The Guardian Hugh Muir Diary - Desmond and Clarence

As soon as I read the "dirty Des" opener I knew that this was a pro-establishment rag that was going to have a go at Desmond using the McCanns to do it. In a way I'm quite pleased that the pro-establishment press are finally showing their true colours. Perhaps they'll spur Desmond on to nailing the McCanns and getting his 500k back. They haven't got all the bodies out of the water yet, but the ambulance chaser is already on the job I see. For a more balanced take on Leveson, Mitchell and the McCanns the Blacksmith posts are a revelation - this is garbage in comparison.

Aside from the obvious human tragedy of this current news story, there is a certain dark irony in the revelation that CM is now representing another sinking ship:

• They could turn again to Clarence Mitchell, the former BBC reporter who represented them at the outset. He's now managing director of PR giants Burson-Marsteller UK but before that he gave a talk on it all: "Missing Madeleine McCann: The perfect PR campaign". But that was then; right now he's busy. Costa Crociere, the cruise ship operator whose fortunes, and vessel, hit the rocks in Italy needs PR help. Someone has to do it. Might as well be him.

almostgothic wrote:Aside from the obvious human tragedy of this current news story, there is a certain dark irony in the revelation that CM is now representing another sinking ship:

• They could turn again to Clarence Mitchell, the former BBC reporter who represented them at the outset. He's now managing director of PR giants Burson-Marsteller UK but before that he gave a talk on it all: "Missing Madeleine McCann: The perfect PR campaign". But that was then; right now he's busy. Costa Crociere, the cruise ship operator whose fortunes, and vessel, hit the rocks in Italy needs PR help. Someone has to do it. Might as well be him.

And have you seen what he's said already?? He's dropped the captain in the doo doo then claimed he wouldn't be saying anything....

Clarence Mitchell, who is representing Costa Cruises, confirmed that the captain had been approaching the island to "make a salute".

He said: "The company says this (incident) was caused by an attempt by the captain to show the ship to the port. But there's a criminal investigation and we're not going to say anything that's going to compromise that or the captain's case."

Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/costa-concordia-cruise-tragedy-officer-was-warned-of-danger-just-before-impact-16104526.html#ixzz1jhzkFHmn

And people pay good money for that shite!!

Poor Clarence. Excuse the pun, but he is out of his depth with the Costa Concordia Disaster.

General opinion in the PR world is the response has been slow and inefficient.

Time to move on again, Clarence?

This from PR Weekly:

Brighter Group executive chairman Steve Dunne said: ‘It’s clear that the PR function there has been slow to react and take control of the situation. To have members of staff being interviewed and using terms like there was "mass panic" on the ship smacks of people not being briefed properly.’

Dunne went on to say that the disaster was not just Costa Cruises' problem but an industry problem – saying that it had had a ‘wake-up call’.

He said: ‘For 30 years cruise holidays have been the golden child of the travel industry with sales continuing to climb. This accident has caught them on the back foot and it has amazed me that nobody from the industry, especially the Passenger Shipping Association, has stepped forward to defend crusies and their safety record.

‘Somebody needs to be combating the pictures of the Costa Concordia sinking being broadcast across the world’s media and the word Titantic being used.'

http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/1112160/Burson-Marsteller-called-cover-Costa-Concordia-disaster/


So it looks like the future of the cruise holiday industry as a whole rests on Clarrie's shoulders.

I don't know why, but I'm getting a vision of The Navy Lark in my head.

Left hand down a bit.

I was going to quote Starboard Lookout Able Seaman Goldstein, but it wouldn't be in the best of taste.

Those familiar with the Navy Lark will not need to be told why!

Does anyone remember what Blackwatch theorised about Richard Desmond and his paper's stance on the McCanns? It was something about being leant on by Tony Blair to make a huge payout to the McCanns, without contesting their libel claims. This had the affect of scaring off any and every other publication from making any disparaging remarks about the McCanns. Shortly afterwards, Richard Desmond was granted the rights to buy Channel 5, or something or other. I wish I could remember.

I know, I know, blackwatch is a conspiracy theorist too far - and that's saying something from a regular reader of the Maddie forums. But whilst you're reading Blackwatch's blogs he really is quite impressive. Plausible, even.

I really shouldn't laugh, but ......

RealHumptyB Humpty Bumpty
No sooner is Clarence Mitchell asked to do PR for Costa than captain claims he tripped and fell into a lifeboat tinyurl.com/8xxqjm9 #McCann
51 minutes ago

almostgothic wrote:I really shouldn't laugh, but ......

RealHumptyB Humpty Bumpty
No sooner is Clarence Mitchell asked to do PR for Costa than captain claims he tripped and fell into a lifeboat tinyurl.com/8xxqjm9 #McCann
51 minutes ago

Oh dear! Sounds like Clarence!

AnnaEsse wrote:

almostgothic wrote:I really shouldn't laugh, but ......

RealHumptyB Humpty Bumpty
No sooner is Clarence Mitchell asked to do PR for Costa than captain claims he tripped and fell into a lifeboat tinyurl.com/8xxqjm9 #McCann
51 minutes ago

Oh dear! Sounds like Clarence!

"I have been assured my navigational skills were well within the bounds of............"