08/29

By adding the word gasoline to the list of services and commodities that are defined as public utilities in the state constitution, we will empower the people to hold oil companies accountable for their irresponsible price gouging.

Let's see.  California has the most rigid emissions restrictions in the U.S. and requires expensive gasoline formulations to prevent air pollution.  California taxes gasoline at a high rate to pay for roads and road maintenance.  California spends millions to develop alternative power sources for automobiles to control pollution.  But California drivers merit cheap gasoline because they all have polluting cars, and it is their divine right to drive them.  Energy and politics have been bedfellows, but the contradictions in this position make one gag. 

Populism has been a feature of state elections and, especially, of California elections where politicians beat up on industry to get votes.   I would hope the oil industry in the state is ready to battle an absurd suggestion.   Bustamante, however, would have it both ways.  He apparently acknowledged the oil industry pays significant taxes and employs thousands of workers in California, but then he said he state had to bear the risk of refineries serving drivers with gasoline that pours from them. 

Because California bears the burden of all the environmental risks, it is even more inexcusable that our prices are higher than states that have no refineries.

Wha...?  About all I can take from this suggestion is that Bustamante wants all refineries to be located in Nevada or Oregon but all gasoline to be sold in California.

Now, why is an East Coast PR practitioner writing about a silly local proposal in California, three thousand miles from here?  Because Bustamante's suggestion is an example of PR issues that practitioners must be ready to handle.   Like many politicians, he has seized a hot-button issue -- high gasoline prices --, and he is using the issue to tar the reputation of industries responsible for providing gasoline under onerous and restrictive conditions. 

You would think voters would know better by now than to let elected representatives get away with such chicanery.  But, I'll bet PR practitioners at the oil companies are gearing for a campaign.
 

08/28

The letter was printed in Jim Romenesko's daily column on the media.  A woman had served for seven years as a reporter but left because she says newspapers lack family-friendly policies.  She wrote:

But the fact is, newspapers have not yet figured out how to make it possible for women to have both family and a news career without either going insane or living under a cloud of guilt. There is still a culture in most newsrooms that looks down upon women who make their children a priority. I have heard male (and female) editors tell single mothers that they have to find someone else to pick up their children at daycare because of a breaking story. I have friends who are worried about having second children because they are afraid their editors will be mad they have to go on maternity leave again. When a male reporter or editor has to leave early for a kid's soccer game, he's considered a heroic father. When a mother has to leave early because her kid has an ear infection, eyes roll.  

The second story from the Boston Globe was titled, "More women in J-school doesn't translate to jobs."   The story reports that:

 ...the proportion of females in undergraduate journalism and mass communications programs hit a high-water mark in 2002, according to research from the University of Georgia. Women now represent 64.1 percent of journalism and communications undergrads, and occupy two of every three seats in the classrooms that train people for careers as reporters, editors, producers, and anchors. And though the pipeline is full of women, the newsroom remains a male-dominated province that presents significant barriers to their success. The new American Journalist Survey found that in the past two decades, the overall percentage of women journalists (33 percent) had actually dropped by about a point. And this, the survey noted, is in a country in which women make up half the professional and managerial work force. For all the talk about changing workplace culture, evolving societal mores, and the abundance of women in journalism school, such traditional issues as babies, bad hours, and old-boy networks still make a career in media a daunting enterprise. And full gender diversity -- which many media analysts say would have a serious impact on news content itself -- remains a distant goal.

While I would like to celebrate better working conditions in PR, it isn't true.  Because we service the media, we keep the media's schedule when necessary.  Our burden might not be as great as it is on newspersons, but it can be onerous when there are demanding clients.  My sister-in-law left news and is working as a PR person.  She is overwhelmed with work for inadequate pay.  I think the benefit for her is that she is not traveling as much as she did when she was covering an entire county for a major newspaper.  She goes to an office to produce and edit copy. 

