At the block party he's a freelance writer and editor.
But on LinkedIn, he's an "independent writing and editing professional."
Ooh la-la!
I’d Sprint in the other direction ….
Is it me, or does this new ad for a communication manager at Sprint leave you puzzling over what drug combination its writer was taking?
My favorite items:
• "Manage 'rolling thunder' activities, including managing content/keeping current Elevator Speeches."
• "Secure speaking engagements for, at a minimum, the senior vice president of HR. Attempt to secure speaking engagements for members of the HR leadership team."
• "Work with other members of Sprint's public relations department to ensure the people effort is adequately represented in their media pitches on various topics."
And this concluding paragraph:
At Sprint, we're more than just talk. We are leading the way with cost-cutting technology, like the first 4G network in the United States and our unmatched push-to-talk service. What will you add to the list? Bring your energy, ideas and the uniqueness that makes you who you are. Own your career at Sprint and we'll help you achieve your goals. Raise your hand, send your resume, step up and do work that matters.
(Like getting those douche bags in PR do pitch more stories about HR!)
Sometimes the bed is on fire before you lie down on it.
Michael Moore considers retirement because his documentaries don’t effect behavior change
I've written more than a million words, and only one article I've ever written had a demonstrable on anything. Did it comfort the afflicted? Did it afflict the comfortable? No, it helped pressure the city of Chicago to improve the Park District golf courses.
Big fucking whoop, right? Well, what's the biggest measurable change your writing has effected?
Now here comes documentary-maker Michael Moore, quoted on the Huffington Post saying his latest documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story, might be his last.
Why? Because people aren't doing what he's telling them to do:
I've done this for 20 years. I started out by warning people about
General Motors, and my whole career has been trying to say the emperor
has no clothes here, and we better do something about it. I've been having to sort of knock my head against the wall here for 20
years saying these things.Two years ago, I tried to get the health-care debate going, and it did
eventually, and now where are we? We may not even have it. What am I
supposed to do at a certain point?
You're supposed to … keep making documentaries, fool! What else are you going to do fatass, join the NBA? This is what you do. It's the only thing anybody will pay you to do.
And you know as well as I do—just like any professional communicator who promises his or her work will lead to demonstrable results—that communication is faith: The belief that what you're dishing out is providing comfort to someone who needs it, is upsetting someone who has it coming, and is doing some good, somehow, somewhere, some way.
And anybody who demands more control than that from mass communications either has a dictator complex or is trying to promote a movie.