{"id":99,"date":"2008-10-01T12:22:39","date_gmt":"2008-10-01T12:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp\/?p=99"},"modified":"2008-10-01T12:22:39","modified_gmt":"2008-10-01T12:22:39","slug":"plain_dealings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/2008\/10\/plain_dealings\/","title":{"rendered":"Plain dealings"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have gotten two phone calls from artists about The Cleveland Plain-Dealer<\/i>; should we do interviews with the new writer, they both asked, separately, we heard the orchestra got the last writer fired. <\/p>\n

Now,
\nI love the artists I work with dearly, but they are rarely up on their
\nindustry gossip. The fact that this news made it to some of the top
\nperforming artists in the world and sincerely distressed them
\nis…interesting. <\/p>\n

Hard-hitting journalist that I am (not), I e
\nmailed The Cleveland Orchestra’s publicity department and asked if I could interview a
\nrepresentative for this blog. I’m not especially interested in this
\ndrama from an ethical point of view: I don’t think the orchestra “got”
\nDon Rosenberg “fired”. I am, however, fascinated from a PR standpoint
\n(surprise!). Everyone THINKS the orchestra got Don Rosenberg fired, and
\nfrankly, that’s all that matters. <\/p>\n

This was the response I got – not unexpectedly – to my query:<\/p>\n

Thanks
\nAmanda, but I really think it would be better to make a request to The
\nPlain Dealer.  This was their decision and a personnel matter for them,
\nnot for The Cleveland Orchestra.  <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The wording here is intriguing<\/span>. Yes, this is a personnel <\/b>matter for The Plain Dealer<\/i>, but it is a publicity<\/b>
\nmatter for The Cleveland Orchestra. As I said, what actually
\nhappened doesn’t matter, but how the orchestra administrators handled it
\ndoes. They handled it badly, and consequently lost control. <\/p>\n

On September 18, classical music critic Tim Smith broke (”  “) the news on the Baltimore Sun<\/i> blog<\/a>.
\nThe first paragraph of his post objectively states the situation. The
\nsecond assumes that Rosenberg was fired because he had criticized music
\ndirector Franz Welser-M\u00f6st for years. Tim Smith can be as subjective as
\nhis wants on his\/his employer’s blog. If his editors didn’t think he
\nhad the information to back up his assumption, one figures they
\nwouldn’t have let him post it.

[Side question: When
\nnewspapers have blogs, are writers’ blog entries subjected to changes by
\ntheir editors, or is that reserved for their print writing?] <\/i> <\/p>\n

The
\nresponse (in the Comment field) was tremendous, as comments from the likes
\nof Tim Page, Scott Cantrell and…wait…what’s this?…Gary Hanson – Executive Director – Cleveland Orchestra<\/b>??? popped up.  Imagine me doing my best Dwight Schrute<\/a> impression when I ask: “Question: Who let the executive director of The Cleveland Orchestra comment on blogs?”<\/p>\n

\n

In recent days, the music writers’ blogsphere has been rife with
\nassumptions and even accusations that the management of The Cleveland
\nOrchestra engineered personnel changes at Cleveland’s daily newspaper,
\nThe Plain Dealer. These accusations are false. <\/p>\n

I want to set the record straight: I was completely surprised by the
\nnews last week that Plain Dealer music critic Donald Rosenberg has been
\nre-assigned and will no longer cover The Cleveland Orchestra for the
\nnewspaper. <\/p>\n

A half dozen critics have called or emailed me this week asking if I
\nmet with the newspaper’s editors to lodge complaints. The answer is I
\nhave never met with them to protest Donald Rosenberg’s opinions. In the
\nnormal course of business during my tenure with the Orchestra, I have
\nspoken with every editor, past and present, about the newspaper’s
\ncoverage. In those meetings I have delivered compliments and concerns
\nabout their news and feature coverage as well as their editorial
\npositions and decisions. But in every case I have also said, very
\nexplicitly, that the Orchestra’s management understands and respects
\nthe paper’s and the critic’s role in expressing opinion about our
\nartistic activities. And whether or not we agree with the opinion we
\nfully accept and support their right and responsibility to publish it.<\/p>\n

Donald Rosenberg has written about The Cleveland Orchestra for
\ndecades. I worked directly with him for many years, especially during
\nmy early tenure here as Director of Public Relations. In that role, I
\nopened the Orchestra archives to him for research on his comprehensive
\nhistory of the Orchestra “Second to None.” I very much enjoyed the
\nproductive and professional relationship we’ve shared. I appreciate and
\nadmire a great deal of his work on the subject of the Orchestra and I
\nam grateful for his dedication to regular and comprehensive classical
\nmusic coverage. Over the years we have agreed and we have disagreed.
\nAll the same I will miss working with him.<\/p>\n

