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The 24-hour news cycle guarantees that the old truism “Don’t [expletive deleted] up on a slow news day” remains evergreen. Just ask Gilbert Gottfried – or, on second thought, don’t ask him, so we don’t have to hear that nails-on-blackboard voice. Aflac got an “F” in history by not studying Mr. Gottfried’s history – particularly in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when he gave a live demo of what “too soon” means – to learn that they were hiring a loose beak as their spokes-duck. They weren’t wrong to fire him, my question is why  they hired him in the first place. Surely he isn’t the only barely-employed voice talent that can make the word “Aflac” sound like a duck on steroids. Now, in addition to having to find a new voice for their duck, Aflac needs to smooth the feathers of Japanese customers – 25% of all households, according to Aflac CEO Daniel Amos – who are left to question why the corporate voice thought making jokes at their expense after the worst natural disaster in recorded history was a good idea. Another “F” in history goes to supporters of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, who’s proud of breaking the back of public employee collective bargaining. Oh, except for police and fire unions – they’re heroes, they should still be able to negotiate salary and working conditions issues, right? The history lesson is this: if you’re on a payroll, and work 40 hours a week, you owe a debt to the labor movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This Friday (March 25, 2011) marks the centennial of what was, until Sept. 11, 2001, the worst workplace disaster in US history: the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, in which 129 women and 17 men either burned to death, died…

In a piece on NPR’s All Things Considered on Valentine’s Day (irony is our favorite thing at Mighty Casey Media), it was revealed that women still lag behind men in pay equity, often leaving $1M or more on the table over an entire career due to their inability to negotiate pay raises. A complicating factor there is that, when women use the same negotiating tactics used by men in the same situation, they’re seen as “overly aggressive” – ouch. I admit to being both more in-your-face than most women, and to hearing accusations of “you’re too assertive” over the years as I navigate my own career, but are we still stuck in gender-norming territory? It seems that we are. When you’re looking for a job, or pitching business for your company, are you winding up in a pink ghetto? The only way to tell is to look at your win category: raises successfully won, business pitched and landed. If women are to get out of the girl ghetto, what’s the fast-track to getting what we deserve? There are some great suggestions in the story. First, bartender Trudie Olsen-Curtis did get what she wanted: a raise. She did her research, and then made her pitch in a way that kept the conversation, and the negotiation, on track. Second, experts advise that the strongest negotiation tactic is…silence. Clearly state your case, and then look across the table. Nature, and negotiation conversations, abhor a vacuum – you’ll get a response. And then the game is on. Like all good stories, the piece saved the best for last – the Girl Scouts have created a new badge called Win/Win, and it’s all about negotiating for what you want: a raise in allowance, money for a school trip, a later curfew, et al. It’s simple…

Etsy, the site that lets producers and consumers of all sorts of stuff buy and sell directly to their customers, has a terrific little business model. Talented folks from around the world can sell their arts, and crafts, without having to go thru a middleman: retail stores. That said, not every item on Etsy is worth buying. Same goes for Ebay. And even Saks, for that matter. But I digress. Etsy is now in a storm of controversy due to greeting cards. Yep, greeting cards. If you haven’t seen any of the cards that have sparked this storm, count  yourself lucky. Poor taste is the highest level they achieve, and then they slide downhill from there. Taking cracks at folks with Down Syndrome, or survivors of rape,  or people with breast cancer? Not exactly humor than can effectively prevent death threats. The problem for Etsy? As a Web 2.0 enterprise, they completely missed the boat on responding to people – buyers, sellers, CUSTOMERS – who objected to the content of these cards, and asked to have them removed. The objectors went where we all go when we want to say – right now, in public – what’s on our minds: Facebook and Twitter. Etsy’s response: “Don’t ruin our shiny happy place. Email us at idiots [at] etsy.com.” And they deleted – and continue to delete – the posts on their Facebook wall that  objected to the cards. The result? A petition on the Social Action 2.0 community Change.Org: Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition » Taking a company’s message online with social media means that you’re encouraging two-way communication. If your customers choose to talk to you via the social media platforms you create for your brand means that you have to respond – meaningfully – on those same platforms. Whether…

How very ironic that the just-relieved-of-command USS Enterprise skipper‘s last name is Honors, particularly since the end of his career in the US Navy (trust me, kids – he’s through) demonstrates a singular lack of honor, and of common sense. If you haven’t been paying attention, here are the basic facts: Capt. Owen Honors, who was executive officer (XO) of the Enterprise 2005-2007, and who took command of the ship last year, put together an “XO Movie Night” video in 2006. It had fun stuff in it like girl-on-girl shower scenes (using sailors under his command), verbal gay-bashing (using sailors under his command), and other light-hearted escapades. The videos weren’t seen off the decks of the Enterprise, at least not by any news organizations, until Jan. 1, 2011 (Happy New Year, US Navy!) when they hit heavier than a tax audit. Sailors who served under Honors (typing that phrase in this context makes me cringe) raced on over to Facebook, and put up a fan page for the skipper, which as I type this has over 11,000 fans. Today, the Navy relieved Capt. Honors of command of the Enterprise. I bring all this up not because I have family connections to six Naval Academy classes going back to 1916, including my dad (’44), my grandfather (’16), my brother (’85) and my cousin (a classmate of Capt. Honors ’83), and the fact that I was born in the USNA hospital on Hospital Point. Although that does give me a dog in this fight. This is a perfect example of the dangers of diving into social media without some kind of social-media-SCUBA-gear. Or what could just be called brains. If you shoot it, and post it ANYWHERE, even on a “secure” site, someone will watch it. And if they have access, they…

I’ve been fascinated by the Wikileaks/Afghan Papers story since it started to gain traction in June 2010. One of my gurus, the endlessly entertaining and thought-provoking Clay Shirky, posted a New Year’s Eve gift on his blog looking at the differences between the Pentagon Papers case and its 21st century doppelganger, Wikileaks. Clay’s most cogent point – and he has many – is this one: there’s a big difference between “international” and “global” when it comes to actors in this little drama. The example he uses to illustrate this point: the difference between making LSD and cocaine. LSD can be made in a lab anywhere, therefore it’s global. As global as the distribution of cocaine is, it’s still tied to a place: the South American mountains where coca leaves are grown. Bradley Manning, whose violation of the UCMJ means he’s screwed for at least a couple of decades, make him very much a “local” boy. Julian Assange, since he holds a passport – and all of us, in order to move around the globe, gotta have one of those – might be able to maneuver more easily than Manning, but he’s still under the flag of Australia. If they choose to either arrest him or revoke his citizenship…well, he’s screwed, too, since he’s just “international.” Wikileaks, however, is the essence of “global” – servers all over ever’where, no one’s officially in charge, even if Assange is the creator and face of Wikileaks – so how on earth will anyone, even the US government, be able to prosecute a case against it? Plenty of entertainment value in this story, still unfolding. And that’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it…