So, Obama has been censored by China, despite being invited to visit China.
“Southern Weekend,” a very outspoken publication in China, interviewed President Obama. And when citizens of China got their copy of the magazine delivered to them...it was missing the interview. Front and back pages simply missing from the paper, as if torn out. The Post Office claims that the magazines arrived that way.
This is not the first and only instance, either. Before he even made it over to China, entire sections of President Obama's inauguration speech were removed by CCTV. Xinhua removed any sentences that might allow their citizens to feel animosity towards China (words such as Communism were excluded from Chinese translations of the speech).
Obama's recent speech in China finally gave him a chance to discuss censorship and open-Internet policies. And even in lieu of China's repeated censorship of information, there were those who claimed that the mainstream was not concerned with internet censorship.
Let's look at public image. You're a nation that censors information. People are calling you out on it, internally and externally. Which of the following do you do:
a) continue censoring the people speaking out against your censorship
b) pretend like your population doesn't care
c) justify your stance
If you said C (as in China), congrats--you've got it right. I have no illusions: asking China to simply cease censorship is like asking Rush Limbaugh to tone it down for a bit. It's just not going to happen. But China CAN justify its position. "Why do you censor people, China?" "Well, we do it for ___, ____ and ____."
Basic PR: pretending that something isn't happening or isn't important when it's both is DUMB.
If you address the issue and show why it's happening, it's much better and helps your image a lot more.
Just for thought.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Christianity, Evolution and PR
Today, the Living Waters group (http://www.livingwaters.com/) are on college campuses across America handing out reading material. Some of you may know Living Waters by its celebrity member, Kirk Cameron, and his variety of YouTube videos decrying evolution.
The reading material, though, is The Origin of Species.
That's right: Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, the very book that Christianity has [mixed up with The Descent of Man and] fought against...handed out by the anti-evolution Living Waters group.
Ah, but wait! There's more to this book than meets the eye! It comes with a "special" introduction by Ray Comfort of Living Waters.
...and the introduction completely attacks The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man. It doesn't stop there: it goes after other religions and Darwin's personal life as well. It forces propaganda down your throat with every paragraph, decrying abortion and homosexuality and all the staple things that fundamentalist, evangelical Christianity has been on the rampage against for some time now.
...from a P.R. perspective, this is HORRIBLE horrible P.R.
Congratulations, Living Waters! Now, instead of making videos and giving speeches (all which can be forgotten or deleted) you have published your extreme ideas! Living Waters uses logical fallicies, incorrect "facts" and personal attacks to pad their argument. Tearing down Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam for the sake of promoting your ideas does not make you more appealing. Neither does trying to tear down Charles Darwin's argument by attacking his other views.
Living Waters has now cemented its stupidity, giving tangeable proof for any and all who wish to go after them. How do you make yourself look good in this situation? It's hard to.
A second point of bad P.R.: the average person does not read a book introduction.
You might catch a few people (like me) who want to see what you have to say. But for the most part, people are going to skip to the meat of the book. People got the book for the book, not for the intro...so the message gets lost on roughly 3/4 of the intended audience, unless someone else tells them "Hey, look at the silly things in the introduction," (also like me).
If word of this spreads (which I do so hope for and am helping to expedite), can Living Waters take the hit? Or are they wrapped up in their world, in which public image doesn't matter as much as the message?
Only time will tell.
For those of you who want more viewing of Living Waters and Ray Comfort:
Ray trying to spread the gospel ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDqz7taF5Dg&feature=channel
And more well-known Banana argument ----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfv-Qn1M58I
The reading material, though, is The Origin of Species.
That's right: Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species, the very book that Christianity has [mixed up with The Descent of Man and] fought against...handed out by the anti-evolution Living Waters group.
Ah, but wait! There's more to this book than meets the eye! It comes with a "special" introduction by Ray Comfort of Living Waters.
...and the introduction completely attacks The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man. It doesn't stop there: it goes after other religions and Darwin's personal life as well. It forces propaganda down your throat with every paragraph, decrying abortion and homosexuality and all the staple things that fundamentalist, evangelical Christianity has been on the rampage against for some time now.
...from a P.R. perspective, this is HORRIBLE horrible P.R.
Congratulations, Living Waters! Now, instead of making videos and giving speeches (all which can be forgotten or deleted) you have published your extreme ideas! Living Waters uses logical fallicies, incorrect "facts" and personal attacks to pad their argument. Tearing down Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam for the sake of promoting your ideas does not make you more appealing. Neither does trying to tear down Charles Darwin's argument by attacking his other views.
Living Waters has now cemented its stupidity, giving tangeable proof for any and all who wish to go after them. How do you make yourself look good in this situation? It's hard to.
A second point of bad P.R.: the average person does not read a book introduction.
You might catch a few people (like me) who want to see what you have to say. But for the most part, people are going to skip to the meat of the book. People got the book for the book, not for the intro...so the message gets lost on roughly 3/4 of the intended audience, unless someone else tells them "Hey, look at the silly things in the introduction," (also like me).
If word of this spreads (which I do so hope for and am helping to expedite), can Living Waters take the hit? Or are they wrapped up in their world, in which public image doesn't matter as much as the message?
Only time will tell.
For those of you who want more viewing of Living Waters and Ray Comfort:
Ray trying to spread the gospel ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDqz7taF5Dg&feature=channel
And more well-known Banana argument ----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfv-Qn1M58I
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