The NFL Draft

So Saturday was pretty much my favorite day of the year, NFL Draft Day. My love of sports started at 10 years old with the announcement of Jacksonville becoming home to an NFL expansion team, the Jaguars. Since then, I have followed this team and the league religiously. I will probably have more posts on the draft to come, so I will treat this one as an introduction. Basically, I was not at all happy with the Jaguars second round draft pick. This is a team that is known for having an amazing defensive line. So why in the world they decide to draft yet another defense player is stupid in my opinion. With the QB, Leftwich, having ankle surgery at the end of the season last year and Garrard having to step in during the post-season, we need to build up our offensive on the off chance that Leftwich gets hurt again. He is an awesome QB. Without him, Garrard is going to need all the help on the field that he can get. I think we should have used our second round pick to get a better offensive player coming out of college.

The Don Imus Story

This whole situation just kind of sucks. I feel bad for all parties involved. The now famous radio broadcast has cost this radio personality his job after over 30 years of being on the airwaves. While the comment was not very politically correct, I think an apology could have been a better sentence for him. It's amazing that 50 years after the Civil Rights movement we are still fighting the battle between the races. I just think it is sad that such a great nation has to have things like this pasted all over their media outlets. We need to be concerned with a lot of more important issues affecting the US, other than someone's negligent comment on a radio show.

Duke Lacrosse Players Cleared

Well, for those of you who do not know this, I am quite a big Duke Basketball fan. So, while reading the news today, I was happy to come across an article on MSN.com regarding the Duke Lacrosse rape scandal. According to the article, today all charges against all three players were dropped. I have been following this incident off and on since day one. It is nice to know there is finally and end to this saga. I just wanted to say that I think it is awful what those boys had to go through in the media and the toll it has taken on their lives. It was an incident in our nation's history that shows us just how powerful the media can be and how much it can damage people. We think because celebrities choose to be in the spotlight, they deserve all of the negative attention given to them by reporters. In this case, these young men can now say they did nothing to "deserve" what happened to them, and hopefully they will be able to rebuild their lives. See link below for full story:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18046103/?GT1=9246

The Big Lead

thebiglead.com is an Internet site that has been very critical of the television station ESPN. Recently an ESPN radio personality, Colin Cowherd, encouraged his listeners to flood this site with hits in an attempt to shut the site down. He was successful. After this first attempt's success, he encouraged his listeners to do it again, mainly just for fun. ESPN's original statement regarding the incident was a typical PR move. It had no real sense of compassion or interest in what actually happened just a blanket statement apology and a promise that it would "never happen again." ESPN's ombudsman, Le Anne Schreiber, was not satisfied with this response and went to Traug Keller, senior vice president of ESPN radio, for a clearer indication as to how ESPN was going to handle the situation. Keller was more than happy to give a statement of remorse and also explained that this type of behavior was not mentioned in their policies since it had never happened before. ESPN does not tolerate the use of their airwaves for personal attacks on websites and will be doing everything they can to prevent this type of behavior in the future. I was impressed with the fact that Keller had such a quick response to Schreiber's questions. I just wonder why the intial reaction from ESPN's communication's team was not as thorough when then first occured. My question is, is PR just getting lazy these days? It seems like many companies just have a blanket statement apology when an incident occurs and do not elaborate on the situation at hand. I think as future PR professionals we need to take these types of events into account. Click the link below for the full story.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=schreiber_leanne&id=2830113

How to Present

Last week in our PR campaigns class, we had a guest speaker from Jackson Spalding come in and give us a few tips on how to make a presentation to a client. Since each group in the class is going to be pitching their PR campaign to their client, this type of information could prove to be very helpful. I just wanted to say that the most important thing I took away from this class was the idea not to use PowerPoint. I hate PowerPoint and I get so bored when they are used in my classes. Our group has decided to not use a PowerPoint when we present to our client and I encourage other groups to try not to either. I think it shows that you really researched and studied the project you put together by not having "notes" on a screen behind you.

ATL Falcons Quarterback Michael Vick in the News

So in the world of sports recently, Atlanta Falcons Quarterback Michael Vick was the hightlight. Apparently a water bottle was seized from the pro football player at a Miami airport. Initial reports said that the water bottle smelled of marijuana and was sent to be tested. Of course, ESPN, talk radio and pretty much any NFL related outlet picked up the story and the allegations were aired nationwide. Well, after testing it was confirmed that the water bottle did not have any traces of marijuana and that the NFL star was using it to hide expensive jewelry that he was transporting. So why is it that once his name was cleared, the only outlets to pick it up were the Falcons website and a tiny blurb on ESPN's website?? Defamation of character is a serious thing and even though these athletes are "celebreties", don't we as PR people owe it to these atheletes to make sure the correct information is just as easily accessable as the original accusations are?? Just a thought...

Sorority Life

So I came across this story on CNN.com today that made me a little angry. I watched a 3 min story clip about a sorority at Depauw University in Indiana. 23 Delta Zeta sorority members were asked to move out of their campus sorority house by the leaders of their national chapter. The national chapter claimed that these 23 members were being asked to move out due to lack of recruitment. All 23 members claim that they were asked to leave due to their physical appearance, saying that the prettier, more slender girls were the ones who got to stay. The links below will give you access to the story on CNN and also to the comments about the incident found on the University's website.

http://www.cnn.com/video/partners/clickability/index.html?url=/video/us/2007/02/27/oppenheim.sorority.eviction.cnn

http://www.depauw.edu/news/index.asp?id=18984

I just think things like this are so sad. After watching the video, my heart went out to these girls. One of them was crying and it made me feel awful. The one comment made that I think will stay with me forever was "Image is the new racism of sorts." And sadly, in today's society, I can see a lot of truth in that statement. People are now being discreminated against due to their general physical appearance and whether or not their appearance meets certain standards set by our society. With stories like this in our nation's news and with television shows like "The Swan" that take "ugly" people and perform a bunch of free plastic surgery on them to make them "beautiful", it is no wonder people behave this way. I just think the emphasis on physical appearance in our society just keeps getting worse and worse. I hope that stories like this one about the Delta Zeta sorority open people's eyes to this problem. I do not see a solution in sight, and if you do, please enlighten me. I just hope those leaders in the national chapter see these poor girls crying on tv and feel guilty about what they have done. End rambling for the day...