Funny News

“You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore…”
- former President Richard Nixon to the press after losing his 1962 race for California Governor

Researchers from Pew have reminded us again that distrust of news organizations is on the rise. This trend started well before this Presidential election race, but the fury on the campaign trail is accelerating some viewer discontent. The McCain/Palin campaign has whipped up so much fury about the media on the campaign trail their supporters recently made obscene gestures at the media caravan that was covering their town hall gathering.

News parody shows like the Daily Show and the Colbert Report have benefited from this growing trust gap. Now CNN and other news outlets are imitating Comedy Central, with new shows like DL Hughley Breaks the News. The new CNN effort is more akin to The Tonight Show than the Daily Show, but it’s intent is clear: comic relief. “When you watch as much news as our audience does, there comes a time when you just want to stop and laugh” said CNN executive Jonathan Klein.

Audiences are finding satire to be a more genuine look at the day’s events. As fun as the Saturday Night Live skits have been, I’m disappointed that news organizations aren’t trying to solve their growing credibility problems by become more, well, credible. Maybe drawing a more clear line between opinion and fact would be a good start.

In a recent article, Pew reminds us of some historical attacks on the integrity of the press. Those with the biggest bully pulpits have been at the forefront of undermining trust of the media:

Thomas Jefferson once said that he would prefer newspapers without a government to a government without newspapers. In the aftermath of news reports regarding his personal life, he flipped sides and said, “The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”

Lyndon Johnson called the New York Times “a bunch of commies”, and in recent weeks Governor Sarah Palin whips up her crowds into a chorus of boos aimed at the “liberal media” and “The New York Times.” McCain campaign senior advisor said that the New York Times “is today not by any standard a journalistic organization.”

President H.W. Bush used this slogan on his campaign trail: “Annoy the media: re-elect Bush.” His son, President George W. Bush, claims to “glance at the headlines” but “rarely read the stories”, preferring instead to have “people on my staff [tell] me what’s happening in the world.”

Newt Gingrich ranted earlier this week about the Presidential election news coverage, “…we have been brainwashed, propagandized, insultingly lectured by the news media”.

Although I am dubious about the wisdom of CNN competing with Comedy Central, I am a big fan of using comedy and art to authentically speak out about society’s complex struggles. That’s why Camino PR published a book of cartoons last year. Here are a few of my favorites:

Best campaign video

The AARP has an incredible viral video campaign — if you haven’t seen it yet, check it out. People love to see themselves in a story — the AARP mastered that concept with this creative execution:

Pirate Public Relations

Even pirates are in the PR business.

The “PR Play of the Week” – as designated by PR Week’s Tonya Garcia – was awarded to the pirates earlier this month. In fact, the PR Play Rating was “ingenious”, which beat the “savvy” rating that myself and colleagues received a few years ago for our Free EC promotion. Professional jealousy aside, the pirate public relations campaign showcases the value of publicity even for the most profound uphill reputation battles. In this case the “pirates” attempted to reposition themselves as something like a “coast guard.”

Pirate spokesman Sugule Ali called the New York Times from a satellite phone on a Ukrainian cargo ship that he and his co-pirates had hijacked. Ali’s message was that his group was interested only in money, not the $30 million in weapons onboard that put an international spotlight on the robbery. He tried to move his reputation from piracy (translated as “sea bandit” in his region) to the expected actions of a coast guard patrolling its waters. Ali is awarded kudos from PR week for normalizing the pirate experience and downgrading the international alarm: “We just saw a big ship, so we stopped it.”

Here are the partial transcripts from Ali’s interview:

Q. Have the pirates been misunderstood? ?A. We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits [”sea bandit” is one way Somalis translate the English word pirate]. We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.
Q. Why did you want to become a pirate??A. We are patrolling our seas. This is a normal thing for people to do in their regions.
Q. Isn’t what you are doing a crime? Holding people at gunpoint??A. If you hold hostage innocent people, that’s a crime. If you hold hostage people who are doing illegal activities, like waste dumping or fishing, that is not a crime.
Q. What has this Ukrainian ship done that was a crime? ?
A. To go through our waters carrying all these weapons without permission.
Q. What is the name of your group? How many ships have you hijacked before??
A. I won’t say how many ships we have hijacked. I won’t talk about that. Our name is the Central Region Coast Guard.

Ali may not view himself as a pirate, but piracy is rooted in the tradition of taking direct action for the good of the disenfranchised.