I was discussing this thought with my wife who worked for years in PR agencies before opening her own business.  She said family-friendly policies in PR depend on one's boss.  She had a hard time with at least one of her former employers.  Sounds like the news business, doesn't it?

08/27

Strangely, I didn't suffer from withdrawal pains for not having the news.   I figured once in awhile one should get away and find out what it is like.  It is like living in a cocoon where one focuses on personal issues and problems.  Certainly, the area through which we traveled has concerns -- many of which are brought on by world trade.  We didn't see but one textile mill that appeared to be in operation.  We saw many that were closed.  We saw many former furniture factories as well.  The area through which we passed -- Research Triangle -- has been making itself a high-tech and bio-tech area, but that leaves out thousands of lesser-educated workers scrambling to make a living.  Many have gone into service businesses to "rich" retirees flooding into towns like Asheville  from places like New York City.   That's not enough to sustain the economy, it seems to me.  There is also a core of aging "hippies" in  Asheville who practice crafts of many kinds and have made a go of small business, but they too are not enough to sop the unemployment.  So, maybe attention to one's local issues is enough for the average individual.  But, I couldn't take it after awhile.

I learned again what I have known.  I'm spoiled in the New York area.  There is plenty of news of all kinds, and it is easy to access.   So how does one reach consumers in the places where we were in Virginia and North Carolina?  You have to go through doors they watch and one of those is NASCAR racing.   We saw hundreds of fans on their way to the race track in Bristol, TN.  I guess that explains why so many companies spend millions to support teams.

But where does that leave larger issues and concerns, news about business and the stock market?  Darned if I know.  But I didn't observe much interest in any of that.  Maybe those of us in news towns like New York are talking to ourselves after all.
 

08/26

We drove from New Jersey for seven hours to Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia, near Roanoke, where wonderful friends encourage my daughter to swim, "tube," fish and otherwise have a great time for a day and a half.   My daughter loves the lake and would live there if we gave her the chance.  From Smith Mountain Lake, we drove five hours through Winston-Salem to Asheville, NC.  We stopped briefly at Old Salem where I discovered that it was founded by German Moravians early in the history of the U.S.   Moravians today maintain the old houses, taverns and barns that make up the original town. 

Asheville, of course, is the site of Biltmore, the Vanderbilt mansion on steroids where everything is larger, more compelling and overwhelming.  It is a folly that could not sustain itself, but it is a monument to immense amounts of money and unrestrained taste. 

From Asheville, we drove back toward Winston-Salem on route to Durham, but stopped for three hours to visit a farm family in the heart of North Carolina.  My wife, Karen, has known the mother of the family for 20 years, and the farmer's wife still works as a reporter for a major newspaper in Charlotte, NC.  It was an eye-opener.  A farmer can still make it in that state with 150 head of dairy cows. In California, it takes 1000 head  to make a living. 

From there we rushed to Duke University in Durham where my wife went to school.  Duke is another testimony to vast amounts of money but spent more wisely by the Duke family, tobacco barons.  A great forest surrounds the campus on one side and belongs to the school. On the campus itself, the Sarah Duke gardens are a stunning addition to the beauty of a distinguished environment.  The sad town of Durham is on the other side of the campus and the once-mighty factory of Ligget & Myers Tobacco Co. looks largely shut down.  That factory dominated the center of town.  Durham today is in the suburbs. 

We sped northward from Durham to Richmond where we met with an old friend of the family.  The next morning -- Monday -- we rose at 6 a.m. and drove to Charlottesville to see Jefferson's home at Monticello and his institution and architectural wonder -- University of Virginia.  From there, we wheeled northward toward home by back roads to Front Royal and Winchester, a brief stop for dinner in Waynesboro, Pa with a cousin who is a long-time doctor there and a long drive home on Highways 81 and 78.  We turned off the engine in the driveway at 10:15 p.m.  

Today, we are standing down, and I'm getting ready to return to work.   It was a fast trip, but I saw places I had read about and never expected to experience.  It was worth it.