* Interesting announcement, to be sure, by Duke Energy–given all those customer-gouging PR hits it’s been taking.
But, no, it wasn’t announcing that it was refunding those billions it had collected for failed nuclear projects or that it was rethinking its position on renewable energy or apologizing for self-serving billing cycles. Nor was the investor-owned utility denouncing its corporate culture of ratepayer arrogance.
No, Duke Energy was addressing a need even more pressing than doing the right thing by those 1.7 million customers it collected money from without delivering any electricity. Duke Energy was announcing that it was bringing in a former General Motors exec to head its communications operation.
Stop holding the presses.
Duke could see that the public, the media and even some legislators were on to them. The last PSC decision only went their way by a 3-2 vote. So, it was time for Duke to candidly underscore a critically important priority: better spin.
* Bob Dylan has announced an official release date for “Shadows in the Night,” his LP of songs made favorite by Frank Sinatra. Say what? Indeed, early February for Dylan Does Sinatra.
What’s next? “Pat Boone Does James Brown”? “Michael Buble Does Slim Whitman?” “Jerry Lee Lewis Does Liberace”?
* Sony Pictures may have accomplished the seemingly impossible: The movie studio has actually humanized North Korea and its farcically frightful leader, the perversely paranoid Kim Jong Un. That’s what happens when you make a (comedic) movie–“The Interview”–about the assassination of a real person–Kim. No, not even the nuclear-missiled, Hermit Kingdom and the miscast, Dennis Rodman-befriended, fat kid with the bad haircut who had his uncle executed, deserve this kind of poor-taste, Hollywood send-up with Seth Rogen and the usual suspects.
And while Sony may actually deserve the cyberattacks on its computer systems by hacking that suspiciously seems like North Korean payback, there’s untold, unfair collateral damage still accruing.
The Kim Jong Un regime is an inexplicable, unpredictable menace. Sony just made it worse.
* Could it be that the disturbing incidents in Ferguson, Staten Island and Cleveland are less about raw racism than they are about pure police incompetence? Granted, “Better-Trained Cops” signs wouldn’t make effective rallying-cry material–but would be more helpful to society than “No Justice, No Peace” placards.