Democracy Has Prevailed.

November 27, 2009

Post-Gazette Article on #ravenstahlrumors on Twitter


Raise your hands if you think Pittsburgh's Lil Mayor Luke and his Philly attorney went overboard threatening to sue anyone and everyone who engage in any rumors/speculation about his separation from his wife.

The P-G interviews Gene Grabowski (a former reporter with The Associated Press who now specializes in crisis communications) and me about Lukey's failed media strategy which led to the rampant mockery to be found at http://twitter.com/search?q=%23ravenstahlrumors .

From Grabowski:
"Where I might differ on the strategy, however, is the aggressive statements that his lawyer's making," Mr. Grabowski said.

"For two reasons. One, [the lawyer] himself is making the suggestion of defamatory statements and smears and innuendos. He's the one raising the negativity before the reporters even do.

"No. 2, his language seems unnecessarily aggressive and litigious. I'm reluctant to second-guess other people's strategies, but I would say that if I were still a news reporter, such a statement would set my teeth on edge and actually spur me, not only to be more curious about the circumstances, but probably even more aggressive in my pursuit of the story."
You can read all of what Grabowski and I have to say on this issue here.

NOTE TO ATTORNEYS: No actual rumor-mongering/gossiping occurred during the making of this blog post (nor were any animals hurt).
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6 comments:

BigmacInPittsburgh said...

I understand the raw nature of politics in general,but politicans here in Western Penn. always seem to take stupid to another level!

Sherry Pasquarello said...

i saw the article in the pg this morning. good one!

Sue said...

You sound so rational and reasonable, not like those crazy bloggers at all! :-)

I was a little dismayed they didn't distinguish between Twitter and Blogger, particularly since the whole point of the "revolt" is the evolution of new social media.

Great job, Maria.

Maria said...

My be on KDKA News tonight on this subject, 6:00 PM.

Bram Reichbaum said...

Honestly, you were excellent Maria. It's a shame that the headline and the subheading and so much of what was around you was poorly thought-out tripe.

Unfortunately, I know from experience that the headline and the subheading is about as far as most Pittsburghers get when reading an article about "blogs" and "Twitter".

Maria said...

Thanks. There did seem to be some confusion.