Public Strategies: What?!?

[Realist]

You guys keep talking about Public Strategies. I presume you are talking about this PR firm: http://www.pstrategies.com/

What is the posited connection with Armstrong? What is the evidence for that connection? What kind of activities do they engage in and what is the evidence that they engage in those activities? It sounds to me like this Public Strategies stuff could either be quite an interesting insight into the manufacturing of a personal brand, or conspiracy theory territory. Interested to know which way it falls.

Someone enlighten me... I hate to feel out of the loop.

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showpost.php?p=297390&postcount=105

Trawl Race Radio's and maybe Dr Mas' posts for more. There's plenty.

 

[Realist]

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showpost.php?p=297390&postcount=105

Trawl Race Radio's and maybe Dr Mas' posts for more. There's plenty.

Ok, that's cool. Thanks. There seems to have been some suggestion that they hire people to post on forums? Is there any confirmation of this? I will definitely search a bit but if someone wants to give a brief summary of what people know and suspect I would be interested in that.

 

[buckwheat]

Ok, that's cool. Thanks. There seems to have been some suggestion that they hire people to post on forums? Is there any confirmation of this? I will definitely search a bit but if someone wants to give a brief summary of what people know and suspect I would be interested in that.

Their summer interns do it. Nice coincidence the Tour is in July and that's when the interns have at it.

BTW, some PS douche is representing Trek for the duration of the Pharmstrong investigation

 

[Race Radio]

In addition to what I have posted PS played a key role in the campaign to slime Greg Lemond.

It was not a coincidence that the same talking points appeared at the same time not just in posts on internet forums but also in friendly media (Outside, Mens Health, etc.).

Armstrong's mentor at PS, Mark Mckinnon, has a long history of crafting a public images. He was Bush's chief media advisor and headed up Palin's debate preparation. The guy is an expert at polishing turds.

 

[buckwheat]

In addition to what I have posted PS played a key role in the campaign to slime Greg Lemond.

It was not a coincidence that the same talking points appeared at the same time not just in posts on internet forums but also in friendly media (Outside, Mens Health, etc.).

Armstrong's mentor at PS, Mark Mckinnon, has a long history of crafting a public images. He was Bush's chief media advisor and headed up Palin's debate preparation. The guy is an expert at polishing turds.

Damn, you opened a can of worms.

I can't believe there are human beings in this world who would actually stand up and defend those highlighted. We're done, just done. Total toast.

 

[oldschoolnik]

In addition to what I have posted PS played a key role in the campaign to slime Greg Lemond.

It was not a coincidence that the same talking points appeared at the same time not just in posts on internet forums but also in friendly media (Outside, Mens Health, etc.).

Armstrong's mentor at PS, Mark Mckinnon, has a long history of crafting a public images. He was Bush's chief media advisor and headed up Palin's debate preparation. The guy is an expert at polishing turds.

McKinnon is also on the board of Livestrong.org I erroneously had said he was on the board of LiveStrong.com - an intentionally confusing for-profit wing of the Livestrong campaign. My bad. Thanks superleicht to setting me straight!
http://www.livestrong.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Strength/Our-Leaders/Board-of-Directors

 

[Realist]

Their summer interns do it. Nice coincidence the Tour is in July and that's when the interns have at it.

BTW, some PS douche is representing Trek for the duration of the Pharmstrong investigation

OK, I'm getting the picture. Read some of Race Radio's old posts and looked at their website. I don't find it surprising they would post on forums and comment on news articles, but is there concrete evidence they are doing this or is it just what you would expect given the kind of firm it is?

When I studied political science and policy we used to call this astroturfing... fake grassroots. I always found that pretty funny.

 

[Race Radio]

Perhaps the best example of this was when Lemond asked questions at Armstrong's Las Vegas press conference.

Prior to the press conference Greg asked if he could attend and ask a few questions. Armstrong's press people not only said yes but also gave him a seat at the front of the room and allowed him to ask the first question.

