How long with Shepard Smith and Chris Wallace remain at Fox News? From USA Today; Trump unhinged: Now he's even at war with Fox News - Alicia Shepard #FiredfromFoxNews #ChrisWallace #ShepardSmith #Howlong

Scott Bedley, fifth-grade teacher at Plaza Vista School in Irvine, Calif., says he's been trying to teach his students for a while to look carefully at what they're reading and where it comes from. He's got a seven-point checklist his students can follow: 1. Do you know who the source is, or was it created by a common or well-known source? Example National Geographic, Discovery, etc. 2. How does it compare to what you already know? 3. Does the information make sense? Do you understand the information? 4. Can you verify that the information agrees with three or more other sources that are also reliable? 5. Have experts in the field been connected to it or authored the information? 6. How current is the information? 7. Does it have a copyright? [read the article]

Excerpt: "Presidential Counselor Kellyanne Conway, Trinity Class of 1989, has played a large role in facilitating the manipulation of facts and encouraging the grave injustice being perpetrated by the Trump Administration’s war on immigrants among many other issues. She is one of President Trump’s primary spokespersons, an almost daily figure on cable news shows. Some people admire her staunch advocacy for her client’s positions, and others applaud the fact that she was the first woman to manage a successful presidential campaign. But in fact, as is true of many of President Trump’s statements, her advocacy on his behalf is often at variance with the truth. " [read the whole blog]

We should be more focused on solving problems rather than winning a debate.

Challenge: How many can you catch President Trump on? Or any politician for that matter. Find the quote and post it for discussion.

I’ve come across a trend that exist and can be applied and proven seriously—trends proven by the recent campaign and electoral process of our current leader of the free world. I’ve noticed that damage control is much easier than it used to be. All you have to do is wait out the news cycle. The deregulation of the media, namely the Telecommunications Act of 1996, have allowed the media to be dominated near completely by profit motive as opposed to more ethical considerations that were originally designed for seeking truth. Due to this profit motive, the news cycle has continued to demonstrate a significant amount of amnesia in regards to negative press. Investigative journalism just cost too much to engage in it, and it is much less expensive and easier to just move on to the next sound bite. For these reasons, if I were a Chief Executive Officer responsible for producing a somewhat manageable, yet destructive series of defective products; I would have to say that my best bet would be to do a minimal amount of damage control and just wait until the “newsies” became reconnoitered by their producers and editors to focus on something much less expensive such as a sound bite generated either genuinely or disingenuously from some other source or one’s own sources or purposeful leaks. The motive of the media is to sell, not to seek the truth. Mass media has become “an instrument of fragmentation,” according to Patterson and Wilkins in that “today, all of us now have the capacity to develop a Daily Me from the vast collection of information now on the World Wide Web.” The “daily me” aspect is a result of us now being able to personalize our news to suit our already established thoughts and values – all attributed to the genius of social media. And since we don’t have to muddle through opposing viewpoints and opinions, we have now isolated ourselves into little pockets of groups with the same unbending viewpoints. “In the absence of shared experience, society will have a much harder time addressing social problems.” Patterson and Wilkins cite the comment made by legal scholar Cass Sunstein who concludes that “the ‘Daily Me’ is the farthest thing from a utopian dream, and it would create serious problems from a democratic point of view” (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014). Never the less, as a CEO who produces defective items; I have to find the fact that I have produced defective products irrelevant; and in addition, I find the media’s power to investigate equally irrelevant. Considering these things, Patterson and Wilkins discuss the “sleeper effect” and how “practitioners, from Nazi master propagandist Joseph Goebbels through contemporary political consultants, have intuitively understood this human tendency to disassociate the source from the messaging” (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014). “When people are exposed normally to a persuasive message (such as an engaging or persuasive television advertisement), their attitudes toward the advocacy of the message display a significant increase. Over time, however, their newly formed attitudes seem to gravitate back toward the opinion held prior to receiving the message, almost as if they were never exposed to the communication.” (Sleeper effect, 2016) As time (measuring from the moment of message was delivered) goes on, the message’s persuasive impact diminishes to the baseline opinion that was previously held prior to the persuasive message. Considering the pace of messages that occur in our current world, the sleeper effect, in this ever-increasing rate of information and message presentation in the modern world, I believe will have a much steeper rate of decline over time as technology continues to allow for more and more mechanisms of message deliver, and it provides a great way to escape public exposure. These things being said, this just is not the right way to do things. And that being considered, PR representatives must be respectful of this increasing rate and the interest of society. The PRSA aspect of truth must be more accurately applied to cases where they must balance the interest of the client (and the client’s messages) so as to balance the possible negative effect on the interests of society. The truth is the best way to make this balance, and the PRSA provides ethical guidelines that cover that aspect, and those guidelines are becoming increasingly important as message technologies continue to develop. Reference Patterson, P. ; & Wilkins, L. (2014) .New Media: Continuing Questions and New Roles . Media Ethics: Issues and Cases . 8th Ed . 2014 . p 226-253 PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) . (2016) . PRSA Member Statement of Professional Values . Member Code of Ethics . retrieved from https://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/Ethics/CodeEnglish/index.html#MemberStatement Sleeper effect (2016) . Wikipedia . October 31, 2016 . retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeper_effect

