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Happy Friday. At Bad Pitch headquarters, we receive many tips regarding awful and worse pitches. (Thanks to all you tipsters!) This one, which Kevin and I received earlier this month, may actually be the crown jewel of all bad pitches—and in a groundbreaking turn of events is one of the first bad pitches in nearly four years of doing this that emanated from a reporter –sent to a PR person.
So let’s get started...
First, note sent to us:
I just encountered a case of “reverse” bad pitching – this time from a journalist who may (or may not) be interested in an entry-level PR specialist position we’re advertising. My mouth literally dropped open when I opened this first thing this morning – completely disrespectful of our entire industry and not understanding the full extent of PR.
Hold it. Before we get to the good stuff, you’ll need some background. Mike Hendricks is a longtime Metro columnist for the Kansas City Star. Like many other people in the daily paper industry (or really any industry nowadays), Hendricks received news that his salary would be reduced. He went the way of other Americans: he started looking for a new job, specifically in the PR industry. This is not a stretch since we all know that doing PR and writing are two sides of a similar ink-stained coin.
Hendricks came across a pretty standard job posting on the Internet:
Public Relations Specialist – (Firm Name)
(Identifying information about Firm), is looking for a bright, motivated individual to serve as its public relations specialist. Duties include but are not limited to writing news releases, pitches and other pieces …
(Description of normal PR duties snipped for space.)
Sound like your state-of-the-art entry-level PR job? “Specialist,” “Account Executive;” pretty much what you’d expect.
Hendricks wrote a note in response (this is verbatim…typos his):
From: Mike Hendricks
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009
To: (Contact person)
Subject: job posting
(Contact,)
Saw your posting on the (Web site).
As a journalist for 30 plus years and a newspaper columnist the past 12 at The Kansas City Star, I am eminently qualified to be your public relations specialist -- despite no paid experience in public relations.
Frankly, if there's a pr person above the pr specialist, I'm probably qualified for that job, too.
After all, I've been dealing with public relations folks from the other side for three decades as a reporter, editor and columnist. Don't get me wrong. Many PR people are skilled at what they do. Yet many others are simply nice but don't have a clue how to sell a story.
The former are usually former newspaper journalists. The latter are not.
That said, I would be happy to submit an application, but I'd hate to be wasting your time and mine if it turns out this is some minor league position with a paltry salary.
Yes, I'm not supposed to mention money. But we're both adults and recognize that, in the end, that's what it comes down to. I still write a column at The Star. I make a decent salary. I'm not looking for a pay cut.
I could submit my resume, but doing so would imply that this is my job pitch. It's not.
The job sounds enjoyable. But I'd also like to know that it's a good fit.
Thanks for your time.
Mike Hendricks
Metro columnist
The Kansas City Star
PS. By the way, my wife and I (identifying info) haved great interest in many of the topics in your publications, (identifying information).. Our book on (identifying information) in KC will be published in September by the Kansas City Star book division. (Italics mine.)
Our contact’s response to Hendricks:
From: (Contact)
Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009
To: Mike Hendricks
Subject: RE: job posting
Hi, Mike –
Thank you for your interest in the PR specialist position at (Firm). However, based on your e-mail below, I don’t think you would be a good match for the position at this time. While I appreciate your strong experience in the newspaper industry, public relations goes much deeper than simply pitching journalists.
Our pay may be equivalent to the minor leagues, but I can assure you that we are major-league caliber in every other way. And, by the way, I *am* the person above the PR specialist.
Best of luck on promoting your book and other future endeavors.
Best regards,
(Contact)
Hendricks’ response seconds later:
From: Mike Hendricks
Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009
To: (Contact)
Subject: RE: job posting
So you're saying that I didn't sell you with my sweet talk?
You're right. I probably wouldn't be a good match for the position. I'm much better as a writer/editor.
As you can tell, I'm new to this whole job search thing, having not been on the lookout for a new position since Reagan's first term. Wouldn't be now if the newspaper industry wasn't in free fall.
