Pirozzolo Company Public Relations

Breaking News, Multiple Deadlines, the Rush To Publish and the Quest for Truth in a Hostile Political Environment

The president routinely calls hard-working professional journalists the enemy of the people, a media giant like CNN fake news and unnamed sources nonexistent.  

When a politician wants to whip up populist frenzy, the press is an easy target. After all the media are liberal  Eastern establishment hacks who don't understand ordinary people and will publish leaks based, let national security be damned in exchange for headlines and breaking news.

To find out whether journalists and their media outlet employers have gotten slipshod and are playing fast and loose with the truth, let's take a look at the role of the press in America from the perspective of Charles J. Glasser Jr. who knows his way around journalism and the law.

For over a decade, Charles, was global media counsel to Bloomberg News, responsible for litigation, ethical newsroom issues and pre-publication review, and was responsible for handling the work of more than 2,100 journalists on a 24-hour basis. 
Prior to becoming an attorney, he worked as a journalist for 16 years giving him a keen sense for the pressures journalists face with multiple deadlines and a “breaking news” media environment and the care they put in to “getting it right.” 

Charles was the guy Bloomberg reporters had to face when they were about to go with a story right on deadline and their editor says, “Great work, but we gotta run it by legal first.”  Here are his views on how professional journalists deal with those pressures and the consequences of their actions from his five-part series on Enterprise and Investigative Reporting he wrote for Talking Biz News. 

 

“This Just In and the Rush to Publish"
by 
Charles J.  Glasser, Jr. Esq.

 

Weighing the public interest against when to publish is a particular challenge for enterprise and investigative journalists, so I thought it would be valuable to hear from Amanda Bennett, the executive editor for Bloomberg News’ projects and investigations team who often manages stories that have been months in the making. 

As a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal and The (Portland) Oregonian, respectively, Bennett won the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 and again in 2001 for National Reporting and for Public Service. Given the long lead time that her team’s stories have and the often controversial nature of investigative reporting, Bennett refuses to let the convenience of a publication schedule affect her judgment of when a story is ready for publication. “You must approach the subject and allow them the chance to poke holes in what you think you learned,” says Bennett.

Emphasizing transparency and fairness, Bennett notes that younger reporters have a tendency to “hold their cards too close to the chest” by waiting too long on making the call for comment, fearing that the subject will either dish a watered-down version to the competition, start pressuring sources to recant, or launch some other pre-emptive attack on the story. “That’s the cost of doing it right,” Bennett says, and expecting honesty from her reporters, adds that reporters first approaching a story subject “should never obfuscate” what the thrust of the story is.

Unlike breaking news, Bennett notes, enterprise and investigative stories may be complicated by negotiations with the company or story subject. Deal-making is sometimes necessary, Bennett says. “Companies will often say ‘If you hold off from publishing, we’ll give you an hour with the CEO’, or they offer to provide access to documents.” In her experience, “making reasonable accommodations to include the subject’s point of view or allowing them to show you where you might be wrong is the ethical thing to do, and we are better off if this happens sooner, rather than later in the process.”  At the same time, reporters should never show anyone outside the newsroom a draft of a story as part of a deal, Bennett adds.

Here is my Checklist for Public Interest when the pressure to publish is building

• Ask yourself if your reader will be demonstrably smarter, safer, healthier, wiser, or able to make more informed decisions as a result of your article.

• Show the impact on lives that the facts about which you report will have. Don’t assume that readers see how a story affects them.

• Separate merely interesting or previously unknown tidbits from genuine information that the public ought to know. The former may not enjoy a high degree of legal protection while that latter almost always will.

• Don’t let yourself be accused of sandbagging a subject. If you have been working on a story for three weeks, it’s unfair to call them for comment or denial the night before publication.

• Be honest with the subject about what you are writing, but never ever show them notes or a draft.

• Use great caution in making deals with story subjects, and use “check quotes” or “quote approval” very sparingly. This almost always gives the subject an opportunity to re-write what they said. Confer with your editor or newsroom lawyer before making any such deal: it might be a binding contract.

Dick Pirozzolo, APR  www.pirozzolo.com  is a member of the Foreign Press Association and The Society of Professional Journalists. His  Pirozzolo Company Public Relations  builds positive relationships with journalists and the media for his clients.

 

Charles Classer, is the author of “The International Libel and Privacy Handbook” and consultant on media law and corporate communications issues He can be reached at www.charlesglasser.net or charlesglasseresq@gmail.com For the complete series visit: Talking Biz News.

On Letting Go - to Move Ahead by The Rev. Sarah Robbins-Cole

It was a distinct honor to have been included in the Easter Sunday homily at St. Michael's Episcopal Church, in Holliston, Mass.

