Pirozzolo Company Public Relations

How to get media coverage in The Boston Globe

Larry Edelman, The Boston Globe deputy managing editor, told independent PR agency heads that, while declining print subscriptions portend an all-digital newspaper, building good old-fashioned relationships still counts when it comes to news coverage in New England’s biggest newspaper.

At a recent meeting organized by the Boston Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, Edelman told some 30 small PR agency owners, “We have 95,000 paid digital subscribers, the highest among regional papers,” which is fast approaching half the total subscribers as “print subscriptions slowly decline.”

The Boston Globe's new newsroom in Exchange Place

With classified advertising for autos, employment and real estate no longer able to support the operation, the Globe has had to increase the cost to the readers for providing them with information. “When we’re charging a lot for the product it really has to be good, and when readers log on they want to get the highest-quality journalism. The paper has to be sold on the merits of quality.”

Given changes in the way people access information, especially international and national news, The Globe has reduced its commitment to staffing bureaus in Washington, DC and overseas. “Our motto is to provide journalism you can’t get anywhere but The Globe.” For media relations pros, that means offering its reporters exclusive, newsworthy information about local business and organizations and their impact on the community.

Larry Edelman of The Boston Globe

At the meeting, run by public relations consultants Hank Shafran and Sarah Leaf-Herrmann, Edelman emphasized, “It comes down to building individual relationships” for both PR pros and reporters as well. “Even though information is available online, reporters still have to get out of the office to cover stories in person and PR folks have to build relationships with reporters. News is a relationship business – a good batting average though is worse than a major league baseball player,” in terms of successful placements.

Edelman urged PR professionals to look beyond your own client for broader stories with greater impact. He pointed out, “A hotel company that was building properties in the outlaying parts of the city such as Allston and Brighten pitched a story about the business.” Rather than publishing a story about this one company, “The Globe did it as a trend piece, which made it a stronger and more interesting article.” Everybody won.

When asked about whom to contact, he recommended sending email pitches directly to reporters since they know more about the topic and editors have too many additional responsibilities to focus on content, though alerting both the reporters and their editors is acceptable.

Joshua Milne, who focuses on sports promotions and media relations, asked whether editorial visits during which company executives visit the editorial staff in the newsroom to provide background information, with no expectation of coverage are still viable.

Hiawatha Bray, Technology Reporter

Both Edelman and Hiawatha Bray, who has been covering technology for the Globe since 1995, encouraged the visits, especially when the executives are willing to come to the newsroom. Bray joked, “I just met with a company and they were all from MIT, so I figured it must be important.” 

Veteran business reporter Jon Chesto is known for taking a lot of editorial meetings. “He meets more people in a day than I meet in a month,” quipped Edelman. Notwithstanding, when publicists pitch stories they need to know the topic. Bray said, “It's disrespectful to call a reporter and not know what your product is or what it does and then fill the void by using terms like ‘best-in-breed’ or ‘disruptive technology.’” 

Bray chided PR people who call at 5 o’clock to pitch stories, and for trying to be creative, “Don’t write a story like ‘Once upon a time,’ just the facts please.”

Other changes at The Globe include The Express Desk, which was started last year and is staffed with 25 reporters and editors to deliver breaking news – “immediate news drives a lot of subscriptions,” Edelman said adding that Express Desk tracks readership and revises headlines if an interesting story isn’t drawing readership.

In addition to the Spotlight Team, the famous investigative reporting unit featured in the eponymous Oscar winning movie about sex abuse in the Catholic Church, Edelman, noted, “We created a subset of the Spotlight Team that, instead of spending months on a story is poised for quick investigations that might take only a week or two. One of its latest accomplishments was an investigative report on a recent Massachusetts State Police scandal over no-show traffic details.

Despite the modern newsroom in the heart of the financial district, the absence of the monster Web press, and a hugely successful formula for a digital newspaper of the future, Edelman said some things in Boston remain constant: “Who’s driving the most subscriptions? It’s still sports.”

Dick Pirozzolo, APR of Pirozzolo Company Public Relations is a Boston communication consultant whose credentials as a professional journalist include membership in The Society of Professional Journalists, The Foreign Press Association of New York and the National Press Club of Washington, DC. He is the author of countless articles on public relations and several books on a wide range of topics. 

"Great Powers Grand Strategies" Looks at the Global Consequences of a Regional Conflict

Book Review

by Dick Pirozzolo, Pirozzolo Company Public Relations, Boston

How regional conflicts become global conflagrations and what to do about it.

Throughout 2017, U.S. foreign policy has been conflicted, confusing, and churlish with the US withdrawal from the Transpacific Partnership, spats between the President and the Secretary of State, a paucity of foreign affairs officers and the threat of armed conflict between the US and North Korea involving China and Russia.