I had suspected that pirates were overly caricatured after taking my son to the nation’s only pirate museum last July. Displayed among the torture devices used by and on pirates were descriptions about their socialist tendencies. The pirates, according to the museum, were motivated by a combination of socialism (the wealth ought to be distributed evenly among the people) and political democracy (Royalty should not impose taxes, etc). The museum notes that they were also violent, lawless, and cruel – but in some cases no more so than the governments they were opposing. It seems clear that some pirates were motivated to challenge the greed and corruption of monarchy, but it seems also clear that many, after having “stolen back” the people’s wealth, failed to share the loot.

The pirate museum is located in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where a sunken pirate ship was recovered a few decades ago. John F Kennedy Jr among other wealthy adventurers backed the exploration. Apparently the ship’s captain had foolishly pushed ahead during a bad storm because he was anxious to meet up with a Provincetown girlfriend. This all happened very close to the site where the pilgrims had first landed. The pilgrims found Provincetown to be so grim that they re-boarded and proclaimed their official landing to be their second stop, Plymouth Rock. Now Provincetown is a gay-friendly artist colony where flocks of tourists meander up and down its main drag, watching comedy and buying t-shirts.

At the pirate museum kids were eager to buy fake eye patches and plastic swords. Ali’s world of “piracy” is far from Provincetown’s caricature. When asked if he was fearful of the escalating international standoff, he said, “We’re not afraid of arrest or death or any of these things. For us, hunger is our enemy.”

I am far from expert about the battles off the coast of Somalia. But I can see why PR week was intrigued by Ali’s efforts. Adding nuance and a storyline to this international crisis was profoundly impactful public relations.

The Mock Execution

“Everybody enjoyed it and had a good time”
High school principal Nathan Chaddick responding to criticism that a mock execution skit by cheerleaders was inappropriate.

In Nacogdoches Texas the halftime cheerleading routine included a mock execution where some cheerleaders were forced to kneel in a line and then were “shot” in the back of the head with fake guns, execution-style. The “dead” cheerleaders were then dragged into a pile where a celebration ensued, including throwing money into the air. Laughter and clapping from the crowd is heard on the videotape. School administrators would not allow student protestors to include a critique of school officials in the school newspaper – though an excerpt from the editorial did make it to AOL headline news.

Chaddick blames objection to the skit on a couple of girls who have a grudge against cheerleaders, and thinks it was inappropriate for the writers of the editorial to use the term “fearleaders.” Over a hundred students have signed a protest petition. In days long past principals like Chaddick could exert control over school outlets like newspapers. Years ago his ability to censor melted with the advent of new media, but he seems to have just learned this hard lesson in recent weeks.

Far from small town Texas, Hollywood stars Hillary Duff and Wanda Sykes have produced commercials aimed at curbing hateful language among teens. The ad council just released the new PSA’s that urge teens to “think before they speak.” Research found that LGBT teens are 90% likely to have heard the phrase “that’s so gay” used in a pejorative way.

In the gulf between do-gooders Duff and Sykes in Hollywood and principal Chaddick in southeast Texas lies the average teen experience. Teens didn’t create gay slurs or socially acceptable violence; they recreate the adult world that they experience.

After several days of mounting national scrutiny, School Superintendent Dr. Rodney Hutto apologized today for the skit. Hutto’s favorite movie is “Gladiators,” which has an eerie parallel to the scene of adults and kids crowded into the bleachers at Nacogdoches High cheering an execution. Nevertheless, Hutto is firmly denouncing the incident as well as the censorship. The skit had been approved by Kristen Jaspar, an adult advisor who acts as the cheerleading sponsor on behalf of the school district. No word yet on whether she has been reprimanded.

Nacogdoches is about 175 miles southeast of Dallas and touts itself as the oldest town in Texas. A famous book about Nacogdoches delves into its history of lynching. Nacogdoches is represented on the Board of Education by Barbara Cargill, a former “cheerleader sponsor” like Jaspar. Cargill has not publicly commented on the controversy. We get a glimpse of her world view on her website, where she posts the biblical verse Jeremiah 29:11-12. In this biblical reference, Jeremiah tries to convince a persecuted people that god will rescue them in the end, but in the meantime they ought to be good citizens. It is a lesson lost on the high school cheerleaders, their advisors, and their cheering fans.

Cargill is part of a group of board members that recently promoted the “National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools”, which critics claim inserts a particular conservative view of Christianity into public education.

The board has also been embroiled in controversy about the teaching of evolution after more than 800 Texas scientists signed a statement criticizing current board standards that they claim allow “supernatural explanations into science courses.” Cargill supports the board stance, claiming that discussing both sides of evolution results in a “well-rounded education.”

