Ronn Torossian On Media Bias

Ronn Torossian of the Algemeiner asks: Imagine that this week, Jews got angry and hundreds attacked Palestinian Arabs with rocks at the holiest Muslim site in the world.  Imagine that this violence came after a handful of Muslims came to pray peacefully at the site, and even though hundreds of Jews attacked police officers, only seven were arrested.  Can anyone imagine the endless news stories and media reports which would emanate as a result? The New York Times would have three front-page stories; there would be countless United Nations and European Union condemnations, and CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on site.  Media coverage would be non-stop.

But, in reality Arabs attacked Jews repeatedly over the last few days at the Temple Mount, the holiest site for Jews, so it is barely a news story.  Palestinian Arab violence against Jews is a regular occurrence, and as the media seemingly expects the Arabs to throw rocks, they don’t afford it much media coverage. 

A few weeks ago, Stockwell Day, who served as Canada’s Minister of Public Safety between 2006 and 2008 visited the area and was refused admittance by Muslims.  On the Temple Mount, Jewish religious artifacts and symbols are not permitted and visitors report being strip searched before being allowed admittance.  Imagine if in the Vatican, people weren’t permitted to bring religious artifacts?  World media would jump all over themselves to cover the story.  But, since it is Jews being attacked, the world’s media is silent.

The Temple Mount is Judaism's holiest site and the location of the two Holy Temples of Jerusalem, the latter of which was destroyed by the Romans in 70CE. Despite the fact that this area is the holiest place on Earth for the Jews, Jewish visitation is restricted. Pretend there was an area in Washington, DC which had important political or religious significance to America – Could anyone envision a scenario where Americans were kept out? And police officers were attacked regularly at the site?

Of course, if the Israeli police were to adopt the position of the American border patrol police which says they “consider rock-throwing to be deadly force which sometimes demands the same in response”, then the world headlines would criticize Israel for shooting at “unarmed” young protestors.  Ignoring the fact that rocks kill people, the media would describe “tit for tat violence” if Israel responded. Talk about a no-win situation.

Israel is simply always wrong and can do no right for the world’s media. This bias leads to Jews being killed and is simply despicable.

Ronn Torossian is one of America’s most prolific and respected public relations experts. Torossian is CEO of 5WPR, a leading NY PR Agency.

Bullets Fly After Random Driveway Turnaround

Have you ever found yourself feeling a little, well, infringed upon, when a random driver uses your driveway to turn around? Conversely, have you ever felt like maybe it wasn’t so cool to be turning around in a random home owner’s driveway? Does it feel a little like trespassing on private property? Especially because you didn’t exactly ask permission?

You may have had good reason for feeling a bit uneasy. It seems that on July 21, 2013, a 72-year-old woman shot at a car for turning around in her driveway. This was in Hawkins County on Bays Mountain Road in Rogersville, Tennessee, near Knoxville. The good news? No one died.

Five Children

The car’s passengers included a couple from Virginia and their five children.

According to the arrest report (you didn’t really think she’d get away with it, did you?) it was a peaceful Sunday and Oscar Scott was looking for a scenic route by which to take his family back to Virginia. Just after his car crossed the Hawkins County line, Margie Rhea Ramey began shooting. In speaking with the local Kingsport Times-News, Mr. Scott reported that one of the bullets hit the running board on the passenger side of the car. This was a mere couple of feet from where his five children were seated, in the back of the car.

(We’re thinking the sight of that car may be traumatic to the kids in future. The Scotts may want to consider a donation to Kars forKids. They probably need a bigger car anyway, what with all those kids.)

She Confessed

Naturally, Hawkins County deputies arrived on the scene to arrest Ms. Ramey. She confessed she’d fired the shots because she just hates it when people tear up her driveway.

The upshot? Ramey was charged with 7 counts of felony reckless endangerment. So the next time you’re thinking about using a random person’s driveway to turn your car around, you may want to rethink things a bit.

Car Safety Solutions From Chrysler

Safety is our number one expectation of the cars we purchase. Unlike vanity plates or white wall tires, safety is a foregone conclusion. And when our cars become too old to drive safely, it’s time to donate them to a car donation program like Kars for Kids where they will be safely refitted or recycled, with the proceeds going to help kids in need.

So it’s kind of a shock when we read about a massive recall of cars due to safety reasons. We expect new cars to be safe. On the other hand, most of us know the old saying about “assume.”

Yes. We’re in the midst of yet another recall. This time it’s Chrysler, recalling some 667,000 vehicles due to passenger safety restraints that may malfunction as a result of electrical issues. In fact, Chrysler has two recalls going on for this reason, for different models and faulty parts.

More Bad News

That’s piling bad news on top of bad news as far as Chrysler is concerned. Just last month, the car manufacturer had to fight federal safety officials over a demand to recall 2.7 million Jeep Liberty and Grand Cherokee SUV’s after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the design of these vehicles made them vulnerable to catching fire, should they be rear-ended.

Just in the nick of time, the CEO for Chrysler Group, Sergio Marchionne, reached a compromise with NHTSA administrator David Strickland in which “only” 1.56 million vehicles needed to be recalled. The solutions for remedying the cars were uncomplicated and relatively low-cost. This agreement between Chrysler and the NHTSA was made over the phone just minutes before a June 18^th deadline for the recall. Had an agreement not been reached, Chrysler would have been brought before federal court.