In this muddled foreign policy environment comes Great Powers, Grand Strategies, offering a thoughtful analysis of how a regional trouble spot in the Pacific—the South China Sea—can have far reaching global consequences that impact major world powers. The volume, edited by Anders Corr Ph.D., delivers much-needed insight into China’s behavior and desire to project its power worldwide. Its behavior in this vital region for shipping, fishing, and oil exploration has on occasion sparked armed conflict between China’s warships and Philippine and Vietnamese commercial and military vessels. Amidst the ongoing disputes, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and other Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with a stake in maintaining peaceful, multifaceted trade relations with China are being blackmailed by China’s overreach. What is more, the United States needs maintain a Naval presence in the Pacific or cede American influence and power to China.

In an advance copy of Great Powers, Grand Strategies, to be released by the Naval Institute Press on January 15, 2018, Dr. Corr writes, "This book is the first to focus on major power grand strategies including economic, diplomatic, and military strategies, and their interrelationships so that we can explore how global actors are, on the one hand, contributing to the solution and, on the other hand, perpetuating conflict."

Dr. Corr, who publishes the Journal of Political Risk, cites China’s behavior in the Pacific and elsewhere in the world as ample reason for the US Navy to maintain its cautionary

Anders Corr with Filipino fishermen in the South China Sea

presence in the Pacific, which he regards as, "part of a global system of defense of not only the United States but its allies and values, which include international law, democracy, and human rights. To criticize the United States deployment in the Pacific as offensive without geographic context ignores the global picture and principles the United States is defending.”

He is quick to add, “Viewing China’s actions in the South China Sea as defensive against U.S. forward deployment ignores China’s similar offensive actions in the East China Sea and Himalayan region of India.” He decried China’s suppression of democracy, human rights, and international law in Asia and abroad and its efforts to remake global governance to its own advantage rather than on principles of democracy adding, “China’s South China Sea actions are offensive when viewed in this global context."

Dr. Corr calls into question China’s disputed claims to the Spratly Islands and sea lanes in the South China Sea and its maneuvering to control the territory militarily.  After having established its boot print in the area, Dr. Corr notes that China then began to demand joint oil and gas development and sovereignty agreements, with ASEAN nations. “Xi Jinping calls this a 'win-win solution,' I call it China’s take and talk strategy.”

The volume assembles the thinking of foreign policy scholars and practitioners Bill Hayton, Gordon Chang, Bernard Cole, James Fanell, and others who examine the conflict in the context of a global big picture. As editor, Dr. Corr juxtaposes the grand strategies of the great powers to determine the likely outcomes of the dispute, and suggests ways to defuse tensions that are likely to spill over to other regions.

Eric Gomez, Policy Analyst, Cato Institute lauded Great Powers, Grand Strategies “for exploring the strategies of ASEAN, Russia, and other important but overlooked actors in the dispute.”

Oct. 19 - the North Korean oil tanker Ryesonggang 1 connected to a Chinese ship. U.S. Govt. Satellite photo

Alessio Patalano, King's College London credited the book for examining, “the South China Sea as a locus of strategic competition where simmering maritime disputes have significant implications for major powers well beyond its confines, and where the international power balance is being redefined.”

Dr. Corr visited all South China Sea claimant countries, undertaking research in Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Brunei.  He has also conducted analysis for USPACOM, CENTCOM, and NATO, including work in Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Ukraine.

Dr. Corr is the founder and CEO of Corr Analytics in New York, which helps governments and businesses evaluate strategic and international political risks as part of their decision-making process. 

Dick Pirozzolo is managing director of Pirozzolo Company Public Relations an international corporate communications firm based in Boston, and coauthor of "Escape from Saigon" with Michael Morris that focuses on the events of April 1-30, 1975, the last month of Vietnam War.

 

 

 Great Powers, Grand Strategies

NAVAL INSTITUTE PRESS

Publication date: 15 January 2018

China & the Asia Pacific | 336 pp.

Hardcover & eBook: $34.95

ISBN: 978-1-68247-235-4

VA Can't Decide Whether To Help Vietnam Vets With Bladder Cancer, Thyroid Disease, Parkinson's Like Symptoms, Other Ailments Linked to Agent Orange

VA Bungles Public Relations Messaging to Vietnam Veterans.

Right before Veterans Day, the VA tells ailing veterans we can't decide whether to help you.  

A decision linking four new diseases to Agent Orange exposure had been promised on November 1. 

Charles Ornstein, ProPublica

In a ProPublica article by Charles Ornstein, published days before Veterans Day, the Veterans Administration told Vietnam Vets who suffer from bladder cancer, thyroid disease, hypertension and Parkinson's like symptoms associated with exposure to Agent Orange to keep on waiting to find out whether they will be compensated for exposure to the deadly defoliant used throughout the protracted war in Southeast Asia.

Ornstein tells his readers that Vietnam Vets  "...have been waiting eight months for a decision to compensate.  Yet more than eight months later — and after his department promised a decision by Nov. 1 — the VA essentially punted, issuing a statement late Wednesday saying it would “further explore” the issue and pushing its decision to some undisclosed point in the future."

