Richard Edelman is CEO of the largest independent PR agency in the world with offices in more than 50 cities from NY to Beijing.
Nevertheless, he finds time to write an always interesting blog. (Note: I'm semi-retired and I still have trouble finding time to blog.)
Edelman's blog is called 6 a.m., which may be a sly reference to the hour when it's written, nearly every Monday or Tuesday, depending, I suspect, on where he is in the world.
This week's entry -- "What to Believe?" -- is especially worth reading. It concerns the most popular course at Stony Brook University, "News Literacy," which tries to give students what one professor calls a "BS detector."
That would be laudible in its own right, except that the course's creators go well beyond media bias to tackle the personal biases that blind us to anything inconsistent with our pre-existing attitudes and beliefs.
As discussed in my new book, Otherwise, those personal filters are the biggest roadblock to understanding other people, especially those who are unlike ourselves. Something like "News Literacy" should be a required course in every college.
As usual, Edelman doesn't content himself with a pithy description of the course. He concludes with cogent recommendations for corporations, NGOs, and governments.
One he doesn't mention: find a senior PR counselor with the intellectual curiosity to find and interview the kind of people who develop courses like "News Literacy."
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