AT&T Steps In It Again – Seriously

NEW YORK - JULY 11:  A reporter holds the new ...

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Many things shock me about AT&T and their behavior over the past year, but the one thing that shocks me the most is that the entire PR department has not been fired. It’s been one PR disaster after another. Here comes the latest, a report that the AT&T website has stopped selling the iPhone in New York. They have now given three completely different reasons for this, none of them making much sense. Basically they are simply coming across as completely inept. People have already been unhappy with AT&T this year, mostly for network quality and uneven 3G coverage, now this. How can you stop selling phones in America’s largest city and not have a planned message for the obvious questions that are going to come? This is PR 101.

The entire communications and messaging from AT&T has been so abysmally bad of late it’s hard to imagine this is one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world. The iPhone was an absolute blessing at first, bringing thousands of new customers to AT&T but now the iPhone has become a curse on AT&T. The iPhone is a world class cell phone, the first of it’s kind. I guess AT&T isn’t world class enough to live up to the challenge of supporting it.

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Obama and New York/Paris

Conservative commentators, desperate to catch President Obama in something, anything, have attacked him for paying attention to his family. Not something I would expect from Republicans.

Several weeks ago, Obama took his wife on a “date” to New York for dinner and a show. It’s something he promised he would to for her when the election was over. Conservatives tried to get themselves into a tizzy over this, saying it cost too much taxpayer money and that he should be focusing on the problems of the nation. After all the crazy money the government spends on meaningless crap, we’re supposed to start worrying about a trip to New York? After the President spent time in France for D-Day, he took the entire family to Paris. Again, why is Obama sightseeing in Paris?

If this is the biggest complaint people can find about Obama, well, that’s pretty pathetic. But here is the bigger thing. These are things Obama is doing for is family. Taking his wife out to New York and letting his kids experience a bit of Paris is fantastic.  We should be lauding him for taking such good care of his family while holding down the most difficult job in the world. It’s a great example for all of us that no matter how hard you are working, no matter how busy you are, there is always time for your family, for your wife.