Lance Armstrong, champion of seven Tour De France cycling races, international spokesperson, celebrity cancer survivor who channeled his courage and inspiration into the Livestrong charity, is trying to rebuild his tarnished reputation with an upcoming mea culpa on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show. The most famous personality in the history of competitive cycling, has been stripped of most of his titles, awards and honorary degrees due to his alleged use of performance enhancement drugs. Recent new evidence presented by the US Anti-Doping Agency after a lengthy investigation revealed more alleged improprieties and a cover up at the highest levels of U.S. cycling. Even Nike, which vowed to support the beleaguered cyclist no matter what, pulled out of its sponsorship deal with Armstrong. Armstrong was forced to resign from the board of his own Livestrong foundation, so the doping allegations would not diminish or detract from Livestrong’s ability to raise money. [Read more…]
Interview with Crisis Communications Expert Allison Dean Love
We kick off the New Year in high gear on our online reputation management blog with an exclusive interview with Allison Dean Love, President of Allison Dean Love Consulting, LLC. Allison has more than 20 years experience in public relations, marketing, media relations and communications, including crisis communications. With more than 8,000 interviews and media relationships worldwide, she conducts media relations and crisis communications training for a variety of clients in insurance, engineering, construction, government and nonprofit organizations. [Read more…]
Interview with Crisis Communications Expert Larry Smith
We are excited to invite Larry Smith, Senior Consultant with the Institute for Crisis Management, to share over 30 years of experience with our online reputation management blog. ICM is an international crisis communication and management consulting company specializing in helping organizations avoid crises, and when a crisis cannot be prevented, helps them communicate with key audiences, including employees and the media. He spent 35 years as a reporter, editor, TV anchor and news director and served as press secretary to then-Senator Dan Quayle before joining ICM in 1994. Larry is co-author of three books on crisis management, a Batten Fellow at the Darden Graduate School of Business, UVA, and has taught public speaking and media/spokesperson training for 30 years. [Read more…]
Making Sense of the Petraeus Sex Scandal
America loves a good sex scandal. It’s almost our national pastime, although I’m still a little more partial to baseball. This Fall we had a little of both. Though it’s hard to imagine anything overshadowing the 2012 Presidential election, one day after President Barack Obama scored a second term, the face on the cover of newspapers and magazines across the country was… General David Petraeus? Let’s run through a quick catch up on this made for TV soap opera that has tarnished the reputation of the individuals involved as well as the U.S. Army, CIA and FBI.
November 7 – No Time for President Obama to Celebrate –CIA Chief David Petraeus Resigns
On November 7, 2012 the Petraeus scandal broke, although it appears the investigation into General Petraeus began long before November 2012 and FBI director, Robert Mueller decided to hold the news of the scandal until after the Presidential election. The news, as expected, riveted the nation and glued people to their laptops, tablets and television screens to watch our most decorated soldier, spymaster and potential future Presidential candidate’s fall from grace. [Read more…]
