Trevor Cook on public relations, social media and politics

Monthly Archives: October 2008

Conroy, ‘clean feeds’ and the twitter generation

October 31, 2008 – 6:03 pm

This may be Australia’s first genuine grass-roots example of how social media can be used to have a political impact. Mark Pesce wrote about it for ABC Unleashed today and Crikey pointed to some of the blog traffic on it earlier this week. The SMH had a story on the issue last friday.
Some companies are [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Social Media | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

TNR: Is McCain dirtier than George H. W. Bush?

October 31, 2008 – 4:51 pm
By Trevor Cook | Posted in US Presidential Election | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Can Coogee lose its poo-famy?

October 31, 2008 – 3:48 pm

Australian humour has a strong scatalogical bent. In fact, a popular Australian piece of slang involves dog turds on dinner plates as in this 2005 example from the SMH:
“As subtle and clever as a fresh dog turd on a dinner plate,” said Djbobbit on another forum.
So the faeces in the gelato scandal that has beset [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Public Relations | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

US election, afternoon update

October 31, 2008 – 3:11 pm

It’s late evening Thursday on the US east coast and the polls have been coming thick and fast today. Realclearpolitics has a list off 44 polls released on Thursday in the USA.
None of the polls represents any gains for McCain in battleground states. Overall, the poll situation seems to have stablised a little after several [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in US Presidential Election | Tagged , , , | Comments (2)

Marcus Einfeld admits he lied: News Ltd report

October 31, 2008 – 10:23 am

The Daily Telegraph has just posted: ‘FORMER judge Marcus Einfeld has this morning finally admitted that he lied when he claimed a dead woman was driving his speeding car, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.” Unbelievable, all that to avoid a $77 parking fine. Another for the ‘how not to do it” PR file.

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Public Relations | Tagged | Comments (2)

Keating right on Gallipoli

October 31, 2008 – 6:52 am

Gallipoli was a horrible, pointless disaster which generations of political, military and veteran spin doctors have conspired to glorify as some sort of noble, national adventure and ‘coming of age’. In reality, it is a sad monument to the absolute horror and absurdity of war, and the incompetence of the British. We were betrayed by [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in Social issues | Tagged , , | Comments (7)

Joe: where the bloody hell are you?

October 31, 2008 – 6:35 am
By Trevor Cook | Posted in US Presidential Election | Tagged , | Comments (2)

Today’s best articles on the election

October 31, 2008 – 6:32 am

Obama’s early vote push (Washington Post) –
Preliminary analysis shows that, on the basis of registration statistics, Democrats and Republicans are voting in roughly equal numbers. That, however, represents a departure from 2004, when many more Republicans than Democrats cast ballots before election day.
His first conclusion is that by Election Day, the early vote will [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in US Presidential Election | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

What the polls tell us about what might happen next Tuesday

October 30, 2008 – 3:03 pm

I did a wrap-up piece for New Matilda looking at polls, turnouts and those all-important electoral college votes.

By Trevor Cook | Posted in US Presidential Election | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

Devine and Sheridan weird out on baby boomers

October 30, 2008 – 10:54 am

Australian columnists love attacking baby boomers. It’s a staple, apparently we’re the worst generation ever and we ought to be getting out of the way.
So this morning, veteran SMH columnist Miranda Devine has a new angle on next week’s presidential election. Amazingly, you may not have noticed, it will spell the end of the boomer [...]

By Trevor Cook | Posted in US Presidential Election | Tagged , , , , | Comments (13)