Help Us Investigate the Impact of Agent Orange

Fortunately ProPublica is on the case and is urging its readers to contact the editors with their experiences. "We're interested in hearing from veterans and family members for our ongoing investigation into the effects of Agent Orange on veterans and their children. Share your story."

In an official statement, "The VA said the department would now work with others in the Trump administration to conduct a legal and regulatory review of conditions for awarding disability compensation to eligible veterans." according to ProPublica.

"Many veterans said they thought that was exactly the review that has been ongoing since March 2016, when the National Academy of Medicine, then known as the Institute of Medicine, said there is now evidence to suggest that Agent Orange exposure may be linked to bladder cancer and hypothyroidism. The National Academy also confirmed, as previous experts have said, that there is some evidence of an association with hypertension, stroke and various neurological ailments similar to Parkinson’s Disease," Ornstein continued 

Air Force Capt. Dick Pirozzolo on the Saigon River

ProPublica quoted me in an article on the Veterans Administration’s latest stall on expanding benefits to Vietnam Vets who were exposed to Agent Orange. The VA was supposed to rule on linking hypertension, thyroid disease, bladder cancer and Parkinson’s-like symptoms to the deadly defoliant. That’s been kicked down the road.

Ornstein caught me by surprise when called with the bad news. My initial reaction: “'Son of a gun,'” said Dick Pirozzolo, 73, when he was informed of the VA’s decision to delay. Pirozzolo served as an information officer in the Air Force in Vietnam and has had bladder cancer and a thyroid condition called Graves’ disease. 'That sucks,'"

“The politicians all talk a good game about the VA, but then when it comes down to making a decision, they drag their heels.”

For the complete ProPublica Article

 Pirozzolo is a Boston Communication consultant, media relations manager for the Michael Dukakis Institute and coauthor of  "Escape from Saigon" a novel about the end of the war.

 

Trump’s Tweets fuel tension with North Korea, as scholars and diplomats seek peaceful solutions at Boston Global Forum symposium

Guest Blog By Nguyen Anh Tuan

Cofounder and CEO of Boston Global Forum

Scholars and international relations authorities gathered at Harvard University recently to urge a diplomatic solution to the US-North Korean conflict and an end to the maelstrom of threats and personal insults. The symposium, organized by the Boston Global Forum (BGF) and the Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation as part of its annual World Reconciliation Day events here and in Japan, was moderated by former Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis, who cofounded the BGF think tank in 2012.

Among the international relations authorities were Prof. Joseph Nye, Asst. Secretary of Defense during the Clinton Administration, who called for employing soft power diplomacy to reduce tensions with North Korea, and Professor Sung-Yoon Lee of the Fletcher School of Diplomacy, Tufts University, who offered his analysis of North Korea.

Gov. Michael Dukakis told the delegates, when rhetoric overshadows reason, “a single misstep can turn political brinksmanship into a global conflagration. Nowhere is there a greater risk today than with North Korea.”

In keeping with the reconciliation theme, Nye told 20 delegates and journalists, “Reconciliation with friends means one thing, but in the case of North Korea, there is similar second level of reconciliation possible that means reduction of enmity, which is extraordinarily difficult when the President talks about turning North Korea into a sea of fire and fire and fury.”

Nye added, “We must be careful not to mistake reality for rhetoric. The North Koreans are not suicidal. North Korea is extremely rational — and has chosen a set of means to get to an objective of preserving the current regime.” He emphasized that while there is a low probability of nuclear war one must then ask. “is there a probability of conventional war?”

Historically, Nye noted, “The temptation of escalation is always there. If you ask whether the Russian Tsar and German Kaiser intended a war in 1914 in which they would lose their thrones and their see their monarchies dismembered the answer is no. They expected a third Balkan war lasting for three weeks and never expected four years of armed conflict. Moreover, Japan did not act irrationally,” when it bombed Pearl Harbor. “If Japan had done nothing, the nation would have been strangled by a US oil embargo, so they hoped for short war believing it would be better than certain strangulation because of the embargo.”

While political hawks may be tempted, a decapitating strike against North Korea that seizes the nuclear weapons or kills Kim Jong Un does not seem realistic observed Nye, “Hospitality between North Korea and the US goes back to Kim Ill Sung who, in June of 1950, crossed the 38th parallel,” invading South Korea. Though hostilities ended 1953 with an armistice, both North and South Korea are technically still at war. “There have been seven decades of enmity with 100,000 North Korea troops remaining on the border,” and a highly militaristic society.

