Accentuate the Positive, 3.0

All this time I’ve been preaching the need for businesses and organizations to beef up their media savvy. Leave it to the stodgy Brits to make a game out of it.

Thumbs up for speed-dating councillors
RICHARD BATSON

The babble of voices grew louder over the “speed dating” session as the young questioners tried to get all the information they needed before the three-minute gong sounded.

But the race against the clock was not in search of romance; it was to quiz local councillors.

The novel training method is being used by more and more councils to help their members’ communication skills.

But it is also helping to break down youngsters’ stereotyped views about councillors, as the latest session in North Norfolk proved.

Seventeen-year-old Will Grey said afterwards: “I thought they were going to be a bunch of boring old Tories. But they are not.”

Fellow North Walsham student Steven Thompson said: “I was surprised to find out they were in touch with things we are concerned about – like there not being enough to do in town.”

Diana Rackham, 16, added: “I thought they would be negative about the needs of teenagers, but they were concerned about the whole community, including us.”

And Rosie Jones, 17, was impressed the councillors were knowledgeable about issues that concerned her, from coastal erosion to affordable housing.

Councillors moved around the tables when signaled by a DVD featuring a cheesy pop figure called “Big D Mocracy”, who said his hits included It’s My Party, and I’ll Resign If I Want To.

The youngsters’ questions ranged from how councillors got involved in politics and what the council had done for young people, to the war in Iraq and the need for lights at a new skateboard park.

Funny, I’ve actually had political clients where the goal was to “unstodgy” and “un-Torie” them.

The NCAA hasn’t exactly had a great couple of years on the PR end of things, especially after losing a judgment against a coach wrongly labelled as a cheater (to be retried). That case threw the whole NCAA investigation and infractions committees into question.

Now the NCAA is making a foray into blogging… using interns.

Not sure that’s the right strategy. We’ll see how they do.

Please bear with me while I get this thing re-cranked. I have to go through more than 100 previous Blogger posts:

• cleaning up broken pics
• adding categories
• fixing formatting quirks
• adding back comments

Any volunteers? Didn’t think so.

Sports analogies can be overused, but some concepts are just easier to get across this way. Like the interview Chris Cuomo did with that PR flack for Metroline on the December 1st “PrimeTime.”

Francisco Oaxaca is the guy’s name, and to an untrained eye, it would appear that he took a beating. Cuomo made the case that Metrolink was running recklessly by “pushing” trains on return trips instead of pulling with a heavy locomotive.

I say “made the case” with a bit of a sneer, because Cuomo just got promoted to ABC’s “Senior Legal Correspondent,” and this whole story is being “pushed” by a lawsuit.

This trainwreck started in Glendale, California, when a commuter train going to LA derailed after hitting a parked SUV. Eleven people died, and just now the lawsuits are starting to dredge to the surface.

The Primetime piece is slugged “Is there a ‘Coffin Car’ on your train?” And again, after the prosecuting reporter got to lay out his case, the defense was given a chance to speak.

Oaxaca acquitted himself quite well, and I took particular notice to the way he stood his ground on a point:

Since the Glendale accident, Metrolink has made an important change in the cab car: The area where people are most often hurt is now roped off.

Metrolink said they had established the area out of respect for those who died in the Glendale crash. The sign says quiet area — but critics say the more likely reason is safety.

Oaxaca said they didn’t call it a safe zone “because we can’t draw that conclusion. We’re not saying that this area is unsafe. We’re saying that until the answers are in, until the research that’s being done is in, the science has been completed we’re not taking any chances.“

The web transcript cuts off the last part of the exchange where Oaxaca called any determination premature.

One of the key ideas behind Positive Position Media Consulting was there are going to be those instances where you absolutely cannot win. Some circumstances are impossible to completely overcome, no matter how good your spin. Yet the most important thing, every day, is to leave your employer or client with the best score possible. Taking public perception from -50 to -5 is a much greater accomplishment that going from 10 to 30.

In this case, Oaxaca stood toe to toe with an aggressive reporter, and at the end of the day, refused to say the words for which Cuomo was so desperately angling. Metrolink did not “win” the exchange, but like in baseball, the tie goes to the runner.