It’s the most basic rule of media relations: Nothing is off the record. Anyone who has prepared for a media interview –from a start-up entrepreneur to, well in this case, a five-star general — knows that any comment you make during an interview with a journalist is fair game. Why then would General McChrystal jeopardize his military career and his reputation by disparaging the President of the United States as well as other senior administration officials?

Before the article, “Runaway General” hit newsstands on Friday, June 25 General McChrystal had been summoned to Washington and relieved of his duties as the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Social media networks, including Twitter, and blogs around the world suddenly erupted with discussions about the remarks made by the general and fanned the flames. Accounts of the interview process suggest that General McChrystal and his team of advisors got too comfortable with the reporter and they simply let their guard down during a long delay while stranded in Paris following the volcanic eruption in Iceland. Regardless of the circumstances, General McChrystal’s team suffered a serious lack of judgment and set in motion a firestorm that will most likely end more than one career.

We prepare clients for media interviews almost daily. Whether preparing for a basic profile or a sensitive crisis, a core tenet of our counsel is to remember that nothing if off the record. In this case, General McChrystal was not a newcomer to media interviews. Given his past record of newsworthy remarks and blunders, additional preparation was clearly needed. Before the general returned to D.C. for his meeting at the White House, the press aide who arranged the interview with Rolling Stone resigned.

Although we are not always able to control the comments and statements made by individuals, this situation reinforces the need for those of us who prepare clients for interviews to reiterate the basic rules of media training. It never hurts to remind a client one more time that everything they say can be used by a journalist. One thing is certain: General McChrystal will be the example used in many media training sessions for years to come.

Every so often, you learn about a new product and wonder, “Why didn’t I think of that?” A former client contacted me a few weeks ago to tell me about a brilliant new product she had invented. It’s called PoopPac. That’s right, I said “poop” on our blog. Any dog lover knows what it’s like to carry their pet’s poo while looking for a trashcan. If you’re hiking, walking on the beach or strolling through a suburban neighborhood, it’s even more of an issue as trashcans are few and far between.

Susan, who lives in sunny Santa Barbara, California, was sitting on the beach one day watching dog owners awkwardly tote around bags of poo while they drank coffee, talked on cell phones, jogged and led otherwise normal lives. She wondered why there wasn’t some type of product available in which they could place the goods until they found a proper receptacle. And PoopPac was born.

PoopPac is, in essence, the industry’s first portable pet waste carrier. It is large enough to contain dog waste until the pet’s owner can find a trash can, yet small enough to carry comfortably. The carrier also has additional space to hold plastic bags for scooping and other essentials. 

Susan had introduced her product at a pet show a couple of weeks prior and was building quite the following on Facebook. I immediately agreed to write and issue her launch press release. Now I enjoy what I do for a living, but I will admit I’ve never had so much fun writing a press release. The stories, the jokes, the puns … they’re endless. And the media seem to agree. We immediately received a dozen requests for samples and photos. PoopPac was included in a blog on the Los Angeles Times website and received a positive review from a major radio station in California. While she can’t yet announce it, her product received an Editors’ Choice award from one of the top pet industry publications. She’s also booked on Warren Eckstein’s nationally syndicated radio program, “The Pet Show” next week. 

While I wish I’d thought of PoopPac, I sure am glad Susan thought of us to help her spread the word.

It’s that time of year again for pomp and circumstance, caps and gowns, and commencement speeches given by dignitaries.

It’s been widely reported that this year’s college graduates are entering one of the most difficult job markets in our country’s history - though things look marginally better for the class of 2010 compared with the class of 2009. The opportunities seem to be with mid-size companies. According to Michigan State University’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute, companies with fewer than 500 employees expect hiring at their companies to jump 15 percent this year. But it’s still far cry from the robust job market that existed when I began my career in the late 90s during the dot-com boom.

As it was in the late 90s, the communications field — and public relations in particular – continues to be popular among college graduates. I recently read a column in PR Week by Mary Lynn Carver, vice president of PR for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital that provides pointers for new grads and experienced practitioners looking to land a gig in PR. She offers the following guidance for job seekers: add calm to every situation, have a point of view and develop elephant skin. I would also add one rather simple piece of advice – READ.

My colleagues and I hear continuously from journalists who are aggravated with PR pros. Their number one complaint is we don’t know who we’re pitching and what they write about. Recent grads, and all PR pros for that matter, need to immerse themselves in multiple forms of media (magazines, online, TV, newspapers) to understand news value and how to write like a journalist. If your goal is to place a feature in Forbes magazine, then you should read every issue of the magazine, review its blogs and become a follower or fan on social media channels. Simply put, know the publication inside and out.

Just because we have the technology to make media relations more efficient doesn’t mean we can leapfrog the initial research required to effectively place stories. Resist the temptation to pull massive lists and send one email to numerous recipients using the bcc line. After all, the profession is called media relations.

One of the first things I thought when I heard Helen Thomas’ comments about Israel and Palestine was, “Hasn’t she been in this business long enough to know better?”

