Mainly, if your executives are criticized for taking a private jet to Washington to beg taxpayers to bail out your ineptly run business, you should pretend to make a concession that really isn’t one, and pretend you’re not really making it:
General Motors said today that it is putting two of its five corporate jets out of service because the planes are not being used enough. The top three executives at GM, however, will continue to use the private luxurious jets for all of their business and personal travel, despite a flurry of criticism over the perk following an ABC News report this week…
“We’re cutting back very drastically on all travel,” said Tom Wilkinson, a spokesperson for GM. Wilkinson said the downsizing is “strictly in response to the planes not being used” and not a reaction to the harsh treatment CEO Rick Wagoner and others received from Congress this week after it was learned that the CEOs of all three big automakers flew to Washington on private planes to plead for public funding to bailout their ailing companies.
Of course not. What, just because that single act of corporate executive hubris might have ruined their big handout, we’re supposed to assume this is more than just coincidence? Shyeahright!
GM: Genuine Motives!
Here’s Sarah Palin, being interviewed outside a turkey farm in Alaska after ceremonially “pardoning” a turkey. While she talks to the camera, a farmhand puts several birds througha “killing cone” — the consolation prize for not being on the Governor’s “pardon” list. As a gobbler literally bleeds to death behind her, Palin says:
“This was neat. I was happy to get invited to participate in this. You need a little bit of levity in this job … It’s nice to get out and do something to promote a local business and to just participate in something that isn’t so heavy handed politics that invite criticism. Certainly we’ll even invite criticism for doing this too, but at least this was fun.”
Or … is this the hypocrisy? Here’s MSNBC’s slant on the episode. They actually blurred out the turkey’s feet so sensitive viewers, I suppose, would imagine the worst.
Continue reading ‘Is Pardoning Just One Turkey Hypocritical?’
The New York Times did a fantastic job in this profile of Angelina Jolie’s masterful media manipulation — an article that is subtly scathing in its neutrality. The writer, Brooks Barnes, scored anonymous interviews with magazine insiders to learn exactly why Angelina Jolie is so revered in spite of plenty of less-than-saintly behavior. And she doesn’t even have a publicist.
The portrait examines her ability to portray herself how she feels will best serve her image at any given time, whether that means buying positive coverage with promises of exclusive quotes and photo deals, or emphasizing her charity work at a time when a lot of media outlets were tempted to brand her a homewrecker.
An early example of her skillfulness:
[S]he cut a very different, wilder figure in Hollywood during her marriage to the actor Billy Bob Thornton. After their divorce in 2003, Us magazine asked Ms. Jolie if she would agree to an interview and be photographed. According to two people involved, she declined — but then offered the magazine another photo opportunity. Ms. Jolie informed it what time and place she would be publicly playing with Maddox, essentially creating a paparazzi shot.
The resulting photo, the origin of which was not made public to Us readers, presented Ms. Jolie in a new light — a young mother unsuccessfully trying to have a private moment with her son.
And thus, Saint Angelina was born. You have to give her some credit for being able to work the press better than any other actress out there today. (Britney Spears could only hope for this talent.) But it does make you wonder whether we know the first thing about her, other than that she has razor-sharp survival instincts.
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