Cargill is supported by Cathie Adams, President of Texas Eagle Forum, a chapter of Phyllis Schafley’s national group. Schafley’s most recent accomplishment is being a close advisor to Sarah Palin. The Vice Presidential candidate was also a cheerleader in high school, and has been speaking to large, enthusiastic crowds about the value of small town America. Her path – cheerleader, parent volunteer, local city council member, and so on should remind us about the importance of local leadership. Palin claims to be bringing small town values to the White House. She doesn’t represent the values of my small hometown, but she is right about the importance of local leaders like Chaddick and Cargill.

The Six Pack

First the McCain team accuses Obama of being “pointy headed” and then they define their Vice President as “Joe Six-Pack.” What’s behind the war on sober intellectuals? I work in the Chelsea district of Manhattan, where “six pack” indisputably refers to the stomach area. The gyms are packed with graduate students, thus making this the most pointy-headed, six-pack neighborhood in America.

Merriam-Webster defines “Joe Six-Pack” as an ordinary man, specifically a blue-collar worker. It derives from “the stereotype of a six-pack of beer as a workingman’s drink”. A less flattering definition can be found on Answers.com: “A lower-middle-class male…This disparaging term, first recorded in 1977, conjures up the image of a man in undershirt and construction helmet who will down all of a six pack (six cans or bottles of beer sold in a package) in an evening.” Wikepedia defines the term as a “more pejorative” version of “John Q. Public”, implying a lower class citizen.

“Six Pack” was coined in 1952, but the term “Joe Six Pack” entered the public lexicon in the 1970’s. A Boston Globe reporter (Nolan) asserted that a politician named Joe Moakley was courting “Joe Six-Pack” when he was campaigning for a congressional seat against Louise Day Hicks. Nolan claimed that Moakley was urging working class voters to be more robust in their engagement of political issues. The political undercurrent of the election was racism and school desegregation efforts.

Hicks rose to political prominence for blocking the Boston School Committee from formally acknowledging de facto segregation in the Boston public school system in 1963, and for rigorously opposing court-ordered busing for desegregation purposes in 1965. She served in Congress for one term, and was then narrowly defeated by Moakley, who subsequently served fourteen terms.

Nolan claimed that all of the reader mail he received about the term was negative, accusing him of using ethnic stereotypes. Despite the Nolan backlash, the term became a modern, though often pejorative, version of “John Q Public.” The philosophy behind the term continued to rise in prominence. For example, researchers note that in the early 1970s ABC News launched a new concept called “Eyewitness News” which was intended to appeal to “Joe and Martha Six-pack” or, in other words, “a less educated and less affluent mass audience.”

Bill Clinton was fond of the term but applied it quite different from Palin. Clinton used the term to distinguish himself from the average citizen and thus appear Presidential, whereas Palin uses it to distinguish herself from politicians and thus appear average. In an interview with Time Magazine about the dismissal of the Paula Jones lawsuit, Clinton explained his support for not getting his day in court: “If I were just a private citizen – Joe Six Pack – I would have mixed feelings about not getting a chance to disprove these allegations in court.”

In 2000, two pollsters published a book that Business Week touted as “the importance of Joe Six-Pack”, which laid out a case for appealing to the white working class electorate. The Republicans have to be laser-focused on this strategic approach. Palin is appealing to the boys when she emphasizes her “Joe Six Pack” credentials. McCain’s strongest base is among white married men (roughly 56% McCain, 37% Obama), and among this crowd he does much better with voters who do not have a graduate degree. It’s undeniable that McCain and Palin are courting an important voting bloc, and that it’s Biden’s job to undermine these efforts by emphasizing his own working class roots.

My favorite response so far comes from G. Xavier Robillard, who writes:

“Governor Sarah Palin has claimed that she’s an “everyday, working class American”, and that “it’s time that Joe six-pack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency.” I think so, too, in the same way that I’d like to see a forklift operator operate on my brain.”

Roe v Palin

Katie Couric, Tina Fey and youtube are experiencing a windfall from Sarah Palin’s candidacy. It’s the best television season since West Wing folded shop. I posted Couric’s interview with Palin & Biden on Roe v Wade below in case you haven’t caught it.

PR Week is encouraging more corporations to develop a YouTube strategy, despite the fact that the most popular youtube videos are not ones that typically attract general audience consumers. Comedian Judson Laipply is the second highest ranked youtube superstar, generating around 100 million views for his video, “Evolution of Dance” . Typical viewer comments are far from intellectual, like “that was freaking AWESOME!.” A laughing baby in a high chair ranks number ten with 62 million views.

Many more people will tune in to the laughing baby than will watch Katie Couric grill Sarah Palin. But YouTube remains an important publicity vehicle for all types of organizations and corporations. A recent study shows that 25% of YouTube households have an income in excess of $100,000. The 35-54 year old crowd dominates the audience share at 44%.

Here’s the Couric interview:

Couric interviews Palin on Roe v Wade