PR Straight Talk

I once handled a book for Harvey Mackay, who had asked me to publicize a manuscript called “Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive.”  Harvey was a first-time unknown author, an envelope manufacturer, and I needed to call upon many creative approaches in promoting him.  Fortunately for me, Harvey is an extraordinary individual and a great natural salesman (I say that in the best sense of that word) - and representing him was a delight.  He was incredibly energized and never said “no” to any media placements I put in front of him.  I remember once when I landed an interview for him with a syndicated columnist in Cleveland, and all that was required was a phone interview (Harvey is based in Minneapolis) - Harvey not only flew to Cleveland to meet the columnist…he had lunch with her and the meeting translated into not one column item, but a series of syndicated column items.  Harvey had impressed her that much.  I imagine some of you may recall that that book, “Swim With The Sharks…” became a mega-bestseller, including nearly a year on the New York Times Bestseller List.

One of the many placements arranged for Harvey was with the Asssociated Press (AP) Bureau out of Minneapolis.  That was really the first major national placement, because it ran on the AP’s “A” Wire, which is the national wire that goes to hundreds and sometimes thousands of newspapers, both nationally and internationally.  That single placement became the engine for more major media pickup, and the rest is history.  It showed me the power of the wire services.  AP, Reuters and UPI are the primary such services.

Years later, when I represent a humanitarian NGO, CURE International, which builds and runs teaching hospitals for disabled children in Third World countries, an extraordinary event was about to occur at one of their hospitals in the Dominican Republic.  A baby girl, Rebecca, had been born deformed with a vestige incomplete head connected to her actual head.  The vestigial head needed to be removed, and that surgery would be a first in medical history.  Teams of surgeons flew in to join the Dominican surgeons, and I knew that this was a story that had great media potential.  It was a risky surgery too, and our hearts went out for little Rebecca and her family.  I first planted a seed with Reuters out of Miami, which ran the story in advance of the event.  The pickup on that story was huge, and created a great deal of curiosity with the press.  All the broadcast network and national cable networks positioned themselves to cover the story.  I then notified the local AP reporter out of Santo Domingo, who received permission from his editor in New York to cover the actual operation, and that story ran in thousands of newspapers.  [I had simultaneously worked with a medical reporter from USA Today, for whom I arranged a phone conference with the doctors in advance of the surgery, and that national newspaper ran over a full page, with graphics, of the surgery].

Sadly, Baby Rebecca died in that surgery, though she contributed enormously to the advancement of medical science in understanding that abberation - and helped future babies with a similar condition - to survive.

AP then ran a lengthy story about the tragic outcome; as did Reuters and USA Today.  Naturally both the pre-surgical story and the post-event story ran in thousands of newspapers nationwide and internationally; and broadcast network and cable tv newscasts did the same. 

Most recently, I represented Dr. Peter Langman, head of psychology at KidsPeace: The National Center for Kids In Crisis.  He had written a book called “Why Kids Kill:  Inside the Minds of School Shooters”.  It was an analysis of the mental/emotional conditions of the Columbine killers.  I knew that a major story with AP, as well as a story in USA Today, would do much to give life to this book.  I worked with the local AP Reporter in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, where Dr. Langman was situated.  The seeds were planted early, and because this was a very busy reporter, I knew that I would need to maintain contact with him on a fairly regular basis.  Then, a couple of weeks before the anniversary of Columbine, the reporter interviewed Dr. Langman.  He brought a photographer.  The interview was in-depth.  I sensed it would be a long story; and indeed it became just that.  The outcome?  Over two thousand newspapers picked the story up.  Virtually overnight, the book had been placed on the radar screen of millions of people.

In fact, I had also cultivated contact with a reporter from USA Today, again, well ahead of the Columbine anniversary.  USA Today not only published their story on the front page of the paper, they also had a separate long book review published on the same day.  “Why Kids Kill,” which had barely received any attention until the AP and USA Today stories, had jumped from practically zero on Amazon.com’s list, to  Number 1 on Amazon’s bestseller list for crime books.

All of this is to say that the wire services carry great power and impact.  Look for opportunities to work not only with AP out of New York or Washington, but with the local AP (or Reuters) bureaus in the locales where the story is taking place.

