Social Media Marketing in times of tragedy

If you’re using social media for marketing, what should you say following a tragedy like the deadly blasts at the Boston Marathon on April 15?

The horrific elementary school shootings in Newtown, Conn.?

The October storm that took lives and devastated communities across the Northeast?

Sometimes, nothing at all.

The age of digital marketing brings with it new challenges, including how to respond during a national tragedy. Remember, as recently as Sept. 11, 2001, we had no MySpace, much less Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. Except for email, no vehicle for delivering instantaneous marketing messages existed. After 9/11, one of the most painful days in American memory, most of us had time to pause, reflect and put on hold print, radio and TV marketing campaigns that might be viewed as inappropriate or offensive.

In recent months, there has been lively debate on this topic in the marketing community, including how and when to tie – or not to tie — a marketing message into the news of the day, a  widely used strategy.

Gaffes can occur with the most innocent of intentions in any media content, marketing or not. Earlier in April, a new episode of the musical comedy “Glee” upset and angered parents in Newtown, Conn., because the plot featured a student bringing a gun to school, where it accidentally discharges.
Continue reading

Doctors ask: Is charting error a Federal Crime?

As cardiovascular surgeon John Natale, M.D., sits in federal prison, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago heard his appeal on April 18.

After a seven-year investigation, Dr. Natale was indicted for Medicare fraud. Unlike the majority of federal defendants, who feel compelled to cave in by signing a plea bargain even when innocent, Dr. Natale courageously exercised his constitutional right to have a public trial. That is in itself considered an “obstruction of justice” by our government. The conviction rate is more than 95 percent, and sentences may be much longer than those meted out to “cooperative” defendants.

The jury found Dr. Natale not guilty on all of the fraud charges. But he was convicted on two counts of making “false statements” in his operative reports. Over his objection, prejudicial diagrams were sent to the jury room, supposedly representing the operation described in the operative report as well as the operation that was actually done. As anyone can see, a Y-shaped graft (mentioned in the operative report) is different from a tube-shaped graft (placed in the patient, by the doctor’s own admission). The government had thereby emphasized a false statement by Defendant.

The term “false statement” suggests a deliberate lie, but it could be, as Dr. Natale said, a simple mistake, made while a tired and overworked surgeon dictated a pile of reports weeks after the surgery. The jury was not instructed that a false statement is a crime only if made in a deliberate attempt to commit fraud—and, as the jury determined, there was no fraud.
Continue reading

Mayoral forum

Mayor Dewey Bartlett, former-councilor Bill Christianson and former-mayor Kathy Taylor will meet in debate at 6 p.m., Wed., May 8 in the Perkins Auditorium at the OU-Tulsa Schusterman Learning Center, 4502 E. 41st St., during a free, public League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Tulsa candidate forum.

Tulsa’s Channel 8 News Anchor Mark Bradshaw will moderate, asking questions submitted in person by audience members. The forum will be broadcast live on KTUL’s cable channel 131, as well as streamed live on its website KTUL.com. The taped version will air on Channel 8 either May 11th or 12th.

Continue reading

Parenthood spins

Both Planned Parenthood and NARAL claim to have “condemned” Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell’s actions as “reprehensible.” The question, however, is what it is they actually believe he has done that deserves condemnation. Many of the same “horrors” found in Gosnell’s clinic have been discovered in Planned Parenthood clinics as well.

Kristi Burton Brown of Live Action News, a site devoted to undercover investigations to expose the abortion industry, believes this question needs to be asked in light of the fact that nearby Delaware Planned Parenthood has been discovered with “similar filthy and unsafe conditions.”

Brown reports that, on April 10th, an ABC News affiliate in Delaware announced a one-day closing and a temporary end to surgical abortions at Planned Parenthood of Delaware. Though the clinic claimed to require closure for a “routine cleaning,” ABC indicated that the state had “confirmed a new investigation.”

According to the ABC report, since January of 2013, five 911 calls have been placed from the facility for women in emergency situations. The high number of 911 calls in a short period of time “prompted a new investigation by the Delaware Department of Health and the State Board of Professional Licensure.”
Continue reading

Obama lulled America into false confidence

US Editor, Peter Foster writes: The war on terror cannot be fought at an arm’s length – and the attacks on Boston have brought uncertainty back to American streets.

In his State of the Union address to the American people earlier this year, Barack Obama declared that he was “confident” of achieving “our objective of defeating the core of al-Qaeda”.
Continue reading