The hostilities over nuclear weapons began in 1993 when North Korea violated a treaty by reprocessing plutonium, which they at first denied and tried to cover up. When their deception was discovered, the country withdrew from the proliferation treaty rather than abide by its terms because North Korea believes nuclear weapons are the only way to preserve its existence. The North Koreans don’t believe America will treat them normally if they don’t have such destructive power. “So North Korea continues its tests, which included a thermonuclear bomb five-times more powerful than previous devices, and has a stated goal of miniaturizing the bomb so that, in a few years, they can credibly say they can hit the US.”

Is reconciliation possible? 

Cultural commonality and exchanges can contribute to enemies becoming friends, or at minimum a reduction of enmity. North and South Koreans, for example, compete on the same soccer teams, and Kim Jong Un is enamored of American movies and presumably American popular culture.

Nye looked to other historical lessons, pointing to international security communitiesthat have evolved to a point where there is no likelihood of war among, say, the Scandinavian nations or, in Western Europe, where war between Germany and France would be unthinkable today. “There are few examples of democracies, especially liberal democracies going to war. However, there is also no likelihood of North Korea developing into a liberal democracy.”

 “in 1895 the US and Britain almost came to war,” says Nye adding that, “Britain accommodated the US because, with the rise of Germany and Russia, it could not accommodate instability in Europe and also police the Western Hemisphere. So the Brits swallowed their pride and accommodated the United States.”

Similarly, the US and China fought against each other in Korea in 1950 when China crossed the Yalu River and we demonized Red China. In 1964, the US, under Linden Johnsen, contemplated preemptive nuclear strikes against China, but finally by “1971 with Nixon’s visit to China, the US accommodated China to stem Russian influence and maintain the balance of power.”

Is it like the Cuban missile crisis?

“When The US and Soviet Union came close to war during Cuban missile crisis – the positive outcome was to demonstrate that the path we were on could potentially lead to disaster.”
John F. Kennedy responded by delivering a speech in which he said we cannot continue on the path of extreme hostility with the Soviet Union and this resulted in the eventual signing of a treaty to reduce underground testing of nuclear weapons, followed by nuclear nonproliferation pacts with the Soviets such as the SALT and START talks. “While this led to a set of agreements that lowered tensions with Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, tensions have reversed with current Russian leader Vladimir Putin.”

To negotiate effectively with North Korea, the US needs a reduction of enmity to assess what is realistic. “Appeasement is not a bad thing per se and there is nothing wrong with appeasement if you have assessed your opponent’s objectives and found they are willing to accept the status quo rather the being a revisionist nation that wants to kick over the table.”

What are the goals of North Korea — status quo or revisionist? If we miss-assess the goals, we lay out greater problems for the future. We did not understand Hitler’s goals but with China we can compete and have strong differences by largely accepting the framework of the current order, Nye points out.

“Now if North Korea is interested in the status quo— if they really want weapons to prevent an overthrow of the regime, a peace treaty will let the country grow economically, the nature of their society will change and the matter is relatively easily resolved,” according to Nye, who is quick to point out, “If they really are revisionist, then given the nature of the region, a family dynasty of three generations and a belief that they are the heart of the Korean people and want to unify the Korean people under the North,” then appeasement is not possible.

Unfortunately, US knowledge and its ability to assess the situation in North Korea is limited. Nye, said President Bill Clinton believed a North Korean regime that was presiding over starvation while a nation across the border was prospering would last only a decade. “We were wrong and should admit we do not know much about what goes on inside North Korea. Additionally, we have a record of failure and of US presidents drawing redlines and Americans accepting the unacceptable.” Nye said, adding, “North Korea exploits the power of weakness and uses it to bluff and take risks.”

Nye said, “I don’t see much prospect in the use of force and we can’t wait and let them have a nuclear weapon. In 1994 we contemplated a strike, but the South Koreans said no. Sanctions may have some effect but not get to the core” of changing the behavior of a government willing to see ten-percent of its population starve.

Add that to the fact that China’s ability to solve the problem is limited because President Xi Jinping does not want to cause chaos on its border with North Korea, so the options are not impressive. “However, a China centric approach with gradual reduction of tensions over time could work,” says Nye. The US would assure China of our limited interest in deposing Kim Jong Un, and China would use its leverage to prevent escalating the North Korean nuclear threat. “The US would then gradually relax sanctions and expect North Korea to integrate with the world.”

 As part of the agreement, the US would offer a peace treaty calling for North Korea to stop testing or exporting of nuclear weapons and for their eventual elimination from the peninsula. At the same time, US would retain its deterrence capacity if North Korea doesn’t live up to the agreement. The best argument, says Nye, “The current policy has failed for 30 years so we could take some risks to get a recession of enmity. I propose this as a way to go this but the administration is not likely to follow.”

The Trump factor

Llewellyn King, a nationally syndicated columnist and host of the PBS program "White House Chronicle," took a pessimistic view. He doubted the status quo would hold and suggested that there would be a "hard intervention" by the Trump administration. This, he thought, could be a missile shot down or some other action short of outright war. “Trump he said had been so belligerent in his remarks he must have directed the Pentagon to find a way of humiliating North Korea in the short term.”

