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#BoycottNFL? Some in media blame Colin Kaepernick for tumbling TV ratings — but he’s set to start again

October 11, 2016 by Barry Cooper

Will Colin Kapernick (right) kneel or stand for the national anthem Sunday.

Will Colin Kaepernick (right) kneel or stand for the national anthem Sunday?

The 49ers say Kaepernick will start Sunday against the Buffalo Bills, replacing Blaine Gabbert.

The National Football League is on the verge of panic. Television ratings for games have plummeted this season, and some of the mostly white sports reporters who cover the league say they know what the problem is:

The Colin Kaepernick Effect.

The 49ers quarterback has become a target for all fans who hate Black Lives Matter, and news organizations such as The Sporting News are speculating that fans are boycotting watching games on television because African-American players like Kaepernick are showing support for Black Lives Matter by choosing to kneel during the national anthem or raising a fist in protest while the anthem plays.

On Sunday, all eyes will be on Kaepernick because 49ers coach Chip Kelly has announced Kaepernick will start for the first time this season in place of struggling Blaine Gabbert. The 49ers have lost four in a row. Undoubtedly, some of conservative sports media will be ready to pounce on Kaepernick if he protests during the anthem and the 49ers lose.

Sporting News reporter Michael McCarthy insists Kaepernick and his brothers in protest are clearly the reason for the falling TV ratings.

McCarthy writes:

The NFL is dreaming if it thinks the alarming double-digit drop in TV ratings this season has nothing to do with a fan backlash against Colin Kaepernick’s protest of the American flag and national anthem.

TV ratings for “Sunday Night Football” and “Monday Night Football” are off by a whopping 16 to 20 percent so far this season, Nielsen told Sporting News on Monday.

Yet in an internal memo last week, NFL executives found “no evidence that concern over player protests during the national anthem is having any material impact on our ratings.” Instead, the league blames “unprecedented interest” in the U.S. presidential election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

In other words, nothing to see here. Move along.

Is the NFL kidding us?

Far right newspaper The Washington Times cites a Rasmussen poll that includes unscientific results from an online poll along with some telephone polling:

Nearly one-third of American adults say they are less likely to watch a National Football League game because of the growing number of Black Lives Matter protests that are happening by players on the field, a Rasmussen poll found.

Thirty-two percent polled online and by telephone said they’re willing to skip NFL games this year because of player protests over racial issues, the pollster said on Tuesday. Only 13 percent said they were more likely to watch the games because of the protests, and 52 percent said the protests had no impact on their viewing decisions.

Twenty-eight percent of African Americans said they were more likely to tune-into an NFL game because of the protests, compared to 8 percent of whites and 16 percent of other Americans, the poll found.
Whites were twice as likely as blacks to say they are less likely to watch this year.

CNN also has weighed in on the slumping ratings but is taking a more moderate view. CNN.com reported:

Indeed, the whole presidential election, and all the attention it’s gotten, could be a big factor. That’s one reason the NFL itself has been saying it’s not worried. An internal memo sent around the league on Friday and obtained by ESPN’s Darren Rovell attributed the overall drop to several factors, including the dearth of marquee pairings and the presidential race.

“The NFL continues to be far and away the most powerful programming on television, and the best place for brands and advertisers,” the letter said.

One thing seems certain: ratings for the 49ers game on Sunday are likely to be among the highest of the season as fans tune in to see if Kaepernick kneels or raises a fist.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Black Lives Matter, BLM, Kaepernick, NFL

How Ravens fumbled digital response to the Ray Rice controversy

September 10, 2014 by Tracie Powell

The blog post should be updated. Ravens should also send powerful message to emphasize commitment to NFL’s new domestic violence policy

Ray and Janay Rice at a press conference in May.

Ray and Janay Rice at a press conference in May.

At the same time a violent video of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice assaulting his then-fiance, Janay Palmer, went viral, so did a glowing blog post written by the team’s Vice President of Public Relations defending Rice.