Contemporary to our current, heated political debate, discussing who should go to the bathroom where; I ran across these song lyrics on http://www.coolest-holiday-parties.com/funny-christmas-carols.html.

Excerpt; The coalition sent a letter today to Trump and Pence, asking for a meeting or conference call to discuss: • the ability of reporters to directly interact with government employees who are subject matter experts, rather than interacting with Public Information Officers (or having all conversations monitored by Public Information Officers); • access to the activities of the President; • and ensuring that the Federal Freedom of Information Act remains as strong as possible. Read the entire article

Greetings…. As part of this exercise I chose Richard Nixon’s "Checkers" speech (Miller Center, 2009). If you remember, this was a speech in response to media reporting of a questionable funding. In this speech Nixon was attempting to persuade the Republican party members that he should stay on Dwight Eisenhower’s presidential ticket as Vice President. Throughout the speech, elements of Conger’s Multistep Model of Persuasion can be observed. The first part of four of Conger’s model is establishing credibility. According to the text, Walker states that “credibility has two aspects: expertise and relationships” (Walker, 2015). This clip taken in isolation makes it difficult to judge expertise; however, Nixon does present the speech competently and with ethos. This helps to present and element of an expert politicians who has knowledge of the issues, and Nixon makes sure to associate himself with his running mate Eisenhower – relying on Eisenhower’s popularity to buttress his own. In addition, Nixon stimulates “goodwill,” which is a concept that includes a friendly disposition, cheerful acquaintance, and reputation (Walker, 2015). Through these means, Nixon establishes credibility. Nixon helps to find common ground with his audience by mentioning his wife, his family, and his family dog Checkers – hence the name of the speech. There is even video of his wife, Pat, dressed properly to the day of that of a housewife. In addition, Nixon mentions how Pat was a stenographer who works on his campaigns free of charge. Evidence is a hard case to make with this speech; however, he does establish that the fund was no secret stash and cites the accountant who handled the fund. As mentioned before, Nixon makes it clear that Eisenhower trusts him, by dropping his name several times. During those parts the speech turns into a campaign speech as Nixon praises Eisenhower, citing several top issues that have negatively affected many Americans including communism, the Korean War, and alleged political corruption. Nixon presents his words with much passion which is Conger’s final part of the persuasion model. Through his varying presentations, Nixon is able to “connect emotionally” (Walker, 2015) which in turn supports his persuasive argument. Public Broadcasting Service (n.d) . Checkers Speech . American Experience . retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/primary-resources/nixon-checkers/ Miller Center of Public Affairs (2009) . Richard Nixon - "Checkers" Speech . Youtube . Sep 3, 2009 . retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9LcAJOsFGg Walker, Robyn (2015) . Strategic Management Communication for Leaders . 3rd Ed . Cengage Learning . Stamford, CT . pp 8

Many leaders, however, regard the “art of persuasion” as a difficult skill set to master — but it doesn’t have to be. In his seminal work on the art of persuasion for business leaders, research scientist Dr. Jay A. Conger boiled down the persuasion game to four simple steps: Credibility, Common Ground, Evidence, and Emotional Connection.[2. “The Necessary Art of Persuasion,” https://hbr.org/1998/05/the-necessary-art-of-persuasion] Master these four steps to persuade your team effectively! read the entire article....