A journalist for 67 years, Thomas is perhaps best known as a fixture of the White House press corps, covering every president since Eisenhower from her reserved seat in the front row. Throughout her long career, she broke gender barriers and received countless awards recognizing her contribution to journalism.

In an interview by RabbiLIVE.com’s Rabbi David Nesenhoff at the White House Jewish Heritage Celebration on May 27, Thomas said Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go home” to Germany, Poland, America or elsewhere. The video went viral, and Thomas’ storied career was finished. She resigned earlier this week, saying in a statement on June 4:

“I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon.”

Some say Thomas, who is of Arab descent, has shown her bias on this issue before and this incident is just the latest in a long list. Two years after resigning from UPI in 2000 to work for the Hearst Corporation, Thomas reportedly said in a lecture at MIT, “I censored myself for 50 years when I was a reporter. Now I wake up and ask myself, ‘Who do I hate today?’” (An object of her disdain that day was then-president George Bush, and Thomas’ condemnation of the war in Iraq drew cheers from the audience.)

There has been much debate about Thomas’ remarks. There are those who say she has a right to speak her mind, no matter how offensive her point of view may be to some. Others say it’s her tough, outspoken nature and no-nonsense approach that made her such a successful journalist. And, in her current position as an opinion columnist, it can be argued that she has more leeway than she did as a reporter.

Whatever one believes about the issue, all journalists must hold themselves to a higher standard and strive to be as objective as humanly possible.

Of course, the operative phrase is “humanly possible.” But I would think after almost 70 years in the industry, Thomas would have tempered her remarks and kept her personal opinion of this particularly incendiary issue to herself, especially in an interview setting (and while being filmed, no less).

An ironic side note to this story: Nesenhoff’s full interview begins with Thomas giving advice to new members of the press corps standing nearby:

“Go for it. You’ll never be unhappy. You’ll always keep people informed, and you’ll always keep learning. The greatest thing of the profession is, you’ll never stop learning.”

How true.

It’s an age-old perception. The Democrats aren’t tough enough in their rhetoric or their actions. And in the face of terrorist threats and devastating disasters, many people want a leader who is ready to … well … kick ass. President Obama’s handling of the BP oil spill in the Gulf has generated a lot of criticism about his approach as being too calm, cool and collected. So when he told the “Today” show’s Matt Lauer that he was in the region a month ago talking to local fishermen and experts to get answers that would help him determine “whose ass to kick,” it created quite the buzz. I even saw one person on Facebook suggest that he sounded like our former president.

What most people seemed to miss is the lead-in from Matt Lauer that lead to this tough talk from our President. He was talking about the critics and said people feel this isn’t the time for him to meet with advisors. He said they feel he should spend more time in the Gulf and, “…I never thought I’d be saying this to a president, but kick some butt.” When Obama responded, he used “ass” instead of “butt.”

Much of the buzz was around how Obama is finally getting tough and whether it’s appropriate, genuine, etc. or just the work of his speech writers. Again, no one seemed to factor in that he was set up to give that quote. When we prepare spokespeople, we counsel them to be aware of “quote trapping.” Sometimes journalists will use the language they want you to use in an effort to get a specific quote. In this case, Obama gave Lauer what he wanted and took it one step further. From there, it took on a life all its own.

I was one of a few thousand people at Radio City Music Hall (RCMH) on Tuesday night that gathered to see Conan O’Brien’s “The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour.” It was an evening filled with comedy, rants about NBC, and special guests. Here’s what I took away, in addition to the image of Stephen Colbert and O’Brien in a hysterical yet rather uncoordinated dance-off:

-Team Coco wants you to tweet

Last month when I took my stepdaughter to see “Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway, we were reminded to turn off our cell phones and pagers (really, the announcement said pagers). For years now, audience members at shows and performances of all kinds have been asked to turn off wireless devices. So I thought it interesting that upon entering RCMH I was greeted with a sign instructing audience members who planned to tweet about the night’s events to use the hashtag #triumph (as in the insult comic dog).

It’s a new world. One where people are compelled to share whenever and wherever they may be. Encouraging tweeting – at a sporting event, performance, etc. - especially with a suggested hashtag, is a smart way to build trackable buzz and create a sense of camaraderie amongst audience members.

-Shtick journalism really resonates

Tuesday’s show was jam packed with special guests – Colbert, Vampire Weekend, John Krasinski, Paul Rudd, Bill Hader and Jon Stewart, clearly the crowd favorite. The applause the “Daily Show” anchor received rivaled when O’Brien first took to the stage. Nearly a year ago, a Time.com poll named Stewart “the most trusted news man in America,” beating out Charlie Gibson, Brian Williams, and Katie Couric. Judging by the crowd’s uproarious reaction to Stewart’s appearance, I’d stay he still ranks number one – at least with folks in their late teens to early 40’s.

I’ve liked Stewart since his days on MTV. He’s funny but beyond that he is articulate, expressive and appears well-informed. He’s addressing important stories in a way that makes people smile and think. Like Mary Poppins sang, “a spoon full of sugar makes the makes the medicine go down.”