Flack Juice
Most of you are too young to remember the days when a company was more about manufacturing than spin control. Not the focus is not on how to prevent screw-ups so much as to be prepared with tons of horse-feathers to cover up the mistakes.
Sometimes this nonsense takes the form of competing talking heads; that is, they call on their own "experts" to deny that they messed up, or insist that the mess-up wasn’t a big deal, or even go so far as to say their mess-management methodology actually succeeded quite well and the company is even better set now to save life as we know it.
One reason why this pap works is that the media doesn’t care what anyone says any more just so long as they can collect a quote or a sound bite. Especially if there is some sort of conflict, then they get someone from each "side" and consider they have provided balanced reporting. It really doesn’t matter – often it is beyond their poor powers to understand – what the facts are, what they mean, what the viewers and readers should understand, and who, if anyone, is telling the truth.
Another critical problem, of course, is that the public is too lazy, too apathetic, and too ovine to parse what they are told.
Consider that the Mylan pharmaceutical company has an internal report that says quality control ain’t, and by a long shot. This company makes 19 billion pills a year, so QC is not an insignificant issue. But their mouthpiece insisted that there was "no impact on product quality whatsoever," adding that as with every company, they "periodically" see "deviations" in standard operating procedures.
The flack’s name was Laffin – how appropriate; all the way to the microphone – and if you buy his take on the situation, I have a bridge to Brooklyn I can let you have for a song.
©2009 SetonnoteS
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