How to Spot Fake News & Check Your Social Filter at the Door

How to Spot Fake News & Check Your Social Filter at the Door

I miss news. Real news, that is. I appreciate the vast volume of information, news and opinion now available to me online and offline. But there is one byproduct of the digital age that I’m not so crazy about: the rise of Fake News and demise of legacy journalism. I often think about what the Watergate investigation would have been like in the modern news era. Would the constant barrage of thinly veiled opinion disguised as outrage have hindered or helped the investigation? How would social media have swayed public opinion? After the Watergate break-in, instead of proudly declaring, “I am not a crook,” would President Nixon have argued he […]

Does Transparency Really Matter? Truth or Consequences in the Digital Age

Transparency is a word that comes up a lot these days. From business ethics to transparency in government, the notion that open, honest communication is key to building trusting relationships, reputation and performance is not new. What is new, however, is how much transparency has come under fire in our so-called “post-truth” era. We see this playing out in virtually all facets of marketing, PR and advertising. The rise of social media in the digital age has created new sources for news, opinion, endorsements and ads. Yet, the line between fact and fiction has become blurred or, perhaps more accurately, chalk. Although media hoaxes and slanted stories have a long […]

How to Make Truthfulness Your Anchor for Growing Your Business Relationships in 2017

How to Make Truthfulness Your Anchor for Growing Your Business Relationships in 2017

What would happen if everyone said precisely everything they thought all the time? That was the premise of the popular Jim Carrey movie, Liar, Liar, the tale of a successful lawyer incapable of telling a lie for an entire day due to a birthday wish granted for his son, Max. Carrey’s performance as Fletcher Reede, a lawyer obsessed with his career, shows what can happen to your relationships when bending the truth at the expense of others becomes a way of life. Eventually, his habitual lies catch up with him. Once he finds it impossible to tell a lie, we see Fletcher wrestling with the consequences of his blunt truth-telling, […]