School for Scandal should have been fully expected by Oprah. Anything connected with education is not only a sitting duck for allegations of abuse and neglect but also for lawsuits. No philanthropy virgin, Oprah should have stated at the onset of this venture, "Education is full of problems. I expect to inherit lots of them. And, of course, no good deed goes unpunished. However, this particular cause - young women of color - is so important to me and to the world, that I am moving ahead."
Does the audience stiffen when they spot you mounting the podium? You're not alone. In this over-communicated universe, someone assigned to stand up there and deliver a monologue - and isn't that what a speech really is - is not going to be loved. Unless that someone is Bill Clinton or uses the Clinton approach to public speaking. As a presentation coach, I only teach the Clinton approach now. It works. Nothing else does, unless you happen to be Alan Greenspan delivering very bad news.
It might be total darkness - and tonight it literally was - outside the lab on "CSI: Miami" with all the murders and twisted motivations. But inside light manages to break through the worst of human failings.
"Murdoch, A Folk Hero in Silicon," reads the headline in the very clubby East Coast THE NEW YORK TIMES. Put together by journalist David Carr, the piece juxtaposes how much admired populist conservative Rupert Murdoch is on the left coast and how scorned on the east coast.
The details aren't important. Anyone can and probably will be hammered by social media. It happened to journalist Vanessa Grigoriadis because her wedding announcement was published in THE NEW YORK TIMES. Gawker.com attacked. It happened to me because I expressed my point of view on suicide, which I view as do many psychologists, as a brand extension of homicide. FaceBook attacked.
On "Desperate Housewives," there are two possible people who could off Carlos. They are Victor and Edie. Carlos had been having an affair with his former wife Susan who's now married to Victor the Mayor. Tonight Carlos ended that affair, but perhaps too late.
Last April I live-blogged a keynote speech in the Manhattan Metro area by public affairs guru Robert L. Dilenschneider on how technology is standing the old-line rules of influence and power on their head. Since the audience was primarily media types, I polled them about the importance of locationlocationlocation: Did communicators need to still be near Manhattan, at least if they wanted a shot at the big time? The answer, and it surprised me, was: You bet. Manhattan was still the media capital of the world. In a wired world, we are still tethered to geography.
The pile-on of trouble continues at well-funded start-up PORTFOLIO. This time it's happening on the online edition PORTFOLIO.COM and that's very bad news. Print media such as THE WALL STREET JOURNAL will make it or not based on their online component. Fortunately for WSJ, its WSJ.COM has been such a homerun that new Dow Jones owner Rupert Murdoch wants to make it a freebie. But things haven't been so fortunate for PORTFOLIO.COM.
Today, the vet and I decided that Callie, an aging Calico with severe cancer, should be freed of her pain. So, I gave up my conviction that I must be with her as she died and gave the vet permission to let her go while she was already under anesthetic. Yeah, there was one more examination in hopes that Callie could have a few more months which really means that I could have a few more months with Callie.
Ah, to be employed full time by NEW YORK Magazine or even have an article accepted by THE NEW YORKER. Vanessa Grigoriadis has outed us new media types: How many of us long for the prestige, pay and perks of being part of the old media. In her article in NEW YORK Magazine last week, Grigoriadis depicts the new media crew at Gawker as gawking at the creative upperclass in those wonderful establishment jobs with brandname magazines, newspapers and broadcast networks.