Greg proceeds to ask a very legitimate question about the use of power to track doping. This was something that both Garmin and Columbia were using for their internal programs and it is an important addition to any internal program. Armstrong's response was clearly scripted. He looks at Greg as if he was *** and had crashed the event. He tells him to give it a rest.

The next day message boards, article comments, and friendly media articles were flooded with the same talking points, that Greg had crashed the event, was rambling an irrational and asked questions that made no sense. Luckily somebody captured some video of the event and it showed that Greg was far from nuts.

In the end the tactic worked for Armstrong. People thought Greg was nuts and ignored the fact that the testing program that he came to launch was a fraud and it never went anywhere.

And people wonder why they call it a myth.......

 

[superleicht]

McKinnon is also on the board of Livestrong.com - the intentionally confusing for-profit wing of the Livestrong campaign:
http://www.livestrong.org/Who-We-Are/Our-Strength/Our-Leaders/Board-of-Directors

For the sake of accuracy, McKinnon is on the board of Livestrong.org, as indicated by the link you provided. I could not find the board members for Livestrong.com, but my hunch is it is a property of some other company. BTW, Lance is an investor in Demand Media, which provides content for Livestrong.com. Good Wired article on Demand Media:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/

Once worked on some political campaigns with Mark before he went over to the dark side . . .

 

[redtreviso]

Armstrong PS people are probably the same bunch that fanned out all over east texas to every church and left leaflets saying the Ann Richard was a lesbian, back when George W Bush was running for governor.

 

[Race Radio]

For the sake of accuracy, McKinnon is on the board of Livestrong.org, as indicated by the link you provided. I could not find the board members for Livestrong.com, but my hunch is it is a property of some other company. BTW, Lance is an investor in Demand Media, which provides content for Livestrong.com. Good Wired article on Demand Media:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/

Once worked on some political campaigns with Mark before he went over to the dark side . . .

Armstrong received his equity in Demand Media when he pimped the Non-Profit's name to them in return for a "Substantial" piece of Demand.

Demand is what is called a "Content Farm" churning out online content. Launching an online "astroturf" slime campaign.

To be fair to Mark I have heard he is a good guy and has reconsidered his involvement with any Armstrong political campaign.

 

[Race Radio]

Armstrong PS people are probably the same bunch that fanned out all over east texas to every church and left leaflets saying the Ann Richard was a lesbian, back when George W Bush was running for governor.

Mark worked on the Richards campaign, he changed over to the GOP after he became friends with Bush.

 

[superleicht]

Mark worked on the Richards campaign, he changed over to the GOP after he became friends with Bush.

That's correct. And to correct an earlier post, PS were not the ones that smeared Ann in her reelection campaign - they generally stay out of candidate campaigns although there some folks that jump back and forth between work for candidates and work for PS clients - or used to. Anyway, most of the principals of PS at the time were friends of Ann.

I used to know a number of folks at PS - like any company, some were good and some not-so-good. But that was a while ago . . .

Ah . . . here's one thing they do:

360 Reputation Monitor
Public Strategies’ 360o Reputation Monitor is a measurement tool that gives executive leadership comprehensive metrics for evaluating the health of an organization’s reputation and a strategic plan for optimizing it.

The 360o Reputation Monitor allows for an apples-to-apples comparison of key reputation attributes across its most influential constituencies. A company can engage employees, investors, partners, customers, and other key stakeholders with the same brief survey, ensuring a valuable direct comparison and actionable metrics for executive decision making.

 

[Cal_Joe]

You guys keep talking about Public Strategies. I presume you are talking about this PR firm: http://www.pstrategies.com/

What is the posited connection with Armstrong? What is the evidence for that connection? What kind of activities do they engage in and what is the evidence that they engage in those activities? It sounds to me like this Public Strategies stuff could either be quite an interesting insight into the manufacturing of a personal brand, or conspiracy theory territory. Interested to know which way it falls.

Someone enlighten me... I hate to feel out of the loop.

I think I saw a previous post about this...

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?p=256950#post256950

 

[superleicht]

I think I saw a previous post about this...