Not that I'm wholly unpolished when it comes to sending out job letters. In recent months, I've sent out some rather upbeat sales pitches to potential employers. Even got a phone interview that seemed to go well.
I think my salary expectations did me in on that one.
Just for the sheer heck of it, I decided to try a different tact with you.
Didn't work all that well, but it felt good to drop the phoniness (mine). I guess I'd much rather be writing/editing for one of your publications than promoting other people's work.
Sorry if w, you misconstrued my point about "minor-league" position. I didn't mean the company. I meant the position itself. Many public relations "specialist" positions I've seen advertised seem meant for relatively young, inexperienced folks with lots of energy but not all that much savvy.
Sorry. That's me being honest again.
Good luck in your future endeavors, too. But here's some advice for the person who does get the position. While pitching stories to reporters might not be all there is to the job, he or she had better be good at just that if they hope to get your brand the kind of ink or webspace it deserves.
.
Cheers,
Mike Hendricks
To us: [footnote: (Contact) didn’t bother to write back the mealy-mouthed cretin]
It really is sad considering how many talented and professional journalists and PR professionals are out of work and looking for a full-time job. I’ve received a few other applicants from newspaper people, all of whom swallowed their pride like every other job candidate.
(Contact)
Editorializing about who Mike Hendricks is seems counterproductive since, really, you can figure out what kind of person we’re dealing with here. His “sweet talk” doesn’t fool anyone. Hendricks is clearly a guy –here we go – who thinks he walks on water, when in fact he is perilously tiptoeing across a thin sheet of ice.
As a PR practitioner who takes pride in my work and respects my colleagues, I think that having someone of Hendricks’ ilk enter our profession would be shameful. Similarly, for journalists who believe in their work and commitment to delivering news in a fair & balanced way (here’s $1 to Fox News), their embarrassment toward this so-called colleague must be already palpable.
Apparently, his readers feel it too. It comes as no surprise that in a July 2009 poll, Hendricks was voted to be “the next news columnist to lose his job at The Kansas City Star.” The bridges he has burned are strewn throughout the fields of the fruited American plains.
Since I don’t live in Kansas or Missouri, at least not yet, I wasn’t familiar with Mike’s work and so I decided to check out what type of “journalist” I was dealing with here. After all, this blog supports PR people (Up With PR People!) and I may need to do business with him, right? The Star is one of the region’s major newspapers.
Guess what, everyone? Turns out Mike Hendricks is a hack who deserves nothing more than to be outed for his extreme awfulness!
Here, he writes a piece about the evils of blogging, and posts it on the Internet. The “commenters” rip him to shreds in an instant. His body of work is docile, even for a Metro columnist... In fact, nearly every one of his pieces gets shredded to bits by readers but still he soldiers on.
Also, Hendricks isn’t exactly Steinbeckian when it comes to crafting prose. The very morning that he sent his horrendous email sort-of-not-asking for a job, this sentence actually appeared in his column, in regard to what he sees as a bad choice by the municipal government last year:
Yeah, well, that sure worked out swell now, didn’t it?
Mike, you get PAID to use proper grammar. Give it a try.
With that I’d like to share some of what someone else thinks about Hendricks. A local Kansas City blogger, who is a bit more plugged-in to the goings on in KC than I am, has much to say about Mike’s new blog with the friendly, yet blandly unoriginal title “Mike’s Place.” I have to take this blogger’s word for it, because – hold your breath—you can only access “Mike’s Place” if you are a pre-approved reader.
Hello? PRE-APPROVED READER?
********
Anyway, have fun with this excerpted post from a blogger who you’ll want to hug:
TKC EXCLUSIVE!!! MIKE HENDRICKS IS THE WORST HACK IN THE KANSAS CITY AREA AND NOW HE HAS A BLOG!!!
Normally, I like to encourage other bloggers but today I have to break tradition.
After having his salary cut to shreds by The Star . . . Underachieving JoCo columnist Mike Hendricks is now taking his (poorly) written tripe to the local blogosphere.
Even the title makes me want to puke.