Gary Hanson
\nExecutive Director
\nCleveland Orchestra<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I
\n– and anyone with brain – know that blogs are important for publicity
\nin 2008. That said, include bloggers in your official releases, do not
\ndefend yourself in their comment fields. Hanson went on to “comment” on
\nSteve Smith’s blog, Night After Night<\/i><\/a>. A unique comment on Steve’s unique take on the situation? Nope, the exact same comment that was posted on the Baltimore Sun<\/i> blog. Gary Hanson and orchestra publicity team, allow me to bring your attention to Merriam-Webster dot com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n1<\/sup>com\u00b7ment<\/span> \"<\/a><\/p>\n
\n
Pronunciation:<\/dt>\n
\n
\n\\\u02c8<\/span>k\u00e4-\u02cc<\/span>ment\\
\n<\/span>\n<\/dd>\n
Function:<\/dt>\n
noun<\/em> <\/dd>\n
Etymology:<\/dt>\n
Middle English, from Late Latin commentum,<\/em> from Latin, invention, from neuter of commentus,<\/em> past participle of comminisci<\/em> to invent, from com-<\/em> + -minisci<\/em> (akin to ment-, mens<\/em> mind)
\n— more at mind<\/a><\/dd>\n
Date:<\/dt>\n
14th century<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
1<\/span>:<\/strong> commentary<\/a><\/span>2<\/span>:<\/strong> a note explaining, illustrating, or criticizing the meaning of a writing<\/span>3 a<\/span>:<\/strong> an observation or remark expressing an opinion or attitude <critical comment<\/em>s<\/em>><\/span><\/span> b<\/span>:<\/strong> a judgment expressed indirectly <sees the film as a comment<\/em> on modern values>
<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Commenting
\nimplies that you’ve read or listened to something and are reacting to
\nit. The two Smith posts are different; you can’t post the same
\ncomment!! It seems Hanson and The Publicists got their passports to the
\nblogosphere circa the same time Sarah Palin got hers to the rest of the
\nworld. <\/p>\n

Moving on. In my friend Greg’s Sandow’s Saturday article in The Wall Street Journal<\/i><\/a>,
\nhe very astutely writes that The Cleveland Orchestra may now have a
\nnational PR problem beyond the (mis?)conception that they got a critic
\nfired; this situation may affect their critical reviews going forward:<\/p>\n

Nationally, things might look even worse. This whole affair highlights
\nsomething the orchestra surely doesn’t want widely publicized — that
\nMr. Welser-M\u00f6st has detractors. Who now won’t know that? And what will
\ncritics write? The orchestra tours every year. Won’t critics listen
\nwith even more critical ears? They’re primed, now, to listen for
\ntrouble. And, if only unconsciously, they might want to support Mr.
\nRosenberg.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I sincerely disagree with Greg on his later point, however:<\/p>\n

What should the orchestra do? It needs, in my view, to restore its
\nintegrity, or rather the perception of it, which has been damaged,
\nwhatever the reality might be. Mr. Hanson and Mr. Bogomolny, joined,
\nideally, by Mr. Welser-M\u00f6st (hard as this could be for him), might
\nconsider publicly asking the paper to reinstate Mr. Rosenberg.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If
\nthe party line is THE ORCHESTRA WAS NOT INVOLVED, then why should they
\nget involved at this point? They should have issued one statement: “We
\nregret the news the Mr. Rosenberg will no longer be consistently
\nreviewing the orchestra, but look forward to his perspective on the
\narts throughout Cleveland” right at the beginning. No further comment. No posting on blogs, no
\ncalling for Rosenberg’s reinstatement; if you weren’t involved you
\nweren’t involved! Pull it together.<\/p>\n

I’ve had the extreme good
\nfortune of working with the reigning queen of classical music PR, Mary
\nLou Falcone, on Ren\u00e9e Fleming’s recent Four Last Songs <\/i>disc.<\/i> The woman is in<\/b> control<\/b>.
\nWith every press request, you can see her coolly thinking through the
\nramifications – immediate and long-term, positive and negative – of
\neach potential story. This is not scheming or spinning: it is simply
\nclear-headed thinking before acting.  When Tim Smith implied (err,
\nstated) that The Cleveland Orchestra was to blame, Gary Hanson and the
\npublicity department should have stopped, drafted a laissez-faire
\nstatement, and released it calmly to bloggers and newspapers alike.
\nInstead, they went into a kind of frantic damage-control mode, and in doing so damaged themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have gotten two phone calls from artists about The Cleveland Plain-Dealer; should we do interviews with the new writer, they both asked, separately, we heard the orchestra got the last writer fired. Now, I love the artists I work with dearly, but they are rarely up on their industry gossip. The fact that this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-99","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/lifesapitch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}