Walter Cronkite passed away last week.  I’ll admit it.  I hate to use the word “died.”  He was so much a part of our culture.  So much an anchor for us as this nation moved through tumultuous times:  World War II, Korea, the Cold War, Civil Rights, the Moon landing, the assassinations of JFK, Martin Luther King Jr., and Bobby Kennedy, the elections of American presidents, the Vietnam War…and so much more.  He had an avuncular style, he was centered as the anchorman of the CBS Evening News, he exhuded confidence and concern.  I would say even more, he conveyed the sense that he cared.  He cared about our country, the principles and values upon which it stood, its journey through time and its history.  His patriotism was genuine but not in any way jingoistic.  One had the sense with Walter that he viewed the American experience as an ongoing narrative with meaning, with some kind of unfolding purpose that had no end point - and that he viewed our nation as a positive force in the world.  Having said that, one could sense his disappointment and even pain when things did not go well.  Vietnam, which he eventually saw as a failure (and which brought Lyndon Johnson to say, “If I’ve lost Walter, I’ve lost middle America”).  The assassinations of JFK, Martin Luther King and Bobby, and more.  And he exulted with joy and ebullience when we landed a man on the Moon.

Walter Cronkite brought a sense of comfort and stability to the American psyche.  Whatever the news of the day, with its ups and downs, Walter conveyed reassurance that the Republic was moving forward.  He conveyed a sense of hope in the future because he embodied the American story and the American dream.  He was a kind of glue that held things together - that held us together.

In my view, he was the greatest news anchor in American television news history.  He carried a Spirit that was contained in his very energy. There was no one like him.  And though he may have politically leaned on the liberal side in his personal views - I think he was probably a moderate - he really never showed it on-the-air.  And yet, more than 20 years after his retirement, he is known to have expressed the view that we were missing something in the war on terrorism.   He in no way condoned the ferocity and cruelty of Islamic extremism - for he was a witness to many ferocious ideologies - from Nazism in Germany to the Kmer Rouge in Cambodia - but he was deeply concerned that as an affluent country we were not sensitive enough to the plight of the poor in the developing world.  I saw and heard him say that if he was a parent ensnared in the trap of deeply entrenched poverty in one of those countries, seeing his children hungry and feeling frustrated and anguished about being unable to help them, that he would feel resentment towards those in the West whose prosperity was so self-evident on the television shows and movies that came from America.  He talked about the poor being fodder for the terrorists’ agendas. 

What fascinated me about this is that it confirmed for me that Walter had empathy for people, even with the objectivity he presented as a news anchor and reporter.  He cared.  He cared about America and the American people - but his caring reached out to people and peoples everywhere.   He had seen the Earthrise from the videos that came back from the Appollo missions.  We were one planet - and our species, the human species, was one species.  Walter’s vision was global, and that global vision was not inconsistent with his love for his country as real and deep.  As a great observer of events, he saw connections - he saw the relationships between those events. 

The greatness about Walter Cronkite was that as a professional he was objective.  As a human being, he cared.  He gave a damn.

Walter had a commentator on the CBS Evening News - Eric Sevareid.  Eric was a giant too, for like Walter his view was wide and deep.  He saw the little things, but like Walter, he also saw the larger picture.

There is no one on television today of the stature of Walter Cronkite and Eric Sevareid.  The void is real, and hopefully it will not take too many years for that void to be filled.

[NOTE:   Also viewable at - http://www.enrichment.com/content/remedy-china-reversing-cancer-cell-growth]

There is a remedy from China that users report is putting their cancers into remission.

The remedy is called “Haelan 951” (pronounced “Heelan”). It has had a dearth of publicity to-date – yet it is extraordinary, and worth consideration. Haelan 951 is approved by the FDA as a food substance. It is undergoing clinical trials as a remedy for cancer and is not yet officially FDA approved as a medicine. For this reason, the company that imports the product into the USA cannot yet officially state that it is a cure or remedy for cancer. But wherever clinical trials are held, the findings are extremely positive.

Interviews with people who have taken Haelan 951 for cancer, shows that in many cases it works by boosting the immune system up to 700%, making it virtually impossible for cancer cells to grow or spread. After these interviews, I recommended to a family member with both chronic lymphatic leukemia and the diagnosis of an aggressive breast cancer tumor, that she take the Haelan. Having done so, she went into remission after a few months from both the CLL and breast cancer. Eight years later, she is still in remission.