He's calling it "Mike's Place" as if it was yet another prosaic JoCo tavern where the "men" in that tiny white village go to hide from their wives.
I never thought it was possible for me to so vehemently despise another human being I have never met but here we are . . .
I can only hope that he'll cancel his blog out of pure embarrassment.
And here's where he is making a mistake . . . Without the help of the Star's army of distributors wasting paper all over the City . . .
MIKE HENDRICKS IS NOW NOTHING MORE THAN YET ANOTHER WHITE MAN WITH AN OPINION!!!
A lame and under researched opinion at that . . . Still, bloggers should rejoice because Hendricks has heretofore talked (and written) an endless variety of smack about bloggers. Now, because of a cut in salary and hopefully because he'll soon be fired . . . Mike Hendricks is nothing more than a blogger.
*******
Mike Hendricks does not respect PR, nor does he care for PR folks. Even beyond that, I wonder if Hendricks grasps the usefulness of anything but himself? He does not get the Internet, does not understand what it means to communicate with others, doesn’t play nicely, and as you’ve seen on this page, he’s just bad. Not Michael Jackson bad either.
Would you give this man a job? After all, here is a hate-filled guy with a bizarrely-realized self-image. Reminds me of something the phonetically-similar Hendricks (Jimi, that is) said not so long ago…
“Imagination is the key to my lyrics. The rest is painted with a little science fiction.”
Twitter @laermer and @badpitch
---
8/26 UPDATE: Comments on this post are now closed. Feedback from readers, the ones who've identified themselves, has made it clear this is not a post that represents our three years of content here. We're taking this to heart and we're already reflecting it in content moving forward.
Due to the tone of the last few anonymous comments, which we've left up for posterity, I've made the decision to close comments. If someone wants to add their opinion to this post, please feel free to email us at badpitchblog AT gmail DOT com. Thanks. -- Kevin Dugan
57 comments:
That would be like me emailing the publisher of The Washington Post and telling them they should make me a section editor or managing editor (or maybe even publisher, since editors are so minor league) because I actually read the paper every morning.
Funny how, more often than not, it is one's reply that gets a person in hot water and really exposes him- or herself.
If Mr. Hendricks had not replied and been less frank (in his POV, I'm sure), the non-application job application would have been a blip in life and a zip online.
-Mike
Kansas City resident here...
I hope he wasn't serious. How egotistical of him. This may be an example that SOME-not all- journalists have once they realize they have to come over to the PR side.
As a pr professor, I come across "old school" journalist(who are now in higher education)that share the same point of view as Mr. Hendricks. I have learned to recognize their disrespect for the pr profession, but it really bothers me when they bring it into the classroom. Thanks for this post!
Ouch! As a PR pro that takes my job very seriously, I have to admit reading this post made me very uncomfortable. The finger pointing and call outs across industry blogs and tweets as of late are making me squirm.
Sure, A LOT of journalists have treated me poorly over the past 10 years I've been in the business. (Let me repeat- A LOT). But to keep myself going, I always chalk it up to a bad day. Heck, maybe that's the way they always are, and frankly, they are simply not nice. I however try to be, and regardless of what kind of person they are, they still have a heart.
I don't want to be a sap, but I feel bad for Mike. Jerk or not.
I love this blog, don't get me wrong. But I think sometimes leaving out names might be in the best interest of everyone.
Blogs like this can be life ruiners!
With that said, I'm leaving out my name, because I don't want to be attacked. I don't want to hide behind anonymity, but it's Friday and it's been a long week.
I think you protest too much. Sure, he was a way off the cuff and should have just been filed away in the circular bin. But if you think there aren't PR flaks who wouldn't throw their weight around when applying for a job like that, you'd be wrong.
It's poor taste for sure and definitely the wrong tone for someone with no PR experience, but saying this is emblematic of journalists or is somehow deserving of the hatchet job you've leveled on this guy is way off base.