Earlier last week, I was chatting with Sarah—my friend and neighbor—who is otherwise known as The Rev. Sarah Robbins Cole. She told me she was working on her sermon for Easter Sunday, the theme was letting go. I suppose the idea is there cannot be rebirth without letting go of those things that tie us to the past.

"Any thoughts?" she inquired. 

Not missing a chance to plug "Escape from Saigon - a Novel," I mentioned that "letting go" is a theme running loosely throughout the story.  

The struggle with letting go is voiced by Billy Freda, the high school friend, who has to let go of the moment he scored the winning point in the championship game, US Ambassador Graham Martin who cannot let go of South Vietnam that had become intertwined with his identity, the reporters who devoted their youth to covering the war and have to find a new life elsewhere, and of course, the two Vietnam veterans who wrote the book—myself and Michael Morris, who saw combat in the Vietnam War as a young soldier in 1967.

That war ended on April 30, 1975—42 years ago on the last day this month.

Here is what The Rev. Sarah Robbins-Cole, Rector of St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Holliston, Massachusetts told her congregation about letting go on Easter Sunday Morning 2017.

 

 Easter 2017

Marie Kondo of the book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing is perhaps one of the best known books that has come our way from the field of decluttering and home organization. If you have not read the book, the basic premise of the book is to get rid of things that do not spark joy. Marie Kondo recommends taking out every item you own, in a particular sequence, and touching each item, and if it does not spark joy – out it goes. She has other helpful hints such as not buying more specialized storage containers to hold yet more clutter, and folding your clothes, for example your shirts, in a way that finding a shirt is as easy as flicking through record albums – because they all are standing on end.

The desire to hold on and to accumulate is as old as time and man. Perhaps it’s because we falsely equate accumulation with security. If I just hang on to clothes, household items, food, photos, books, I will never be in want. Who knows? I might need one of these things later.

Or we mistakenly believe that if we throw things away or recycle them – somehow we won’t remember or value what that item represented.

Or sometimes what is harder is we hold on to emotions and memories - something that has hurt us deeply. Maybe you are holding onto a grudge, or an imaginary contract with someone (that is, unless they do x, I will not forgive, move on, or be nice, etc.,). And somehow letting go would be to admit defeat.

When people have asked me this week what I am preaching on this week – and I tell them that I am working on a sermon about letting go – it has been interesting to hear people’s response.

When I told my neighbor Dick Pirozzolo, who has just published the book, Escape from Saigon - a Novel this year, he said, “funny you should say that”. He is himself a Vietnam Vet, but he said in his research and during his book tour, while he has encountered many veterans who live full and rich lives, he also said that he has met a fair number of veterans who live and breathe their days in Vietnam every day—even though the end of this month will mark the 42nd anniversary of the ending of that war. “After all,” Dick commented, “you are 19 years old, your friends are all back home working in a shoe store, and you are in a strange country, surrounded by people speaking a foreign language, and you are getting shot at.”

But he said, the problem is that what happens to some of us is that we get stuck at 19. Our entire identity is formed around being a Vietnam Veteran and that does not allow a new identity to form. Our lives are dedicated to remembering that time – from the stories we share to the social media platforms we belong to and contribute to.

Another friend of mine, who works with students, said to me, “that is such an important message” because she finds that some of her students cling to ideas, ideologies, and identities in ways that are unhealthy because they perpetuate their sense of being powerless victims in a hostile world.

Or another friend talked about a woman she knew who was the team mom of a volleyball team – and she did everything – she organized uniforms, social events, coaches gifts, the booster club – but at the end of her son’s junior year, at the end of season party, when he was not elected captain by his peers for the following year, she was absolutely devastated. She refused to talk to anyone for the rest of the party and her son never played volleyball again – so attached was she to the idea of her son being captain.

I am sure we all have examples from our own lives - elderly parents who cling to the idea of unrealistic independence, or children who can’t seem to quite realize they have actually reached adulthood, a parent who cannot let go of their adult children, etc., etc.,
The subject of letting go is not just a superficial self-help issue. They are deep spiritual concerns – which come to the very heart of our gospel lesson for this morning. Jesus tells Mary – do not hold on to me. Literally – do not cling to me as I am now. I am yet to ascend to the Father. Jesus is telling her that she must not cling to him because his time on earth is done. And why that is important is that first of all, after the crucifixion they can’t just go back to the way things were – and secondly, the ascension is necessary so that the work of Jesus will no longer be constrained to his little corner of Israel – but will spread to the four corners of the earth.

