Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

Journalism will bounce back; so can I get an advance?

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Drinking last night with a veteran journo who now works for the Associated Press in London.

On the usual subject, he expressed the usual hope, to the effect that he I thought public will realize what it's missing and journalism will would mount a return.

"I agree one hundred percent," I replied. "It's just that I don't know if it will take the public two years to realize the consequences of no journalism, or forty."

What does it mean (if anything) to ‘reset’ one’s reputation?

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As part of my continuing frenemy fraternization with corporate reputation guru Leslie Gaines-Ross, I'd like to praise her latest blog post for IDing the new PR buzzword "reset," but question the intellectual integrity behind her main point:

I am glad that “reset” is a trend and intend to use it as often as I can for describing reputation-building. You have to reset your reputation now. Until
you press the reset button, your reputation will be ground zero.
Resetting your reputation is the right thing to do. If you don’t like
the word reset, you can always substitute reboot.

OK, Doc: How, pray tell, does one "reset one's reputation"?

The only way I can think of to suddenly change a reputation is contained in the lament of the Greek villager:

You see all the boats in de harbor? I build all de boats. But do they call me Dmitri the boat-builder? No.
You see all the roads in de town? I build all de roads. But do they call me Dmitri the road-builder? No.
You see all the houses on de hill? I build all de houses. But do they call me Dmitri the house-builder? No.
But you fuck one goat …..