Wow. I generally love this blog and, as a PR professional, relate to just about everything you post. But I have to say, this is pretty low. You respectfully keep your PR cohort's name anonymous, but you can't give the same level of respect to the reporter? I’m not trying to defend him, because I think what he wrote is ludicrous. But it’s pretty mean even for you to use his real name. I’m sure he has a family who will now be brought into this, and he'll undoubtedly really need to hit the job search now that he’s likely to get canned immediately thanks to this post.
What a total loser.
His career is ruined.
But that was his doing - not the PR agency OR this blog post.
Think before you send.
I was going to leave his name out until he wrote the (very nice) job planner again. Then I thought, heck, he deserves it and he should know better. It's a different world now. Everything you say has consequences. There are no regrets. Think about the way he insulted whole of PR people. Really.
I remember Hendricks from my days in KC, but I never did work with him. Very pompous attitude, for sure. I wonder if he even realizes (I hope he does now, at the very least) how insulting his attitude is to anyone in PR).
At least now those in PR working with him have more insight in to his thoughts on working with PR folks.
I think someone should give him a job in PR, though. Wouldn't it be great for him to learn exactly what we do rather than let him keep his limited thoughts for the rest of his life?
Jennifer, I agree. The best medicine would be for Hendricks to experience the other side of the coin. But thanks BPB for the laugh - I needed it on a Friday afternoon.
On the issue of naming the guy... if anyone should understand that you shouldn't put in writing anything that you don't want to show up on the front page of the New York Times (or a blog), it's a 30-year journalist.
At least he's honest about his antipathy toward his sources.
Lots of very interesting material here, but my all time FAVORITE has to be the the fact that there was a public poll to see who would lose their job next at the Kansas City Star.
What a vicious place. Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase, "we're not in Kansas anymore."
I guess this just proves that everything you do is able to be found via "Google." If you are writing something to a person who is active in the Social Media space and it is Public Relations related you should know there is a small chance you can be used as an "Example."
I think this is a classic reason why #journchat needs to grow bigger in the live space. Through #journchat we can get to know journalists, PR professionals and bloggers. This is the ONLY way to bridge the divide.
If you are looking for an entry level "specialist." Feel free to read my blog and my Twitter stream. I understand the personas which DM Scott is trying to teach, Google and being found and am an awesome networker, constantly involved in events and hosted an event for the first time. I am constantly learning something new. I would like a chance to prove my worth.
Let me know if this interests you? Thanks.
Jamie
The bad pitch is just what it is, but you have trumped his bad taste with your even poorer taste.
Methinks thou dost protest too much.
Ere's a couple of points for your discussion:
1. Just how did the correspondence between Hendricks and Brandy Ernzen at Ogden Publications in Topeka, KS. end up on this blog?
2. Will Ernzen's superiors approve of the material being leaked to soemone outside the company?
3. How many other job seekers will be interested in working at Ogden once they are aware of the complete lack of ethics displayed by one of the company's brand managers?
Mike Hendricks
By the way, if the moderator thinks he can protect his source by deleting this message, he is mistaken. I plan on informing her boss first thing Monday morning.
What a thorough and complex discussion! As far as ethics go, Hendricks isn't an employee of Ogden (did he even have a chance with that email?), so there isn't any loyalty owed toward him by the company. It was a bold move on the employer's part to send the correspondence to the Bad Pitch Blog, but given that its purpose is to show - using real world examples - how NOT to pitch, no matter what side of the PR/media boundary you're on, I have to admit that it's certainly worthy of a blog. Since Hendricks plans on taking this even further next week, this blog post might make its way into more headlines and blogs - or perhaps a PR textbook someday!
Mr. Hendricks, you aren't helping your reputation by making your blog inaccessible. Many large corporations who have had bad reps for customer service have alleviated the pressure on their brand image through public blogs that are written by their staff. Make your voice and your position public!
"Waaa. I can't get a job. I think I'll be a big baby and go frown at their boss. Waa."
Man, this guy is a real piece of work. What a coward.
OWN UP TO IT.
You wrote something insulting expecting to be praised and when you weren't, you decided to just be an ass. Cut your losses and get over it. You're just exacerbating the issue.