And it’s not just the idea of the physically present Jesus she is going to have to let go of. If she wants to share in that resurrected life of new life and rebirth – she is going to have to let go of everything that is holding her back – she may have to let go of her anger at the Romans for crucifying Jesus, she may have to have to let go of her feelings of resentment at the disciples for handing Jesus over, betraying Jesus, and falling asleep while Jesus was praying when he very clearly asked them to stay awake. She may have to let go of her bitterness toward a world that allows an innocent man to die. She may have to let go of her wrath toward her own people for their maleficent fickleness – who on Palm Sunday lauded Jesus as King – and then jeered Jesus just a few days later when he really needed them.

But let me be clear - there is a big difference between letting go and forgetting. Letting go – means having a willingness to move forward, to not be stuck in the muck and mire of past wrongs. Forgetting is pretty near impossible, and forgiving can be a very long process indeed.

What we celebrate today is the resurrection. We celebrate that when one thing ends – and when we let go and give it to God, and trust that God will do something good and meaningful and life-giving to that of which we let go – we too will live the resurrected life.

God invites us to new life each and every moment of our lives – not to cling to the past – but to be engaged in our lives right here and right now. It is just as Joseph Campbell, the preeminent expert in comparative mythology and religion who wrote: We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us.


Along with being coauthor of "Escape from Saigon - a Novel" set during the final days of America's "first television war," Dick Pirozzolo is managing director of Pirozzolo Company Public Relations, an international communication firm based in Boston, Massachusetts.

 

The New Face of Immigration Needs a Makeover

When politicians say they want to staple H1B visas to foreign students' diplomas when they graduate from American universities, most folks think:

Grads from MIT or Stanford with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math.

But it's not all about STEM when it comes to Boston’s international base of talented and highly qualified professionals.
 
Take Iranian hotel designer Afrooz Sahraei Esfahani who was just named an “Up-and-Coming Designer” by Boutique Design for her work with J/Brice Design International, based in Boston’s Seaport District.

Ironically her culture and national origin—which will get her kicked out—is what makes her so valuable. Afrooze is able to drive business to her employer’s Boston hotel design firm and thus contributes to our economy.

Sadly, her parents and siblings are all here in the US, studying and working here legally — she is the only member of her family who is in danger of being sent out of the country and thus separated from her family. 

Afrooz Sahraei Esfahani and Jeffrey Ornstein 

Her employer has launched a time-consuming and costly legal challenge to get her a green card.  One barrier: the law says J/Brice has to replace Afrooz if the firm can find even a single U.S. citizen with design credentials that remotely match hers. 

On paper that’s one thing but the reality is quite different
 
An accomplished professional in Iran, Afrooz brought her talent to the U.S. in 2013 as a student and earned a Master’s degree in Interior Architecture from Suffolk University last year. The 30 years-old designer also holds a bachelor’s degree in Architectural Technology and Engineering from Azad University in Esfahan, Iran. 

Esfahani puts it this way:  My passion for Architecture was developed partly due to the fact that I was born and grew up in Esfahan, a city with historical architecture dating back 600 years or more. I was fascinated every time I looked at arcs of the Khajoo bridge, by the harmony and details of its design. The beautiful colors of tiles and proportion of dimensions in Naghshe Jahan square made me more interested in architecture. I was craving to learn how these huge buildings were designed and built so I chose architecture for my career.
 
“I’m afraid her degrees and all she has to offer will slip between the chairs of government policy making.” says J/Brice founder and CEO Jeffrey Ornstein.

According to a recent article in The Arlington Advocate by Bram Berkowitz:

The fact that someone as impressive as Sahraei-Esfahani is still not a guarantee to get a visa is worrisome to Ornstein and her attorney Shane Parker, a US immigration law specialist. “I’m afraid her degrees and all she has to offer will slip between the chairs of government policy-making,” said Ornstein.

Added Parker, “There is a lot of talk lately about how the US should be run like a business. If this is the case, shouldn’t we be trying to recruit top talent and individuals?”

Her firm needs people who undertand Middle Eastern esthetics. “J/Brice Design specializes in designing luxury interiors for hotels in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Dubai and North Africa as well as the U.S. This makes Afrooz uniquely qualified to not only serve our clients in that region but to contribute to Boston’s economic growth and workplace diversity,” adds Ornstein whose staff of 15 employees herald from the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Korea, China, Haiti, and Montserrat.
 
Esfahani continues, “I know the culture and customs of the Arabian Peninsula—including the business culture— and, as an Iranian, I have an esthetic and color sense that is unique to the culture and region as well It’s something one can learn about if you come from Wisconsin or Massachusetts but it won’t be steeped in your bones.”
 
Boutique Design magazine (BD) is the authority on the boutique hotel, spa and restaurant industry. 

Afrooz's story runs counter to the  current heavy-handed, get-tough Immigration Policy that especially targets people from the Middle East.

by Dick Pirozzolo

Managing Director 

Pirozzolo Company Public Relations

Boston, Massachusetts