Because we've had extensive experience in major national newsrooms we view news developments in a somewhat different manner than many communications consultants; we see the news through the same lens as working journalists.

Our blog provides analysis of how recent news developments were handled or mishandled by the principal actors and their advisers. Who handled the press attention well? Who did not? How might they have fared better?

We will bestow the M.E. Communications Partners WMD (Worst Media Debacle) award in timely fashion to those we regard as the worst performers.

Before he was governor of Massachusetts, before he was a candidate for president, Mitt Romney was a highly successful business executive. After completing a double degree program in law and business at Harvard, he quickly rose through the ranks at Bain Co. accumulating a fortune, self-reported somewhere north of $400m.

Then he saved the Salt Lake City Olympics when corruption charges and mismanagement had put the games in jeopardy.

Although he lost his first political race - an ill considered attempt to beat Ted Kennedy for a seat in the U.S. Senate - he later won the Massachusetts governors office, a Republican in the bluest of blue states.

My point in all this is that Mitt Romney, no matter what your politics, has been a success in everything he's done in life. The presidency? That's another matter, but Mitt Romney's credentials as a public figure make him worth listening to on the hazards of living in the spotlight.

So something he said last week resonated with me.


Running in the YouTube era


In a somewhat cool appraisal by The New York Times of his performance so far in the Republican primary pack Romney, perhaps haunted by his father's famous "I was brainwashed" statement during his own run for the presidency four decades ago, said, "Running for president in the YouTube era, you realize you have to be very judicious in what you say. You have to be careful with your humor. You have to recognize that anytime you're running for the presidency of the United States, you're on."

Romney spoke from experience; he has had an especially difficult time explaining video clips from a 1994 debate with Kennedy in which he took positions on gay rights and abortion that are anathema to GOP primary voters. Political opponents gleefully posted them on YouTube shortly after he got in the presidential race.

But in last week's interview I think he was talking more about the kind of off hand remark, the attempt at humor, the thoughtless gesture that all of us make from time to time, rather than big policy statements.

Twenty first century business executives, especially those on the c-suite level, don't have to endure the spotlight focused on a presidential candidate of course, but they should understand that the spotlight is always on them too. The price of a casual but poorly chosen remark, is high.

Mort and I learned all about that during our network news days. Live network television allows no room for error.

In today's demanding business world, everyone is subject to the same pressures that once affected only those willing to put themselves in the public spotlight. Angry emails, smutty humor, casual but cutting remarks can live a long time on someone's hard drive.

You can't unGoogle yourself.

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