What's their boss gonna say, "Wow, you're the poster-child of the best kind of bullet to dodge."
Yeah, that'll help the job search. As will this comment by you. Here's hoping your next pitchee be less burned at this stake than this one!
No one is deleting a thing, Mike.
That's fine with me, Richard. Because I'm used to taking shots like yours. But I think the leaking of those emails was actionable per employment law. Not on you, but the leaker.
Of course, I could be wrong about that. But my lawyer will certainly look into it.
Wow. This blog post makes me very uncomfortable for a number of reasons. I encourage my own blog readers .. who are members of the PR industry .. to check out this blog so that they can learn from the mistakes of others. Our industry is in transformation and we need to adapt to new realities. This blog does a good job of casting a light on many old school PR techniques that no longer work.
In a period of huge change, when journalists and PR practitioners are dealing with new realities, I'm not sure how productive it is call out an old school journalist on his perceptions of our industry in such a raw manner.
What purpose does this serve? Is this going to help further the cause of building bridges between journalists and PR consultants? Somehow I doubt Mr Hendricks will become a fan of PR now. But beyond him, how will his colleagues react?
Yes, I find his letter to be arrogant in tone and take issue with some of the things he said but have to wonder where his perception comes from and what we've done, as an industry, working with him over the years, to perpetuate it. There's a reason an entire blog can be built around bad pitches.
This piece would have been much stronger, in my mind, had names been changed and had the dissection of a journalist's career not followed.
I'm the first to defend our industry (while recognizing its weaknesses). I guess I'm just not a fan of public flogging.
It's not public flogging -- it's simply a way to show our participants at BPB (in a humorous manner ) what a guy like Mr. Hendricks is truly like. And as civil rights activitists of yesteryear, I want to show people for what they really are -- not leaving any names out, not being namby-pamby about it. In this case it was more than just a bad letter or two, but his entire behavior toward our industry and his own.
The fact is - Hendricks abused his own power and authority by being a public figure who wasn't good at his job (in a very public light).
To the naysayers I'd like to have you consider one thing: Do journalists ever stop to consider when they "out" a bad PR person? No. Why should they? Fact: if you're awful at your job in the networked era, where it's super easy to demonstrate the yucky communications skills of someone who is supposed to be GOOD at it, and someone notices how bad you are, they ought to share their findings with their colleagues. And why is that? To learn from it... and to be better at your job.
Kevin and I are very much aware of our own "imferpections," and we've gotten our share of "no you didn'ts" from our own peers, and many of the recipietns of the Bad Pitch Blog's wrath have actually said to us later Ok, I was wrong. But the fact remains: We are not doing this blog to merely educate and/or to poke fun, but to actually make a point. Get with the program -- our change careers!
One last thing about Hendricks: Not only did he write a letter that is (I'm an employer, remember) the worst cover letter from a professional I've ever seen but when the (Contact) wrote him politely back to explain why he was wrong, he attempted to TRUMP her with another missive explaining why he was in the right. It was as if he was goading him/her on--asking for action of some sort. Thus the leakage.
Because, actually, (Contact) is a super professional being insulted by someone who needed to keep his big mouth shut. Period.
And with that I take a much-needed break from reading the InterWeb.
Bad call bad pitch blog. Really bad call.
The reporter sounds like a jerk, but now you and the PR firm have met him at his level.
As a member of the editorial community, I think it's rather shameful to veil a source in anonymity and then allow them to be stripped naked and vulnerable in from of the same medium you're using to convey their original story.
So kudos to the bad pitch people for that. Way to take a stand.
Let this be a lesson to any and all who would trust their real-world examples for use in this blog again.
bad pitch Blog fail.
No guts. The people who post Anonymously obviously are (like Mike) completely devoid of knowledge on what a blog is. If they really were people of valid opinion why not put your name there? I've said it a few hundred times, I will not pay attention - nor should you guys - to anyone who goes by Anon. They have meetings for you every night.
Not here.
