eChaser: October 2008 / p3

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NEW MEMBERS

PRSA ... Mary Kay Glass, YWCA Fort Worth ... Melissa Stalnaker, GolinHarris ... and welcome back, Carolina Fortin-Garcia, Carter BloodCare, and Nancy Pricer, Tarleton State University

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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Laura Van Hoosier, APR, Greater Fort Worth PRSA

I continue to be touched by the amazing work of the nonprofits in town. There are too many to name individually, but you know who you are! To those who work a job and then on your own time give back to your community, we salute you.

Over the last few weeks, thousands of Texans have lived through the life-changing experience that was Hurricane Ike. As evacuees made their way to DFW, the outpouring of volunteer hours and gifts to organizations like the Red Cross and dozens of others has not gone unnoticed. Leave it to those who work in PR to get the job done. Whether you served a meal or donated time, money or items, or perhaps you informed the media about how your organization was helping families in need, you made an impact.

A dozen GFW PRSA members answered another call and helped fill bags with food for hungry children across Tarrant County as part of “Backpacks for Kids” at the Tarrant Area Food Bank. Because of the good work they did Sept. 24, more than 1,400 children had food to eat the following weekend.

Still ready to do more? We’ll paint a house for a family Oct. 4 as part of Cowtown Brush Up. E-mail Community Service chair Lauren Kwedar, lkwedar@phprinc.com.

To my fellow public relations professionals and communicators, thank you for sharing your gifts and talents. Happy fall.

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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Betsy Deck, IABC Fort Worth

The end of the year is just around the corner, as communicators really get busy with projects. It’s times like this when being a member of IABC is vital. IABC is not only a support system for those who need advice; it’s a room full of resources with years of communication experience. I hope you have utilized your IABC membership and resources.

An amazing speaker introduced us to the world of Web 2.0 in September. In October we will continue the discussion with a half-day seminar focused on social media. The seminar will be at Texas Wesleyan University and will open our minds to the new technical direction of communication and marketing. Please save the morning of Oct. 28 and plan to attend.

Our November meeting always falls during Thanksgiving week — one of the busiest weeks of the year — so let’s back up a week and throw a networking event — 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18, at Pappadeaux in Arlington. All eChaser readers are invited. The more, the merrier!

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OVER & OUT

John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ

SPJ is supporting The Orange County Register in its appeal of a recent gag order. Here’s the statement.

Loyal reader John Wallace (an SPJ member for more than 35 years and a founding member/first president of the Sigma Delta Chi student chapter at Arkansas State University) took spirited umbrage last month over passages herein unflattering to Republicans that were not balanced by incidents from the other side. So I asked him to bring the other side — examples of “Democrats doing or saying dumb things.” That he did, providing a number of items that can be found here. It’s worth a read. Thanks, John, for caring enough to comment. Hopefully the rhetoric dies down Nov. 5. ...

That ringing you hear is The Onion calling with a job offer. You can’t teach ledes like this. ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Less than a week after balking at the Alaska Legislature’s investigation into her alleged abuse of power, Gov. Sarah Palin on Monday indicated she will cooperate with a separate probe run by people she can fire. ...

Life imitates art. ... Graduate-level hypocrisy. ... If lobbyists own the Republicans, they lease the Democrats. ... Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has a better bailout idea. ... Just who is Sarah Palin? As Mayor of Wasilla, Palin Cut Own Duties, Left Trail of Bad Blood. Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes. ...

If you’re keeping score at home, here’s a sampling of accuracy-challenged activities, and there’s more where this came from, on both sides. Trade trickery. Ghost-writer lies. Freddie Mac lies. Blizzard of lies. Everybody wrong at the same time. Convention lies. Crowd size lies. Social Security lies. More Social Security lies. Energy lies. Sex ed lies. Tax plan lies. Environment lies. Lies said on TV. Lies reported on TV. Earmark lies. Globetrotting lies. ”Straight Talk” lies. Let’s split hairs and call this a contradiction. And it’s not a lie or a contradiction, but have a little voter disenfranchisement. See FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, for the latest.

Closing words: “When the stock market crashed, Franklin D. Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. He said, ‘Look, here’s what happened.’ ” — Joe Biden on the “CBS Evening News”; except Republican Herbert Hoover was in office when the stock market crashed in October 1929. ... “I make (decisions) as quickly as I can, quicker than the other fellow, if I can. Often my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint.” — John McCain in his 2002 book, “Worth the Fighting For” ... “Tennessee casts 55 votes for George S. McCain.” — Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey at the Republican National Convention ... “Because John Bush — because John McCain — is very much his own man.” — Tom Ridge, responding to Tom Brokaw’s question why the American people wouldn’t say, “Look, they had their shot, we’re going to change?”

Closing words II, Q&A: Sarah Palin: “I can give you examples of things that John McCain has done, that have shown his foresight, his pragmatism, and his leadership abilities. And that is what America needs today.” Katie Couric: “I’m just going to ask you one more time, not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation.” Palin: “I’ll try to find you some, and I’ll bring them to you.”

Closing words III, with friends like these: “I thought that was terrible, by the way. I didn’t know we did it, and if I had anything to do with it, we would have never done it.” — Joe Biden to Katie Couric on an Obama ad critical of John McCain’s unease with computers ... McCain’s “opportunistic and irresponsible choice of Sarah Palin as his political heir — the person in whose hands he would leave the country — is a form of personal treason, a betrayal of all he once stood for.” — Richard Cohen, Washington Post columnist once self-described as “being in the tank for McCain” ... “McCain’s recent conduct of his campaign — his willingness to lie repeatedly (including in his acceptance speech) and to play Russian roulette with the vice presidency in order to fulfill his long-held ambition — has reinforced my earlier, and growing, sense that John McCain is not a principled man.” — Elizabeth Drew, who praised McCain’s “determination, guts, steadiness, political acumen and feel for the American people’s better nature” in her 2002 book, “Citizen McCain” ... “Did Walt Monegan, former Marine and lifetime crime fighter, deserve this? Of course not. But history has proven, get in the way of Sarah Barracuda’s political ambition, and you won’t know what hit you.” — Dan Fagan, prominent conservative talk radio host in Anchorage, Alaska, on station KFQD