I have to be brutally honest here: I am so sick of dirty politicians that I could almost scream. It seems that for the last two years all we have seen or heard about is the seedy side of politics. We have run the gamut from soliciting bathroom sex to selling Senate seats to accepting money from questionable sources.
The most noteworthy of these dirty politicians has been Rod Blagojevich, the impeached governor of Illinois. He came under fire in December 2008 for trying to put a price on the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama. He was also charged with conspiring to sell his own office several different times.
In January 2009 Blagojevich was impeached by a 114-1 vote, making this the first time such action has been taken against the governor of Illinois. His impeachment trial will begin on January 26, and is already slated to be aired on several major stations.
Over the last two months, even though no one can pronounce it, the name Blagojevich is on the tip of everyone’s tongue. How could it not be when it is everywhere you look? Blagojevich is on a self-proclaimed media blitz that includes interviews on The View, The Today Show, Larry King Live, and Good Morning America.
Through it all, Blagojevich has proclaimed his innocence. He has stated several times that “private conversations” he had were taken out of context. “You figure your home is a sanctified place and you’re allowed to have private conversations,” he is quoted as saying recently.
If you Live Search the phrase “Blagojevich media blitz” you will come up with 79,700 results. Surprisingly the first few pages that I looked through were all relevant to my topic and were all from fairly credible sources.
I bring this up because it is a testament to Blagojevich’s PR team. Even though things are looking pretty bad for their employer, they are still kicking butt and getting their side of the story out there. They are keeping his name in the forefront of everyone’s mind, and as a result, having to deal with the occasional accusation about their motives.
The Blagojevich case is a great eye opener for everyone in the PR field as well as for those that are thinking of or working toward a career in this field. Always research the company or person you will be working for and learn what you can about the reputation the company or the individual has before accepting a job offer. Declining a good paying job because the employer has morals that do not match your own is much better than neglecting your morals to keep that good paying job.
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I really do agree with your blog. In the articles I have read, I find it hard to believe that his comments were taken out of context.
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad that when people have money and power they let it go to their head. People in those positions have the opportunity to do so much good in the world and, especially now, that is what we need.
Sometimes I wonder how these types of people are elected. Apparently they have very good pr reps and once they have won their position, it goes to their heads. They forget the real reason they were elected.
I will be totally honest when I start this post. Being that I am a senior in college and been very busy this year taking 20+ credits I havent paid a lot of attention to polictics. I have heard about this situation, but I have not paid very close attention to it. I am very glad that I choose to read your post and it had a lot of information that I did not know about in it.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your blog just like Kim. And I agree with her as well somethings people think that because they have so much money that is makes their power that much higher. Not only is that money situation that way with polictics but its the same in all jobs. I work as a server at our local country club which is also a public restaurant. Individals out there think if they pay to have a memebership and they are there that they should be able to do whatever they want. For example one night we were super busy and one of our members needed another drink. So he took it upon himself to walk behind the bar and grab his own beer because he could not wait to be served.
I think people need to realize we are all individals and we all put on this earth. We need to treat each other with the same respect no matter where we stand in a job.
I appreciated your ending point about how we will have to make choices about who we represent. I read an editorial in the Chicago Tribune about how Blago had hired the same PR firm that an accused cop from Chicago had also hired to push his innocence when he was accused of murdering his wife and possibly first wife too. (My details might be off on that but it was something to that effect). The editorialist made the point that, first what kind of image did Blago think he'd be presenting by hiring the same PR firm that is representing someone who everyone pretty much agrees is a murderer? Secondly, what kind of firm is this that is willing to represent these types of people? I wouldn't want to work there.
ReplyDeleteLots of info that I did not know. I've briefly heard and seen stuff on this incident, but did not know many of the details.
ReplyDeleteI suppose, though, his pr people are gonna work their tails off, otherwise they'd probably not get paid. . . That well at least.
But yeah, most definitely going to pay attention to that kind of stuff (employers and reputations) if I go towards the PR field.