Thought you might be interested in what we tell Jilted Journalists about PR jobs.
http://www.jiltedjournalists.com/PR_Jobs.html
So you're not running my comment about the woman who pleaded with you to take this post down?
What a coward you are.
Mike - I have to approve all comments, including Richard's. And I have approved every. single. comment on this post.
KC resident here. I'm not a journalist or a PR person. I'm a lawyer. And as much as I want to believe that isn't the real Mike Hendricks posting those comments, I just can't convince myself of it. So I've got some free advice for Mike.
It's not really legal advice, of the sort requiring a license to offer. It's more advice from the front lines of common sense.
Mike,
Do not call your lawyer and ask him about finer points of employment law. Do not comment any further on this blog. Do not do anything to draw further attention to yourself, that email, or this blog. Do not call the boss of the Contact. Call a florist. Send the Contact flowers with a note apologizing for giving any offense and thanking her for the feedback.
Then take a deep breath. Appreciate the fact that for 12 years your job has been to freely share your perspective. Accept that most people don't have that luxury and that many of us are called upon to produce value other than whatever happens to be going through our minds at the moment. If you can accept that, and conform your behavior to the same standard, you should be able to avoid similar incidents in the future.
Uh, I have a Mommy Blog and I know what it's like to read press releases.
I'm not saying I'm Manager level, but I could definitely work above the entry level at any major PR firm.
Cuz, ya know... I can do that.
I have to say that I'm disappointed in you, Bad Pitch. I'm not disappointed because you chose to air Mr. Hendrick's dirty laundry or that you didn't disclose the identity of the person that sent you the email string. Those things I've come to expect from you. It's what this blog is about - outing those in PR that are bad at their jobs. Since Mr. Hendricks was trying to join a PR firm, I consider him fair game.
I am disappointed in you because you broke your own rule - the three strike rule. That rule has always applied to people and/or their agency. So, if one person sends three or if three people at one agency all send bad pitches, they are outed here. That's the rule.
From what you posted, I only count TWO emails. Not three. Two. Now, some may argue that his column or blog counts as the third but that's not the rule. The rule is three pitches. It's not two inflammatory pitches and a bad blog. It's three BAD pitches.
If you're going to push the unspoken rules of PR, you should abide by your own written rules.
The moment I knew Bad Pitch Blog was full of it — like many of the PR "professionals" I deal with on a daily basis — was when one of the writers claimed naming a person from a private string of emails compared his actions to "civil rights activitists of yesteryear."
Get off your high horse. Seriously. You wanna talk about unprofessional behavior?
Having been in the situation where sending out the same cover letter gets old and frustrating, and having worked in both a newsroom and the agency setting, I think Hendricks committed a snafu, but you're being to tough on him.
Like you've never applied for a job thinking you were overqualified? Frankly, it sounds like he's out of practice.
At least he was honest and up front, unlike many PR people just trying to fill a pitch quota.
Thanks for everyone's comments and emails and even the smoke signals.
We encourage feedback and wow, we got a lot on this post.
A new post is going up tonight.
So I'm moving along as we digest and apply your input to future BPB posts.
Thanks again.
-- Kevin, @prblog
Poor form indeed. First time reading this blog and it will be the last.
What one sows- they will reap. Make no mistake.
Transition is hard. Period. Without this kind of junk. Hope you have a better week, Mike. Best of luck.
This blog is vile to post this NOT PUBLIC email exchange between a HR dept and a job applicant. This is beyond wrong. The writer of this posting is truly a real worm and not a man.
Out of fairness, your source should also be exposed so that other potential job seekers who may be concerned with the privacy of their application will not be subjected to such treatment.
I'm of the opinion that forwarding someone's email correspondence about a job position is unethical at best. It may be illegal as well, depending on the circumstances surrounding the solicitation.
Job-seeking correspondence comes with an expectation of confidentiality. It was a gross violation of professional ethics for the PR person involved to break that confidentiality.
The ineptness of Mike's approach (and it was inept) is irrelevant. Living in the era of Social Media doesn't entitle us to violate professional standards of confidentiality just because we can.