Tufts University Prof. Sung-Yoon Lee of the Fletcher School of Diplomacy and an authority on the Korean Peninsula stated that he is not so sure Kim Jong Un will be satisfied with the status quo. “North Korea is a revisionist state whose greatest threat is the fact that across the border we have a legitimate, pleasant alternate Korea that serves as a magnet for 30,000 North Koreans who have escaped to the South. This enormous wealth disparity between two countries sharing a border is the challenge North Korea cannot overcome.”

Lee, who is the Kim Koo-Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies at Tufts, added this trajectory does not favor North Korea becoming the legitimate sole government for a unified Korean state and “calls into question why North Korea’s continuing existence is necessary,” in an environment that has fostered South Korean economic development during seven decades of freedom and prosperity. “Most regrettable is the extreme suffering of the North Korean people and crimes against humanity committed by the Kim Jong Un regime, which according to a UN study, have no parallel in the world.” If these conditions are acceptable, then the status quo is extremely better than increasing the risk of war by a US preemptive strike. Will the status quo hold for the next decade and will more Americans reconcile to a nuclear North Korean state across the border of South Korea?

Lee said he expects North Korea to continue to menace South Korea, kill South Koreans, murder Americans from time-to-time such as it did with two officers they hacked to death when they went to trim a tree in the demilitarized zone or when, in 1969, North Korean jets shot down a US spy plane killing all 30 airmen aboard. We did not respond militarily at the time and then four months later the North Koreans shot down an American helicopter, killing three American military people.

Said Lee, “We have spoiled and conditioned North Korea to feel it can get away with murder. We have not put pressure on the regime sufficient to reduce its aggression.” The regime even managed to hold the US hostage by effectively censoring a satirical movie about the assassination of its leader. Sony, producer of the film The Interview, gave into North Korean demands after the regime hacked its computers by pulling the movie from theatrical distribution. In so doing North Korea was able to censor a nation that prides itself on free speech.

Post 9/11, the US Treasury found alternate ways to choke off the money supply to Iran by targeting the banks it dealt with in a bid to get their leaders to the bargaining table. The strategy worked and Lee suggested employing the same treatment with banks doing business with North Korea. Simply put, the US gives the bank a choice, continue doing business with North Korea or face the prospect of not being able to business in US dollars. The banks invariably agree to cooperate and those that cheat, face crushing fines.

Both the banks and North Korea favor the US dollar over other currencies giving the US tremendous leverage on this score and we have seen some progress on the financial front. Lee also believes China is likely to support these measures. “Awareness that this will work is no guarantor of sustained financial pressure. There is always the risk that Trump will accept political expedience over sanctions that will take at least three years to be effective.”

Though solutions to the crisis are not easy, discussions such as those being held by Boston Global Forum, in which cooler heads gather to develop and propose reasoned and peaceful solutions is a step in the right direction.

Nguyen Anh Tuan, author cofounded Boston Global Forum with Michael Dukakis

Established in 2012, The Boston Global Forum brings together, in an open and accessible public forum, an eclectic and engaging spectrum of highly regarded academic leaders, real-world experts, thought leaders, media experts and promising young leaders.

BGF’s mission is to identify emerging threats to peace and stability around the globe, suggest realistic solutions, and identify possible actions that can be taken to avert armed conflict. The Forum’s ultimate goal is to lessen tensions, promote peace and security, and foster conditions that lead to greater social justice and broader economic prosperity.

Delegates are available for media interviews and comment by contacting the Boston Global Forum press office at 617-959-4613 or dick@pirozzolo.com

Gov. Michael Dukakis, Chairman of the Boston Global Forum; Prof. Joseph Nye, Distinguished Professor of Harvard University; Prof. Thomas Patterson, Harvard Kennedy School; Prof. David Silbersweig, Harvard; Prof. Nazli Choucri; MIT, Prof. Ezra Vogel; Harvard, Prof. Richard Rosecrance, Harvard Kennedy School; Prof. John Savage, Brown; Mr. Llewellyn King, White House Chronicle Producer and Host; Prof. Sung-Yoon Lee, Tufts University Fletcher School of Diplomacy; Mr. Allan Cytryn, Former CTO, Goldman Sachs; Prof. Derek Reveron, Naval War College; Mr. Dick Pirozzolo, Media Liaison; Member BGF Editorial Board; Rokuichiro Michii, Consul-General of Japan in Boston, and Michael Pizziferri, Delegate of the Quebec Government Office in Boston

 

 

North Korea peace initiative is focus of Boston Global Forum Symposium - Sept. 9 at Harvard University

Media Alert, coverage is invited.

Soft power innovator Joseph Nye (r) and Gov. Michael Dukakis will address media, diplomats, scholars, and business leaders at World Reconciliation Day Event.

