Being in the public relations and content marketing business, I'm hyper sensitive to the potential damage a client's impolitic, public remarks can wreak on one's reputation and that of the company he or she represents.
Here in the United States, our government doesn't censor what we say. But embedded in our culture lurks a censorship force ready at a moment's notice to pounce and bite the hell our of anyone who dares utter words that offend against race, religion, or gender.
Here in the United States, our government doesn't censor what we say. But embedded in our culture lurks a censorship force ready at a moment's notice to pounce and bite the hell our of anyone who dares utter words that offend against race, religion, or gender.
Our cultural censoring strikes like a cobra. It's immediate, fast, sure, viral, and filled with venom. Bodda boom, bodda bing. Anyone, especially high-profile personalities, who verbally treads beyond politically correct norms gets the bite.
We don't send the offenders to a gulag or stalag. But when cultural censoring smacks, the remarks go viral, and the unsuspecting verbalizers go down, buried in heaps of bad mouthing. Offenders then go all humble and apologize or explain "what they really meant to say."
As you know, A&E has put Phil Robertson, star of its reality series, "Duck Dynasty," on hiatus because he made inflammatory remarks about homosexuality in a GQ magazine interview. And PR exec, Justine Sacco, was fired from her job as a PR executive for InterActive Corp., because her racist-sounding tweet went viral.
We don't send the offenders to a gulag or stalag. But when cultural censoring smacks, the remarks go viral, and the unsuspecting verbalizers go down, buried in heaps of bad mouthing. Offenders then go all humble and apologize or explain "what they really meant to say."
As you know, A&E has put Phil Robertson, star of its reality series, "Duck Dynasty," on hiatus because he made inflammatory remarks about homosexuality in a GQ magazine interview. And PR exec, Justine Sacco, was fired from her job as a PR executive for InterActive Corp., because her racist-sounding tweet went viral.
Here in the United States, our government doesn't censor what we say. But embedded in our culture lurks a censorship force ready at a moment's notice to pounce and bite anyone who utters words that offend against race, religion, or gender.
This censoring nature of ours strikes like a cobra. It's immediate, fast, and sure. And smacks anyone who verbally treads beyond the unwritten bounds of politically correct. When it does, the remarks go viral, and the unsuspecting verbalizers go down, covered in heaps of bad mouthing that buries them.
Those who suffer the cultural-censorship bite apologize publicly. This does little or nothing to staunch the negative reactions
Our cultural censorship should make all of wary of what we say in public--whether our remarks find life in social media or traditional media.
What do you think?
www.hankwalshak.com
hankwalshak@verizon.net
What do you think?
www.hankwalshak.com
hankwalshak@verizon.net