Bad Pitch blog's decision was questionable, but the forwarder's actions were clearly unethical.
I want all the naysers to take second please to consider that this "application" of Mike Hendricks was nothing more than an insulting "I'm much better than what you have advertised" letter. In no way was he actually wanting the job advertised. In fact he was saying to the PR person who made the ad "I could do your job" blindfolded and without ears. The fact--and this is not opinion- is that our source was dumbfounded, and realized that this was a loudmouthed jerk who was insulting him/her. He/she had no other recourse than to send to someone who could do something with it. So:
Reread his application. It was anything but an honest letter saying "I would like this job." If anything Hendricks was saying "You people suck." And by suck I mean "stink." And by stink I mean "Help me I'm a celebrity, and I want your money--but won't take a pay cut." -30-
Holly, The Kansas City Star is in Missouri, so you're correct when you say you're not in Kansas any more.
Secondly, you'd have to spend some time reading The Star to understand the absolute contempt the people of this community have towards its biggest embarrassment. The Star is hateful, biased and corrupt, and that's just for starters.
This is a very interesting debate! For me the real issue lies in whether or not Bad Pitch Blog should have disclosed the name of the contact who sent the admittedly horrible pitch. The uber-ethical part of me thinks it should have -- its seems only fair. But another part of me (the journalist, surprisingly enough) understands the need to keep certain sources anonymous. I'd be interested to hear why Richard chose not to.
Yesterday, I watched a great interview with Sir Ben Kingsley. He stars in a new film called Fifty Dead Men Walking, about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, an IRA mole (a tout), a police agent (which he plays), and the fifty or more men who should be dead but rather walk today because of the mole’s courage.
Ben talked about the acting profession as it relates to film. While he was trained on the stage and has acted there frequently, his present love is film because as he noted: “In the theater you project…on film, you behave”.
He also spoke about the immense power and value of collaboration. The theater taught him that acting is not about you, it’s about all those around you. Great acting, he suggested is the ability to pay close attention to the other person with whom you act…
Today, a local blogger destroyed a journalist's reputation. The blogger is a bit of a revolutionary, who frequently criticizes the local newspaper and has been recently reveling in the decline of printed journalism. The disparaged journalist is rather conservative.
It occurred to me that the blogger really missed a great business opportunity…to collaborate with a crusty old right wing dude and give great journalistic theatre in the process…kind of a left and right routine…a this side that side repartee. Instead the blogger put a blog bullet through the old journalists reputation.
Collaborate. Pay attention. Behave.
I would like to echo what John Altevogt said. Please disclose the forwarder's name so I know to never, ever, ever apply for a job under him/her.
I read all of this both here and on TKC. I have a few observations, if you don't mind.
Sophia gave very good advice. Time for Mike to move on, accept his licks.
I think Tom Ryan wrote a thoughtful piece over on TKC and the anonymouse over there who calls me an asshat, called him one too.
That simply goes to show what Mark said... wise words that the presence of social media shouldn't give professionals an excuse to break traditional confidences and behave badly.
This blog/internet message form has a lot of maturing to do. Perhaps that's what happens when amateurs can afford layout software and a mimeograph machine. There are no guarantees of quality work. But we've all been encouraged by mommie to post our scribbles on the refrigerator, even if it did take only five minutes of coloring to complete.
I agree Mike's material should not have been posted by anyone here or around town. It was a breach. He should have been allowed to learn privately after that pointless ego debate with Ogden that there's a big difference between what HE does and what THEY do. Clearly he was still in column mode, not job application mode. It's a big transition.
Yup, ego aside, he's not suited for PR. They're into PC and putting on a happy face plus an occasional damage control project. He's into selling papers with pithy, tell all talk. As a journalist for some twenty years, I will vouch that PR flacks (that's what working media call them) are not well respected. Not for any particular reason but that the working journalists have the audience and the PR people want a piece of it without paying for it.
