Media Frenzy

By Rob Holbert Managing Editor

This past week was one of the times I’m glad Lagniappe doesn’t have the responsibility for providing the daily blow-by-blow on local events. Frankly, covering the deaths of the four children apparently thrown by their father from atop the Dauphin Island Bridge is tough enough to watch or read about. Covering it would be a whole different horror.

The public probably has a perception that such stories don’t faze hardened journalists, and that scribes relish the chance to cover “big” stories like this. But I don’t know any journalist who would enjoy covering this story. Dead children are never a “big” story. It’s just sad.

I still occasionally have bad dreams about covering a wreck on the I-10 bridge over the Pascagoula River more than a decade ago where a sudden cloudburst produced a chain reaction accident involving more than 20 vehicles. Inside a mini van, there were four small bodies covered in blankets in the back and two adult bodies covered in the front. The adults had been crushed by the engine when it came into the compartment, and the kids were killed as they hurled about the inside of the van. It was stunningly sad.

My photographer, Jerry Moulder, who had been a daily news photographer for 30 years had tears in his eyes and was sick to his stomach. That’s what it’s like to have to cover such tragedy.

I’ve heard a number of people express outrage or at least get indignant that “the National Media” haven’t descended upon Bayou Labatre to cover the deaths of Ryan Phan, 3; Hannah Luong, 2; Lindsey Luong, 1; and Danny Luong, 4 months, they way they did the disappearance of Birmingham’s Natalee Holloway, or the myriad other stories the “National Media” beats into the ground.

My response to that is who really cares? Is it going to make anything better if Nancy Grace is blabbering incessantly about this and interviewing the sycophants she employs as “experts?” How is going to change anything if Greta Van Whateverhernameis sets up shop in the Bayou? Frankly, their absence from this story may be one of the small graces associated with this tragedy.

We hardly need a media feeding frenzy around the recovery of these childrens’ bodies. Our local reporters are doing the hard work they are trained to do, and doing it well. It doesn’t make this tragedy any more important to have celebrity “journalists” elbowing everyone else out of the way.

Frankly, it’s our tragedy. Better that we deal with it.

Crozier joins Bellwether

Retirement didn’t last long for Dr. George Crozier. The former executive director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab recently joined the Bellwether Group, a Mobile-based public relations, environmental public affairs and marketing communications firm.

Crozier, who still holds the title of executive director emeritus for the Sea Lab, will assist Bellwether with technical environmental expertise, land use planning consulting, environmental communications consulting and government non-profit sector consulting.

Crozier was the executive director of the Sea Lab since 1979, and retired at the end of 2007. He holds a Ph.D. in marine biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography (University of California, San Diego). He spent most of his career working in the area of coastal zone management.

Sullivan-St. Clair name change

Longtime Mobile advertising Sullivan-St. Clair recently changed its name to Red Square, shaking up the image and name of one of Mobile’s best-known creative agencies.

President Rich Sullivan says the move is designed to help the agency break a few of the “rules” that seem to govern the advertising game, as well as to allow potential clients from outside the area look at Red Square with new eyes.

“When I got into the advertising business, there were a couple of things I thought were nonsensical – that advertising agencies didn’t advertise and that they are supposed to be creative, but have names that are completely boring,” Sullivan said. “We’re in Alabama, which is already seen as a conservative place. Some people won’t even look at a conservative-sounding firm in a conservative place.”

The 30-person firm is currently in the midst of constructing a new headquarters at Government and Conception Streets, overlooking the Bankhead Tunnel, and will move in March. Red Square is one of the top six advertising firms in Alabama.

Sullivan said the move will allow the company to eventually grow to 80 people, and will help foster a creative atmosphere. He said the wide open design and location in the vibrant heart of downtown should lend themselves to Red Square producing the kind of work he expects.

Sullivan noted that billings for Red Square are expected to total more than $25 million this year. As for the name change confusing clients, Sullivan said the firm’s current clients were made aware of the move well in advance, and he hopes potential clients will see it as a reflection of a truly cutting-edge, creative agency.

“I can’t tell my clients to take risks with their marketing if I won’t,” Sullivan said.

Rob Holbert is Lagniappe managing editor. Contact him at rholbert@lagniappemobile.com.

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