“Ray’s a good guy. He’s smart. He might be the most popular person in our building. Need help with a community event or a player to lift a person in need, especially a child? Ray is one of the guys who says, ‘Yes, I’ll help,” wrote Kevin Byrne, Senior Vice President of Public and Community Relations for the Baltimore Ravens on July 25. “I liked Ray Rice a lot then. I like Ray Rice a lot today.”

All Digitocracy contacted Byrne multiple times but he did not respond.

Kevin Byrne, Baltimore Ravens' Vice President of Public and Community Relations

Kevin Byrne, Baltimore Ravens’ Vice President of Public and Community Relations

Before deleting tweets that placed the blame on Rice’s now wife, the Ravens public relations staff, headed by Byrne, should have checked and updated their own blog.

Three days after the video was released, and the Ravens fired Rice, the blog post remains, unchanged. Public relations professionals say the problem isn’t that the blog post remains active and available for public view, the problem is that it doesn’t reflect the organization’s change in policy. The Byrne Identity blog, which is owned by the team, needs to be appended, experts said, because it currently sends the wrong message during an already bad set of events.

In the digital era many corporations post statements on Youtube or on blogs in the midst of crisis, said Bryan H. Reber, the C. Richard Yarbrough Professor in Crisis Communication Leadership at The University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication (my alma mater). “Once the it has served its purpose, they take it down because it is no longer relevant,” Reber added.

Journalism ethicists discourage the taking down of news stories and blog posts because doing so undermines public confidence in the news organization’s work. No such rule exists for public relations professionals, but during a communications fiasco like the one the Ravens are experiencing right now, Reber said it is important to be as transparent as possible.

That means leaving the blog post up on the site, but updating it with new information.

The Ravens shouldn’t hide or delete the blog post, the way they did with the tweets, Reber said Wednesday.

“When something really bad happens people want to hear from someone at the top. So, in that way, this blog post makes sense,” said Reber, who is also the assistant head of the Grady College’s department of public relations. “But the issue is whether it should be taken down or archived. I think the answer is archive it with a link perhaps to the new policy. There’s nothing unethical about that.”

To be sure, the Ravens have committed a lot of mistakes during this current crisis, mistakes they are now trying to correct. In addition to firing Rice, Ravens owner Stephen J. Bisciotti released a letter on Tuesday explaining to fans, sponsors and investors what went wrong and why it took the team so long to respond to the controversy. The Ravens should have done more to investigate the Rice video, Bisciotti wrote. That admission is a good first step, said Aprill O. Turner, principal of Turner Communications, LLC and a public relations professor based in Washington, D.C.

Quote Graphic (1)But it shouldn’t be the last step, she said.

“My advice to the company would be to stay neutral on Rice as the story is still unfolding, but officials should vocally and vehemently display their disapproval of violence against women in any form and state that they will actively stay abreast of this situation,” Turner said. “My advice to the consumer is to speak with their dollars and voice any displeasure they have through not supporting the Ravens or NFL activities until they feel these entities have given the appropriate response to this issue.”

The Ravens must do more than offer fans the chance to exchange Ray Rice jerseys. Another solution is one the Ravens can work on with the entire coaching staff and front office as well as the NFL: Reiterate their commitment to the league’s new policy regarding domestic violence.

Such a statement would emphasize that this is an “organizational problem, one that the organization is moving to correct,” Reber said. “It says, ‘this was awful, we don’t want it to happen again, and here’s how we’re going to make sure it doesn’t happen again.'”

It is unclear if a powerful statement like this is forthcoming. But, Byrne, the Ravens VP of public relations, can start with mentioning one in his updated blog post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: ENTERTAINMENT, Featured, Public Relations Tagged With: #RayRice, Baltimore Ravens, corporate blogs, crisis communications, domestic violence, Janay Palmer, Janay Rice, NFL, sports, Stephen J. Bisciotti, Tracie Powell

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