In an article published in Broadcasting & Cable Magazine earlier this summer, columnist Marisa Guthrie offered intriguing insight into the future of investigative journalism. She wrote, “Investigations of the rich and powerful, the multinational corporations and monopoly industries have all but dried up, say a coterie of journalists still trying to ply their trade… While investigations are far from extinct, few can make the case that the scope and number of reports on network news are ... Read More

From Starbucked.com to Againstthewal.com, gripe sites – or Websites and blogs that solicit and publish consumer complaints directed towards a particular product or company – are popping up on the Internet with increasing frequency. But according to a piece published in The Wall Street Journal last week, companies are finally indentifying ways to fight back. Thus far, the preferred course of action has been to buy up the domain names that may one day be used ... Read More

It’s a sad but true reality of the 21st Century that companies and governments must make cyber-crime part of their crisis communications plans. There has long been paranoia in the international business, information technology, and law enforcement communities surrounding hackers’ ability to invade private enterprise databases – and as such, best practices for communicating during such an event are proliferating every aspect of the global economy. But as a recent report from the British Government indicates, the ... Read More

Critics of the food industry, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest and The San Francisco Chronicle, are questioning the Food and Drug Administration’s recent decision to allow irradiation of lettuce and spinach following devastating outbreaks of food-borne illness connected with those raw foods. The naysayers are scoffing at the idea of using irradiation, saying that it’s a distraction from what they see as the real problem – a lack of adequate resources ... Read More

Any avid reader of Bulletproof knows about product recalls. We write about them all the time. But have you ever heard of a recipe recall? Such was the case three weeks ago when a chef in the United Kingdom mistook the name of an edible weed for that of another herb that is, in fact, poisonous. What’s worse is that the name of the publication that published the embarrassing and potentially deadly mistake is Healthy & ... Read More

With the Democratic Convention in full swing, I’m reminded of a New York Times op-ed published by Michael Kinsley a few weeks back that gently pokes fun at the empty words and doublespeak found in political party platforms. Kinsley’s criticism is aimed at politicians, but it should be taken seriously by anyone facing a high stakes communications challenge. We let politicians get away with this kind of “spin” in part because we no longer hold them ... Read More