September 23rd 2008
Apologies From Hell: Winner Edition
E
than Winner, who suddenly became famous yesterday when The Jawa Report busted him for trying to make a shamefully false hit-piece video on Sarah Palin go viral h as issued an apology a statement.
What he owed Palin and the voters of our free, Democratic nation was an apology for deliberately befouling the channels of communication with a video that contained a known lie, this lie:
Sarah Palin and her husband were members of this anti-American organization, which supports separation of their state from the United States.
In Winner’s video, the screen text behind this statement reads:
Alaskan Independent Party
Sarah Palin, Member
Todd Paliln, Member, 1995-2002
Source: New York Times.
Of course, Sarah Palin was never a member of AIP. That’s been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt by a review of her voter registration, and the NYT published a correction eight days before Winner uploaded his video.
So let’s not mince words: It’s a lie, a deliberate lie, a lie designed to dupe the unread into a misbelief about a candidate for VP. In his apology statement, Winner does not apologize for telling a lie:
I believe the American people have a right and a need to know information about candidates for political office and their views. I made this video because I think it is important for the public to be aware of the association between Sarah and Todd Palin and the Alaskan Independence Party. The New York Times has reported that the Alaskan Independence Party website describes the party as seeking, in the words of the party, “a range of solutions to the conflicts between federal and local authority,” including “advocacy for state’s rights, through a return to territorial status, all the way to complete independence and nationhood status for Alaska.”
What the American people have a right to know, and what Winner, as a communicator, has an obligation to tell them, is the truth. Parse Winner’s statement carefully, and you see he doesn’t repeat the exact lie of the video but makes it sound like he hasn’t backed off on iota. It’s the sort of thing really crappy crisis communications managers do – play petty little word games when big issues are at stake. Imagine a statement that close to a lie being issued on behalf of a company responding to a major accident. They would be media vulture lunch meat in minutes.
As for the rest of the statement, Winner says he made the video himself and was not paid for it by anyone – possible, even probable, but he presents no proof and since we’ve already established that he’s a liar, what is his word worth?
As I told you yesterday, I wrote Lou Capozzi, the (former, now emeritus) chairman of Publicis’ PR and Communications Group, of which Winner & Associates is a member. Yesterday evening I received a very nice response from him, promising to look into the matter, but stating that there no longer is a direct reporting relationship between Winner and himself. Still, it seems like dealing with a matter like this is a perfect assignment for someone in the Chair Emeritus role.
Posted in 2008, Advertising, Apologies From Hell, Crisis Communications, PR, YouTube | 2 Comments » | |
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September 25th, 2008 at 9:07 am
September 26th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
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