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?p=256950#post256950

LOL! That was great - and maybe not too far off the mark. PS is now one of the 275 companies owned by WPP, a London-based communications services group and easily the largest in the world. Over 80 offices in India.

 

[redtreviso]

Mark worked on the Richards campaign, he changed over to the GOP after he became friends with Bush.

Their tactics must have appealed to him. Friends with Bush?..I doubt he has any. ever.. Kind of like "friends of Cullen Davis"

 

[JRTinMA]

Perhaps the best example of this was when Lemond asked questions at Armstrong's Las Vegas press conference.

Prior to the press conference Greg asked if he could attend and ask a few questions. Armstrong's press people not only said yes but also gave him a seat at the front of the room and allowed him to ask the first question.

Greg proceeds to ask a very legitimate question about the use of power to track doping. This was something that both Garmin and Columbia were using for their internal programs and it is an important addition to any internal program. Armstrong's response was clearly scripted. He looks at Greg as if he was *** and had crashed the event. He tells him to give it a rest.

The next day message boards, article comments, and friendly media articles were flooded with the same talking points, that Greg had crashed the event, was rambling an irrational and asked questions that made no sense. Luckily somebody captured some video of the event and it showed that Greg was far from nuts.

In the end the tactic worked for Armstrong. People thought Greg was nuts and ignored the fact that the testing program that he came to launch was a fraud and it never went anywhere.

And people wonder why they call it a myth.......

So, who's the idiot here? A dope(r) being outwitted by a doper, novel.

 

[oldschoolnik]

Perhaps the best example of this was when Lemond asked questions at Armstrong's Las Vegas press conference.

Prior to the press conference Greg asked if he could attend and ask a few questions. Armstrong's press people not only said yes but also gave him a seat at the front of the room and allowed him to ask the first question.

Greg proceeds to ask a very legitimate question about the use of power to track doping. This was something that both Garmin and Columbia were using for their internal programs and it is an important addition to any internal program. Armstrong's response was clearly scripted. He looks at Greg as if he was *** and had crashed the event. He tells him to give it a rest.

The next day message boards, article comments, and friendly media articles were flooded with the same talking points, that Greg had crashed the event, was rambling an irrational and asked questions that made no sense. Luckily somebody captured some video of the event and it showed that Greg was far from nuts.

In the end the tactic worked for Armstrong. People thought Greg was nuts and ignored the fact that the testing program that he came to launch was a fraud and it never went anywhere.

And people wonder why they call it a myth.......

There does seem to be a pattern of comments on articles about this case - with almost all of them mentioning "not using taxpayer money for this witch hunt" - Of course this is kind of a popular rant these days in the US so it's hard to know if it's the same people, say from PS or what - but just check out these comments? Shills or not:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?page=munson/100729

 

[Race Radio]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...strong-lie-an-open-letter-to-greg-lemond.html

Mark McKinnon, Livestrong board member and the head guy at Public Strategies, apologizes to Greg LeMond

 

[IzzyStradlin]

McKinnon is a total front-runner fake. Just skimming cash off the next rising star.

How many train wrecks does a guy have to mastermind in before it becomes obvious that he is a total fraud?

His new 'no labels' thing is also incredibly stupid.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...strong-lie-an-open-letter-to-greg-lemond.html

Mark McKinnon, Livestrong board member and the head guy at Public Strategies, apologizes to Greg LeMond

So PR guy running PR firm releases PR statement (public apology) for private wrongs conducted on individual now that individual is back in the limelight.

Seems legit.

 

[Race Radio]

So PR guy running PR firm releases PR statement (public apology) for private wrongs conducted on individual now that individual is back in the limelight.

Seems legit.

While I agree we are right to question Mark's motives his wrongs were hardly private. He, and his company, ran a very organized and public smear campaign.

 

[King Boonen]

Hey man,

Sorry we completely screwed you over and got rich doing it, we cool?

K, bye!

 

[blackcat]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...strong-lie-an-open-letter-to-greg-lemond.html

Mark McKinnon, Livestrong board member and the head guy at Public Strategies, apologizes to Greg LeMond

in Wiggos terms

seems legit