“A single misstep can turn political brinksmanship into a global conflagration. Nowhere is there a greater risk today than with North Korea,” Gov. Michael Dukakis, chairman and cofounder of The Boston Global Forum 

Throughout August, Boston Global Forum scholars and experts on international relations (www.bostonbglobalforum.org) will develop innovative solutions to the nuclear missile crisis posed by North Korea; with recommendations to be aired during the World Reconciliation Day Symposium at 8:30 AM to Noon, Sept. 9th, Loeb House, Harvard University, 17 Quincy Street, Cambridge, Mass.

Media coverage is invited. 

For press credentials contact: Dick Pirozzolo dick@pirozzolo.com, + 1 617-959-4613 or Tuan Nguyen tuan_nguyen@bostonglobalforum.org +1 617 286 6589

Professor Joseph Nye former dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a member of The Boston Global Forum Board of Thinkers will deliver The Hoa Sen Distinguished Lecture on Reconciliation on the value soft power in reducing international tensions—especially with regard to conflict with The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The Hoa Sen Group is Vietnam’s foremost manufacturer of sheet steel and building components.

The event has been organized by the UNESCO Chair on Global Learning and Global Citizen Education UCLA and The Boston Global Forum. The Boston Global Forum was founded in 2012 by Gov. Michael Dukakis and Nguyen Anh Tuan along with a dedicated group of internationally renowned scholars and political leaders as a think tank dedicated to finding peaceful solutions to contentious issues between nations and other events that decrease the safety and freedom of the World’s Citizens.

 “As we are acutely aware, relations between many of the world’s nations have become so hostile that a single misstep can turn political brinksmanship or a regional conflict into a global conflagration. Nowhere is there a greater risk than with North Korea, its neighbors and the United States,” said Gov. Dukakis in announcing the first Annual World Reconciliation Day event. Please visit Boston Global Forum for details.

The Boston Global Forum has addressed multiple world issues such as improving working conditions in Asia, conflict in the South China Sea and enhancing cybersecurity amidst numerous state-sponsored, rogue actor and other cyberthreats.

World Reconciliation Day, is hosted annually by UNESCO-UCLA Chair on Global Learning and Global Citizenship Education, UCLA and the Boston Global Forum.

Llewellyn King on Scaramucci’s Quest to Stop the Leaks

 

Anthony Scaramucci makes an impression on The New Yorker

When Anthony Scaramucci first showed up he began with Italo-American gangsta-rap while speaking to Chris Cuomo on CNN's New Day and slid into vulgarity of the worst stripe with The New Yorker. He's made an impression all right and. Now as far as the PR profession's hand-wringing over Sean Spicer's ethics as White House communication chief goes—boring. The Mooch has laid raw the real PR problem: he came into an organization in disarray, with no clear direction from the CEO and communication department staffers spending all their time watching their own butts. If he thinks he can fix the messaging by simply shutting them up, well fuhgeddaboudit! 

That's pretty much how Llewellyn King, PBS-TV's White House Chronicle host and Inside Sources columnist sees the President's hard line on leaks and his effort to plug them. 

Scaramucci’s Vain Quest to Stop the Leaks

By Llewellyn King

There’s a new sheriff in town. He has strapped on his shooting irons and has been hunting down varmints — varmints right in the ranch house.

The sheriff is Anthony Scaramucci, the new White House communications director, and the varmints are the “leakers.” Watch out!

Scaramucci has threatened to fire people. He says he may be contacting the FBI and the Justice Department. He has also hinted that the leakers are high officials who are using juniors to contact the press.

This is a strange interpretation of “communications.”

The White House is leaking because it isn’t talking coherently. The Trump administration is not rooted in policy or philosophy, and the White House staff is divided against itself; a deeply unhappy place wanting in direction and internal clarity.

So, it leaks. It leaks for personal reasons. It leaks for patriotic reasons. It leaks out of frustration. And it leaks because no one

Llewellyn King

is in charge administratively: too many assistants — including Scaramucci — are reporting directly to the president, eschewing the line of command that normally flows through the chief of staff and the national security adviser. With Scaramucci on the loose, Reince Priebus is chief of staff in title only: a male nipple.

The communications failure is enormous and extends down to the inability of the press office to answer simple questions, like who was playing golf with the president? One wouldn’t assume this to be a state secret, but reporters ask and get no answer. They aren’t rebuffed, they’re just not answered.

In this instance, a question not answered is a revelation of another sort: the communications staff members are willfully kept in the dark. It isn’t claimed that state secrets and initiatives are being discussed on the greens. It’s a simple matter of the president’s recreation. Is Trump ashamed of the company he keeps?

The avalanche of leaks are cries for clarity in a chaotic administration. They are the symptoms, not the disease.

The leaks may just get worse. But the mechanics or leaking will get more inventive as Scaramucci ferrets around, suspecting his colleagues who will live in increasing fear.

