PR/Media Week-in-Review, 07-20-2008

Loren Feldman Goes Too Far

“How do you know you’ve gone too far until you go there?” - anon  |  This quote should be on the 1938Media web site. As we know, Loren Feldman, the ganza macher of 1938Media, likes to push the edges. Technigga, his digital trilogy to racial stereotypes and the vacuity of social media, was perhaps his boldest stride into comedic social commentary. The whole “black tech” issue came back to haunt Loren recently with a dustup with NPR - he’s like a heat seeking missile for controversy.

What’s to become of Loren Feldman? There was buzz of a C-Net deal, Verizon signed him up for a day or two before they realized his content could not be controlled, he tried integrating into Mahalo like a MTV V-Jay (NO!), he floated the idea of charging for “premium” content (apparently 99 cents was too much for most people), and he hobnobbed with Calacanis in Brentwood and Arrington in the Bay area like Blanche DuBois relying on the kindness of strangers. He even gave up pounding on Shel Israel and absolved Julia Allison - still he could not go mainstream with the digerati.

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Rabid Fox PR Takes Buckshot from NYT

When Fox News is the Story, David Carr’s groundbreaking story in the The New York Times yesterday, is part confession, part reportage, advocacy and above all, deeply personal. It is a great piece of news reporting that could only be personal - the attacks of the Fox News PR bloodhounds are personal, vicious, unrelenting and remorseless.

There’s nothing wrong with aggressive PR, with protecting your own and fighting to get your point of view included. Fox PR crosses the line, any line you want to imagine, when it uses its news and commentary shows to eviscerate its enemies - anybody who does not agree with them. Their doctoring of “enemy” journalist photos for public stonings is not only horribly nasty, it’s bizarre, arguably anti-semetic, and proves that Fox news product is driven by Roger Ailes’ right-wing media/politico PR complex.

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