http://www.claritymediagroup.com/blog Bill McGowan, Founder and CEO of Clarity Media Group, is a two-time Emmy Award-winning correspondent who has reported over 700 nationally televised stories. He has also anchored hundreds of hours of news and information programming. Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:45:14 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It's the great American pastime: Build up our heroes and pop icons and then dismantle them limb by limb.  If enough time passes after their fall from grace, the humiliated eventually have a shot at redemption (see Marv Albert, Woody Allen, Richard Nixon, etc).  Because when it comes to the ... http://www.claritymediagroup.com/blog/2009/06/26/mj-no-shot-at-redemption/ Governor Mark Sanford may be back on US soil, but clearly he left his sanity behind in Argentina. The other conspicuous absence at today's news conference was his wife.  Good call Mrs. Sanford.   In what was a truly bizarre and poorly executed news conference, Sanford choked back tears. Only ... http://www.claritymediagroup.com/blog/2009/06/24/sanfords-sanity-still-awol/ Did he tie some bed sheets together and lower them out his bedroom window late one night?  Or perhaps he put on a clever disguise and walked right out the front door of the State Capitol undetected.  Whatever South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford did, he sure did manage to give ... http://www.claritymediagroup.com/blog/2009/06/24/the-governors-great-escape/ One of Barack Obama's best moments at the G20 summit, not surprisingly,  resulted from one of his biggest strengths: word selection.  With the French and the Chinese ready to come to blows over the issue of international tax havens, the President intervened and suggested that one word, "recognize" be changed ... http://www.claritymediagroup.com/blog/2009/04/04/every-word-counts/ Just finished up a segment on Fox's The Mike and Juliet Show.  They had me on critiquing a woman's performance in job interviews, an area of growing interest for people seeking communications coaching. The woman, Maria, was lovely - very likable.  But many moments in the videotaped job interview she ... http://www.claritymediagroup.com/blog/2009/03/23/that-big-job-interview/ As I stood near Pennsylvania Avenue on Inauguration Day listening to Barack Obama toll the bell for a new era in American resolve and spirit, I couldn’t help (given my profession) but be consumed with one overriding thought: What a delight to have a true orator back in the White ... http://www.claritymediagroup.com/blog/2009/01/21/oratory-returns/ No.... there's not too much pressure on the people penning Barack Obama's Inaugural speech.  They have the modest marching orders of coming up with turns of phrase and lines so memorable that they will be quoted for generations to come and printed in history books.  Only the eyes and ears ... http://www.claritymediagroup.com/blog/2009/01/18/what-speechwriters-live-for/ It's now officially duck and cover time for the GOP.  Failing to CYA could mean getting slimed with a good dose of the blame that's getting liberally hurled in these final days.  Sarah Palin's dreams of West Wing privilege quite possibly have been replaced by worry over how much collateral damage her ... http://www.claritymediagroup.com/blog/2008/10/26/the-palin-principle/ In the absence of substance, image truly is everything, as the old ad campaign said.  So perhaps that's why the disclosure that Sarah Palin took $150,000 of Republican Party money and went on a shopping spree for designer clothes (at of all places Neiman Marcus) is such a damaging little news ... http://www.claritymediagroup.com/blog/2008/10/22/neiman-over-everyman/ Poor Joe Six-Pack.  It used to be that instant stardom afforded you 15 minutes of fame.  But I think Joe Six-Pack got cheated.  He was just passing the five-minute mark when along came Joe the Plumber (no relation) to bump him out of the national spotlight.  The "new Joe" became ... http://www.claritymediagroup.com/blog/2008/10/16/wooing-joe-the-plummer/