Leaking is as old a journalism and was going on long before the invention of movable type. Journalists regard it with equanimity, as part of the trade, an integral part of the job — also as part of their right to collect the news, and the public’s right to know.

However, leaking does have large consequences when it comes to how the government makes decisions. The anti-leakers have a point here: Nowadays, ideas can’t be batted about inside government with abandon. Particularly, they can’t be committed to writing without the fear of them getting into the press.

Leaking classified information is criminal. WikiLeaks troubled many journalists; delicate choices in a democracy.

But that’s not what Scaramucci is fishing for; he wants to end the embarrassment of the president.

For those who keep secrets, technology has made the job a thousand times harder. When I was a young reporter, a congressman or White House staffer wishing to show you some document — to leak it — either had to tell you what it said or allow you to see and copy it by hand. This was risky, as only a few hands would’ve had access to the document or letter.

The Xerox machine changed that instantly, and the arrival of the digital age put a leak a keystroke away. Privacy and secrecy aren’t what they used to be.

But the hunt-and-kill mission Scaramucci is on won’t stop this White House — this seething hive of fear and ambition, this policy free for all, this scarcely controlled chaos, this gyre of half-formed purposes — from leaking.

With Sheriff Scaramucci nosing around, casting doubt on everyone, the leaking might accelerate but will be more devious: Tell a junior to tell friend to tell a reporter, rather than telling the reporter something directly. Email and telephones will be eschewed, or used with great care.

If the communications director wants to control leaking, he should try communicating. He shouldn’t send the press secretary out there looking like a pudding before the custard is poured over it, without her knowing what the president’s policies are or what he meant by his latest enigmatic tweet.

Sheriff, calm the chaos, and start communicating. Then, pardner, the leaks will dry up like them thar desert.

 

For InsideSources 

How the Russian Bear outfoxes Unwary American Business Execs Using Cyber Hacks and Spycraft

Business Travelers: Don’t drop your cyber guard in Russia or China and Iran

Beware Russian Meddling, Kremlin agents are cunning and uncompromising

Your host kindly greets you the minute you arrive at your hotel, casually directing the bellhop to take your bags to your room”including the one containing your laptop that is mysteriously delayed on its way to your floor.

He generously puts his luxury sedan at your disposal, with a driver whose English language skills appear to be limited so that you feel free to discuss your negotiating stance for an upcoming meeting in his presence.

Your smartphone runs out of juice, but fortunately your hotel and the local airport are conveniently equipped with charging stations. Unfortunately, the devices exchange a little bit of electricity for all of your data.
 
When FBI Special Agent James Corbett, a counterintelligence specialist, spoke to members of the New EnglandCanada Business Council NECBC, he told the group of business and financial executives that foreign governments and businesses will stop at nothing to get a competitive edge. He regularly warns Americans who travel internationally on business that seemingly innocent gestures should raise a red flag.

Agent Corbett put it this way: “In many countries respect for and an expectation of privacy is simply a foreign notion. Cleverness is respected far more than fair play,” which includes enticing executives into compromising positions.

Check out the FBI’s Cyber Security Travel Tips.

Jubin Pejman, managing director of FCM360, an internet service provider specializing in financial transactions and cybersecurity counter measures concurs. “Tablets, laptops and smart phones are so convenient and powerful that it’s easy to become complacent when it comes to securing the vast amounts of data they store—especially overseas where corporate and government spies will go to extremes to gather any information they can to gain an advantage.”

Foreign governments will piece together information from several travelers from the same company or government agency to create a composite picture that will provide competitors with your intellectual property, customer lists, passwords and more. “The bad actors are no surprise with Russia, China and Iran heading the list.” Says Pejman an Iranian native who left the country when the Shah was deposed in 1979.

To combat corporate espionage, “Sanitize all your devices before you go. Erase the memory, leaving only the operating systems and bare-bones applications. If this is too inconvenient buy a spare smart phone for foreign travel. While overseas, keep all contact information, notes, plans and documents that you need on a thumb drive and keep it in your possession at all times throughout your trip.

Do not rely on the guestroom safe for security,” says Agent Corbett, adding “When you return, have your company’s Information Security Officer examine your devices for suspicious access and spyware installations.”

  Agent Corbett warns business executives to suspect any delay—when government customs officers see a potentially high-value target they often coordinate an eavesdropping effort with covert agents at local hotels before they let you pass.

In addition to electronic surveillance and cyber theft, one can also encounter old-fashioned tradecraft when overseas. Agent Corbett confirms that there is plenty of truth to the dramatic FX TV series, The Americans in which actors Keri Russell and Mathew Rhys portray KGB agents masquerading as The Jennings, a typical American family next door. Agent Corbett emphasizes, “Beware of friendly strangers and compromising situations.”

 

FBI Special Agent Corbett's Cyber Safety Rules for Business Travel in Russia

Before you go, sanitize all electronic devices leaving only the operating system and basic applications in memory.