Updated Recall List

Here is a list of Chrysler vehicles currently under recall:

The smallest recall involves 224,254 2013 Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Grand Caravan, and Ram C/V Tradesman minivans produced May 10, 2012-June 7, 2013. A possible electricity polarity issue might result in airbags inflating on the wrong side of the vehicle should there be a side crash. In other words, if the van is hit on the left side, the right-hand air bag would inflate, and vice versa.  The issue here is that the occupants taking most of the impact during the crash would be left unprotected. In addition, as the airbags deploy on the other side of the vehicle, this may serve to push the occupants on that side of the vehicle toward the site of impact. Dealers can reprogram the airbag systems of these cars for a free and easy fix, once the recall begins in August.

A recall involving 442,481 cars is due to the 2011 natural disasters in Japan which resulted in interruptions for car supplies and components, leaving a possibility of faulty microcontrollers in these cars. These microcontrollers may stop active head restraints on front seats from yielding slightly forward during a rear crash which is meant to minimize the possibility of the occupants sustaining whiplash during a car accident. Starting in August, car dealers will, free of charge, either reprogram control systems or replace control models, depending on what is needed.

Here are the affected cars:

2011-2013 Chrysler Sebring and Chrysler 200 vehicles manufactured June 28, 2011-December 13, 2012.

2011-2013 Dodge Avenger cars created June 25, 2011-January 14, 2013.

2011-2012 Dodge Nitro SUVs made June 17, 2011- December 15, 2011.

2011-2012 Jeep Liberty SUVs produced June 17, 2011- August 15, 2012.

Healthbridge and Daniel Straus Raise Hopes and Cash for Marathon Terror Victims

After the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013 that killed 3 people, injured 264 others and shocked the New England city and unsettled a nation, people and businesses set out to find meaningful ways to help the victims and help the city heal.

At Boston’s HealthBridge Managed Nursing and Rehabilitation Centers, CEO Daniel Straus and director Elizabeth Straus designed a silent auction to honor the victims.  They set out to find items to auction and gifts to raffle, and they landed some nice contributions.  Among the prizes were art, tickets for Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots and Boston Celtics games, fancy dinners and many more.  Guests also were offered an opportunity to take a photo with Boston Red Sox's 2004 and 2007 World Series Championship trophies.

Ultimately, more than 300 guests attended, including Boston Marathon Director Dave McGillivray, Boston Marathon Medical Director Aaron Baggish and Dr. David King. What is remarkable is that Dr. King finished the marathon on tax day and then headed straight to Massachusetts General Hospital to assist with the mass influx of patients.

Straus and Healthbridge raised $275,000 and it was donated to causes that are established specifically for the victims of the bombing.  It was their goal to see that the bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev did not rule the day, and the spirit of the event and money raised showed that goodness ultimately wins out.

A Closer Look at Celebrity Endorsements

When Academy Award-winning actor Robin Williams spoofed the Kars For Kids jingle the car donation charity was just as surprised as the next guy. Of course, the nonprofit was thrilled to receive this kind of unsolicited, not to mention scot free advertising for its good work. Alas, that kind of thing—that is, unsolicited celebrity endorsements—don’t happen naturally all that often. At least not these days.

In fact, the newest trend in celebrity endorsements is to contrive to get a celebrity or anyone really, as long as that person has a large following on social media, to casually drop a mention of a product or company in a post. When it’s done carefully, the consumer is no wiser and may be left thinking, “Hey, if So-and-So prefers Crest to Colgate, why should I be a shnook?”

There’s just no way to know if this form of advertising is paid for or unsolicited. You could ask, but with hundreds or thousands of fans following an account, who knows if you’ll get an answer. Especially if the endorsement is meant to be hush-hush.

By The Way

Here’s how it works: last week, pop star Miley Cyrus was on a promotional tour for her new album when she wakes up one morning and tweets, “Thanks @blackjet for the flight to Silicon Valley!” On inquiry, BlackJet CEO Dean Rotchin admitted, “She was given some consideration for her tweet.” Cyrus didn’t clarify in what way or to what extent she was favored by the private jet travel service in exchange for her tweet to her 12 million Twitter followers. But the federal government is beginning to sit up and take note of these “incidental” endorsements.

Sometimes, endorsements are the result of a PR Agency, or a club owner like Mark Birnbaum,  or maybe an entrepreneur like David Milberg 

Working Assumptions

The Federal Trade Commission’s Mary K. Engle, who serves as associate director for the FTC’s advertising practices division had this to say, “In a traditional ad with a celebrity, everyone assumes that they are being paid. When it’s not obvious that it is an ad, people should disclose that they are being paid.”

It seems that according to guidelines set forth by the FTC, companies and those celebrities they pay in exchange for endorsements must make it clear that these are paid advertisements. The issue of deceptive advertising is very serious. Companies may be breaking federal laws known as “Dot Com Disclosures” requiring sponsors to disclose their arrangements with celebrities, even on social media networking sites like Twitter. Violators may be penalized with fines or merely warned, and that’s where it all goes murky. The penalties just aren’t well-defined.

And maybe that’s the reason Cyrus and BlackJet will get away with that little arrangement after all.