Patriot Coach's Attitude is Offensive to Football Fans and Media Followers

Sports fans in the Boston area have become used to Patriot coach Bill Belichick's dour personality, showcased on the sidelines each week during the football season.  We've also come to accepted his attitude toward the media, evidenced through the scripted, evasive, dismissive responses in news conferences and radio interviews.  It's safe to say that any of us who have ever coached spokespeople cringe at Coach Belichick  approach to the media in these situations.  For any spokesperson, it's important to avoid providing information that might give opponents a competitive advantage or create unwanted controversy with your public comments, and this is especially true for a coach or manager in professional sports today (we can address the trials of the verbose former Red Sox manager Bobby Valentive at another time).  But Belichick takes this confrontational, say-nothing attitude to an extreme.  It was there in full force in recent days -- in a post-game news conference and in his weekly radio interview on WEEI.  For me, it's an attitude that is not only highly questionable from a PR perspective -- it's disrespectul to the media and to fans.  Success or not, this is one fan of the Patriots and follower of the media that finds Coach Belichick's act unacceptable.  It's time for this football genius to smarten up.

A Few New Data Points on Today's Cybersecurity Threat

Those of us who have worked with cybersecurity companies in recent years, have referenced all sorts of data points, but a presentation Friday shed new light on the subject for me. Lynn Dugle, who heads up Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Services unit (a  team of 17,000!), reminded the audieince at a Asssociated Industries of Massachusetts Executive Forum of the security challenges we're facing with points like these:
- the Department of Defense has added the "cyberdomain" to their land, sea and air focus
- the biggest transfer of wealth today is by cybercriminals
- $100 billion a year is stolen from biotech industry alone each year

For more, check out this clip from her presentation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpHD8lmUlD8

Observations Driven by a Passion for Communications

Over the years working with large marketing services and PR firms, boutique agencies, in-house corporate communications departments and the media I've developed a passion for communications .  I've watched how this world changed -- and I've been fortunate to have had a hand in its evolution. 

While this was happening, I was able to share my perspectives through my PR agency's blog, Topaz Partner's Tech PR Gems. For years, this was an active platform for the Topaz team's opinions and insights on "the intersection of technology and public relations." 

With Topaz and Tech PR Gems behind me, I'm looking to refresh this "communications watch" with a broader spotlight on developments in and around the ever-changing and expanding world of public relations, social media, corporate communications and marketing services.

I welcome your comments and opinions -- I hope others who share my passion for communications are moved by these observations to join in the dialogue.