Tag Archive for 'reputation'

S-C-A-N-D-A-L

ScrabulousThis is the last in an accidental series of posts related to web and social media coverage of the ongoing Detroit mayoral scandal. The whole thing has been a mild distraction to my regularly scheduled blog outings, and a major one for the entire region. Like most of Metro Detroit, I’d like to move on.

Since we last left off, Kwame Kilpatrick accepted my ‘friend’ invite on Facebook. I debated whether to challenge our embattled mayor to a friendly game of Scrabulous, but thought it best to leave well enough alone. He hasn’t changed his status update since my last post, so, uh, I suppose he remains resolute.

He’s been good enough—again, assuming it’s really Kilpatrick—to allow commentary from all sides in on his “wall”. Among the more eloquent posts since formal charges were filed:

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Mr. Webb: What the web thinks of your client

As promised, I trolled through the web to get a sense of how the latest Detroit mayoral scandal is playing out in social media circles, trying my best to remain unbiased. Yet as I crunched the numbers, I came across the following head scratcher from Dan Webb, attorney for Kwame Kilpatrick:

…I told the mayor we’re not going to try this case in the press. I’ve never done that during my career. I truly believe the system works. The system works best when jurors are allowed to come into a courtroom without being blitzed with publicity for months ahead of time. I assume and hope the prosecutor will feel the same way. Therefore I’m responding today and maybe for the next day or so to these charges and then you’re not gonna hear from me again because I don’t intend to get up and try this case in the press. I also asked the mayor—I basically instructed him I guess as his lawyer—that he should do the same thing. This case should be tried in a courtroom in front of a jury and should not be tried in the press and therefore I’ve asked him not to respond specifically on a day-to-day basis to questions from the press about the case because we’ll do our speaking in court.

Mr. Webb’s statement was undoubtedly followed by knee-slapping guffaws of roaring laughter from every newsroom, PR agency and blogging outpost in town. Simply examining the past five days of online conversation alone…

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Restoring your reputation—from a backup?

Social networking portabilityWe’ve all been there. Deleted a file—or an entire hard drive—and couldn’t recover the data. Sometimes, it’s not your fault. A virus sneaks past the firewall and corrupts your entire PC. Or your laptop bag walks away from you in a busy airport.

It happens. I once lost an entire week’s worth of web site changes, and on one insidious occasion, an entire site. It’s why we keep backups, or at least should. Assuming, of course, we actually can.

Not so much with social networking, as one of my LinkedIn connections recently discovered. With at least one popular social networking site, there is no option to restore deleted profiles, even if by accident.

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