Keep all personal and company data on a thumb drive and keep it in your pocket.

Beware of undue delay when entering the country and when arriving at your hotel. Missing bags or your room not being ready are tip-offs that spies are at work.

Keep rechargeable power sources on hand. When you need to charge your phone, or tablet, charge up the power source first and then charge your device from the battery pack. Charge cords plugged directly into electric wall outlets are safe.

Do not use your host’s company computer to log into you’re your corporate offices back in the US; it’s an invitation to install spyware.

Cyber spies can turn on the mic in your smartphone remotely. Keep smartphones turned off when not in use and do not discuss confidential information via phone.

Clear your Internet browser after each session, deleting history, caches, cookies and temporary Internet files.

Discard thumb drives given out as advertising premiums at trade shows as they often contain malware that can automatically copy your data and transmit it the next time you log onto your company system.

Be aware that the expectation of privacy is not the same overseas as it is in the US. Expect cabdrivers, waiters, customs officials and others to relay anything you talk about to your hosts or their government.

Clean out voice mail immediately, as passcodes can become compromised when retrieving messages.

Change your passwords as soon as you return home.

By Dick Pirozzolo is managing director of Pirozzolo Company Public Relations, an international marketing communication firm headquartered in Boston.

Vietnam-US Relations Key to Power Balance in Southeast Asia, Anders Corr, "Great Powers Grand Strategies"

Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc's recent visit to the White House underscores the importance the United States-Vietnam relationship that has evolved positively over the past four decades. 

Vietnam, a nation of 90 million people, is today not only a trading partner but a key ally in the projection of US diplomacy and Naval power in the South China Sea— a region where China's rapacious behavior over shipping lanes, fishing, and other natural resources, as well as China's building of a military runway on the Spratly Islands has created an ongoing threat to peace.  During the visit Phuc told President Trump, the relationship has undergone significant upheavals in history, but that the two countries were now "comprehensive partners." 

In the  mid 90’s the US granted Most Favored Nation to establish open and vigorous trade relationships with Vietnam, which was seen as a new frontier to sell US brands, get cheap labor and buy agricultural products. Phuc is now replacing the cheap labor positioning with quality manufacturing given his county's nearly universal literacy, education, entrepreneurship and eagerness to learn strategies needed to penetrate the US market. This was evident when I took part in a panel discussion for Ho Ch Minh City's top 100 CEOs a couple of summers ago.

Vietnam has also become a hip travel destination for the been-there-done-that crowd. Some 400,000 Americans and 100,000 Canadians expected to visit Vietnam this year according to Vietnamese government figures.

Over the past two decades, The US-Vietnam relationship has become much more intertwined and multifaceted.  Americans now buy more Vietnamese products including electronics, clothing, rice coffee and oil than they sell—$30.6 billion, with US exports to Vietnam at $6 billion.  Cultural and academic ties are far more numerous and Vietnam has also become the key US ally in maintaining the balance of power in the Pacific.

In this environment comes fresh insight by Anders Corr, PhD in his forthcoming book, Great Powers, Grand Strategies: The New Game In The South China Sea, "This book is relevant to Vietnam, which is especially attentive to shifts in power between global powers in the South China Sea, including China, the U.S., Russia, the U.K., and France."

Anders Corr displays The Philippines Flag off Scarborough Shoals in the South China Sea

The book, Great Powers, Grand Strategies offers the analysis of a dozen experts on big picture approaches to the South China Sea dispute," according to publisher U.S. Naval Institute Press, "By exploring the international dimensions of this regional hotspot, coauthors Bill Hayton, Gordon Chang, Bernard Cole, James Fanell, and others examine how the military, diplomatic, and economic strategies of the major global actors have both contributed to solutions and exacerbated the potential for conflict."

 

 

 

As editor of the volume, Dr. Corr juxtaposes the grand strategies of the great powers to determine the likely outcomes of the South China Sea dispute, as well as evaluate the ways to possibly defuse tensions in the region."

As part of his research Dr. Corr, who is also the publisher of The Journal of Political Risk  visited all South China Sea claimant countries,  undertaking field research in Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Brunei. Dr. Corr has also conducted analysis for USPACOM, CENTCOM, and NATO, including work in Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. Dr. Corr is also and active member of The Boston Global Forum, a think tank with ties to Harvard University Faculty, that focuses on peaceful solutions to global conflicts, including the current  tensions that plague the South China Sea.

Boston Global Forum was founded by Tuan Nguyen, who is the UCLA Chair for UNESCO and brought a free and open internet to Vietnam, and former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis.

Great Powers, Grand Strategies by Anders Corr is available from the U.S. Naval Institute Press

Dick Pirozzolo is managing director of Pirozzolo Company Public Relations in Boston and coauthor of "Escape from Saigon" with Michael Morris that focuses on the events of April 1-30, 1975, the last month of Vietnam War.

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.