Edelman and the Flogging of America by DIGITAL STREET JOURNAL is the finest analysis of the Edelman-Wal-Mart joint that resulted in the Wal-Marting Across America fiasco.
If you don’t have time to read the article, here is your take-away warning,
“This is not about public relations. This is about public affairs. There’s a difference. Public affairs is decidedly more political and comes with a different set of standards and values.”
Military-grade fisking — ruthlessly detailed point-by-point criticism that highlights errors, disputes the analysis of presented facts, or highlights other problems in a statement, article, or essay — is generally only aimed at public affair campaigns.
In the current political climate, Wal-Mart is political, which is why the Wal-Mart campaign is run out of Edelman’s Public Affairs office in DC and not in New York or Chicago.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Chris
Thanks for you comments regarding my blog entry. I got frustrated with the idea that many of the same evangelistic bloggers that had been espousing transparency seemed to be so willing to give EdelmanPR the automatic benefit of the doubt. My guess is that it was because ‘Richard’ – the CEO of a major PR firm was able to massage their concerns.
What is it seems that most miss is that 1)the mistake wasn’t the actual blogs, it was getting caught, and 2) this is what we’re going to see more of in the public/political affairs arenas.
Jonathan
Yeah, thank god for FISKING.