Haelan 951 is a super nutritious, fermented soybean protein beverage that has shown remarkable results in the treatment of cancer. The bean is grown in China where it is also processed. It is imported in bottles by The Haelan Company in Washington State. The beverage contains large quantities of single cell proteins and their metabolites produced by a specially patented fermentation process. This process hydrolyzes many of the soybean proteins into amino acids and compounds that are rich in nitrogen and fermentation metabolites of the naturally occurring isoflavones such as genistein, protease inhibitors, saponins, phytosterols and inositol hexaphosphate compounds in soybeans.

The majority of those I interviewed reported they had gone into remission – and some of them reported that they did not do conventional treatment, but only the Haelan.

Colorado-based medical researcher Donna Sage, who conducted extensive interviews and research with patients and physicians on difficult cancer cases that had dramatic turnarounds after taking Haelan 951, wrote several articles for Well-Being Journal, including a well-documented piece in the January/February 1999 issue entitled, “Soy Nutrient That Reverses Cancer Cell Growth.” (http://www.haelanproducts.com/well%20being%20journal.htm). Prior to her research, Ms. Sage was a skeptic about the beneficial effects of Haelan. She now believes that Haelan is a potent and viable anti-cancer remedy.

More research can be found at the Haelan Products Company website: http://www.haelanproducts.com/research.htm

One clinical trial of note was a study supported in part by a grant from the National Cancer Institute, and conducted by the Divisions of Medical Oncology and Gynecologic Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. A 56 year-old woman with rapidly progressive platinum-resistant ovarian cancer experienced remission and entered into a phase of prolonged disease stabilization upon initiating self-directed treatment with Haelan 951, a commercially-available soy beverage.

The case report of the study states: “We present a case of a woman with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer who has had asymptomatic, stable disease for nine months on Haelan 951.” The study was first published on May 27, 2005

For serious cases, Haelan is taken initially for two or three months at a bottle (8 ounces a day) – perhaps more. Four ounces in the morning, four ounces at night before bed.

After the initial bottle or more a day, one goes on maintenance, usually an ounce in the morning and an ounce at night, indefinitely. The taste is not great though one gets used to it.

More information is available in several languages at www.Cancer-Disarmed.com

Michael Jackson was an artistic genius - and like many artistic geniuses of his calibre - he had a very sensitive inner child which in his case had become wounded by an abusive father, and the absence of a normal childhood.  Michael was used and manipulated by many barracuda types in his life - managers and financial advisors who were not only interested in cashing in on his mega-success - but people who did not truly care for him as a person.  He was surrounded by people who feigned caring about him, but they were disingenous - whether we’re talking about plastic surgeons, M.D.’s who overmedicated him, or close consultants including publicists.

Michael did have the wisdom to occasionally turn to spiritual teachers like Deepak Chopra and Rabbi Shmuley - but he did not have a close inner circle of centered, caring people who cared more about HIM than his image.  These were people who feigned concern, but their real motivation was monetary self-enrichment.

In authentic public relations, the “image” is an extension of the true person - the true being.  Michael’s image was tarnished by the failure of close confidantes who might have helped him work on his demons with expert counseling, and help him disassociate his conflicts from his true artistic self, allowing him to see himself for the great, caring and artistic person he truly was.

Instead, Michael’s conflicted self and unconscious desire for punishment - since the punishment he endured from his father as a child was the “price” he was made to believe was necessary for success - allowed terrible people to later come into his life, which exacerbated the poor choices he made, and his image.  Even this may have been exacerbated by an on-stage incident that burned his hair and scalp, and set in motion antidotes for the excruciating pain he experienced, as well as plastic surgeries that went too far.  It is also my belief that Michael was not a child molester, as echoed by his friends Deepak Chopra and Chopra’s son, and Donald Trump. 

If a wise public relations practitioner had come into his life, understanding his personal struggle and physical pain, and had become a true friend of Michael’s, working with him to gain permission to bring wise and caring people into his inner circle, this kind of support might have changed Michael’s course, may have prevented the myriad of crises Michael confronted, and supported an image that would have been truer to the extremely talented artist, shining being and spirit-filled, uplifting entertainer Michael Jackson surely was.