discuss.

Catching Up Soon

Apologies for a few days break, but a spontaneous experiment to verify both the law of gravity and Newton's laws of motion delayed my writings about social and hurricanes.