We bloggers and journalists are such sluts to the news cycle and the celebrity star power.
On the sixth anniversary of 9/11, I ever so briefly combed my mental story list for a possible angle for a post tied to this day. A few ideas burbled to the surface of my consciousness, but nothing that would be anything but a blatant attempt at attracting web traffic for the sake of boosting my numbers this month.
Screw that. I don’t need your attention that badly. Just the mental gymnastics it would take to be insightful and respectful makes my brain hurt. Or my heart.
In September, October and November 2001, I read, heard and saw more stories about a single topic than I thought possible to produce or absorb. I don’t need to ritually regurgitate something from that international 100 days of mourning to make it more meaningful. I don’t need to prove to an audience that I can churn out something poignant or patriotic on command, summing up some aspect of a mass murder that is search-engine-friendly.
So I have no advice today for the people left behind, the bureaucrats responsible for security, the politicians, the soldiers, the activists, or anyone else. You’re all smart people. Look at what has happened to the world over the last six years. Make up your own minds about what you as an individual or as a group should think or do to make the world a better place.
Likewise, I have nothing to say to - or about - a millionaire athlete who finds dog fights entertaining, and supposedly killed a few unworthy beasts.
No attention-getting post about What Michael Vick Taught Me about Crisis Communications (Ragan’s Grapevine eNewsletter). No generic PR article tarted up with an unconnected headline Michael Vick: When Good Athletes Turn Bad - How to Handle a PR Nightmare. No play-by-play analysis: Vick’s Plea Deal - a Win-win PR Strategy?
It’s not that I’m not capable of following the Google zeitgeist for the sake of page views. I’m more than capable of pimping my public relations advice by borrowing the attention of the topic of the day.
In many ways, even this post probably qualifies as linkbait - a ghoulish cashing-in on the deaths of thousands of people and dozens of dogs.
Maybe it is. I’m too numb to figure it out, so I’ll hit Publish anyway.
Tags: celebrity, news, pimping, blogging, zeitgeist, linkbait
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