Redfacebook

Few things generate more LMAOs than some internet libeler having his own dung heap blow up in his face and wind up the subject of the revulsion he intended to create for someone else. The practice is usually associated with adolescents and addle minded, so it comes as a bit of a surprise to find Facebook in headlines and reeking of excrement. They’re some pretty smart people, aren’t they?

It all began when Facebook hired a PR firm to plant a negative story about Google. The firm, Burson-Marsteller (soon to be renamed Anything-for-a-Buck?) approached Christopher Soghoian, a well-known blogger, to enlist him to spread the manure under his byline, distancing Facebook from the process. Ironically (or hypocritically), this violates Facebook’s own policy on anonymity. Here’s where the wheels begin to come off.

Burson-Marsteller selected Soghoian because of his stances on privacy and security issues, making him a credible source for criticizing Google’s ethics. If his focus was internet ethics, why would they think he’d go along with this?

Instead of taking the bait, Soghoian went public about the ruse. Burson-Marsteller also pitched “USA Today” on the story. They also turned it around and reported on the PR firm’s sleazy attack. Doh!

Okay, here’s a chance to come clean and salvage some vestige of decency by acknowledging that you do know better. But, Facebook issued a statement that they never authorized or intended to run a smear campaign against Google. Doh again!

Here’s where the line is crossed into stupidity. Soghoian published the email exchange soliciting the article. It included phrases like “Google…has a well-known history of infringing upon the privacy rights of America’s internet users…,” “…Google rolled out its latest tool designed to scrape private data and build deeply personal dossiers on millions of users – in direct and flagrant violation…,” and “…intrusions into their deeply personal lives Google is cataloging and broadcasting every minute of every day…” Who would think that language connotes an intent to smear Google? Deeply. Delete “stupidity” and insert “insanity.” When you put forth something as true when there’s documentation, photographs or other hard data out there refuting your misrepresentation, you’ve got more serious problems that just being a mudslinger.

In a classic too little/too late, Facebook acknowledged that they could’ve handled it better. Ya think?

On a related topic (PR), I helped out a youth organization over the weekend by giving paddling lessons to their adult supervisors. The leader said they let the young men lead their own outings, but stay around the fringes to catch the strays. “Our guideline is that we look at the boys as our sheep.”

Not a phrase you want to print in the manual.