We'll not go into how many reporters now get their 'news' from PR releases... but I felt the same way until I spent fifteen minutes thinking about getting into PR.
"Effective Public Relations" and a few PRSA meetings taught me that public relations, practiced well, is an honorable industry. Reporters should read the book and go to a PRSA meeting just to see what the enemy is like.
But news people never have enough time to go find those kinds of things out.
Good luck Mike. I think apologies are due all the way around, and I hope some bloggers and some commenters might have learned that hatefulness isn't mankind's best practice. It's just petty, cowardly, and usually hypocritical.
You know, I'm sure Mike Hendricks is a horrible journalist who deserves nothing but scorn, but what did leaving his name in the post accomplish? That the person who forwarded it and the people who published it are more pathetic than he is.
{wipes purple stain from mimeograph off fingers}
Down, Radioman, down. Back home, boy. Back home!
I find it extremely hypocritical that Richard chose to leave Mike's name in but redact the name of the company and "brand manager" in question here. If the purposed intent of the blog is an educational review of what to do or rather what not to do during the job seeking process, why go so far as to libel only Mike in the fashion that Richard has and create images complete with childish putdowns? "ewwwwww" and "fail!" written with a mouse in MSPaint doesn't say "professional" nor does it support your authority here, Richard. It does however enlighten us readers as to just how hard that gerbil is running on that tiny treadmill inside your head.
I bet said gerbil is chilling, reading Tony's KC and rubbing one out.
whoever "public relations" is above (nice name, champ) doesn't know how to read a blog. I did not do those cartoons/put those words in -- all that stuff is from another blog that I was merely quoting. I felt they deserved to be included since they are from KC and seem to say a lot about Mike that I didn't know--yet. Anyway, nice try: I didn't write FAIL and those words on those pics. They did.
This blog post is uncalled for and unprofessional. I don't know this guy, but you are incredibly rude (and unethical) to post his e-mail conversation with his name. Did you even ask for permission?
As a journalist, I'll be sure to never take a pitch from you. You write about "bad pitches" but this blog just promotes you as unprofessional. No thanks, not buying.
You would think people would be a lot more cautious on how they approach potential employers, especially in a recession.
If you've ever read Mike's column, you would know he isn't conservative at all. He's pretty darn liberal. His one good trait.
Can I come to Mike's defense? I've worked with him for almost two decades and found him to be a journalist of the first order. His ethics are beyond reproach.
Assuming what's posted here is authentic, it appears, at worst, that Mike made the mistake of being candid in sending out a feeler for a job opening. God forbid.
The potential employer took offense at that candor, or at least Mike's effort to lighten the discussion with a conversational approach, and violated the implied confidence one expects when posting a job application. The same firm then chose to embarrass Mike for committing the crime of offering his services. This blog, with its one-sided grant of anonymity, piled on.
I challenge anyone to search through Mike's body of work and find a single instance of him treating the source or subject of story so patently unfairly.
Bad pitch? Bad ethics.
I thought about the circumstances of this issue all day today. Having worked both on the PR side (accredited by PRSA) and within the online journalism side of daily newspapers, I find the decision to name the job applicant in this blog posting irresponsible.
Social media is better than this.
Look's like Brandy's going to be sending out a few emails of her own to prospective employers after this. Hopefully, someone won't make the same mistake she did.
Totally classless, just like just about every other Ogden operation.
Richards attempts to justify this unethical blog posting are pathetic. You have no sense of what is right or fair. Your just a jerk with smug pretentions of intelligence. You have no honor to publish something a reasonable person could assume to be confidential correspondence.It's not surprising you quote Tony's Kansas City Blog who likewise has no idea of honor. I hope you get to find out what it's like to need a job and can't get one, and then run into a runt like you.
Man the Bad Pitch threw a horrendous poitch here. What a bad, classless move.
Your blog is fucked.
Regardless of whether you or some other peon created those MSpaint doodles, Richard, your use of them here does not help your case for moral, professional or intellectual superiority. I would agree this is just bottom feeding trash, and I usually enjoy hearing about a nice bad pitch…
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