Signal To Noise reported the P.R. firm of former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer is advising the San Francisco 49ers. Though it’s a huge relief to learn Fleischer’s finding honest work in the private sector, he’ll have to do some tremendous work in the Bay Area before anyone forgets the rather unique approach former publicist Kirk Reynolds brought to the gig.
The San Jose Mercury News’ Tim Kawakami, while not petitioning for Reynolds’ return, isn’t exactly welcoming Fleischer with open arms, declaring “it™s ridiculous for the 49ers“or any sports franchise“to trot out any time-tested political attack dog, whether he or she be Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Socialist or whatever.”
Ari Fleischer? To lecture the helmet heads about what? How to lie mislead a nation about the lead up to a fractious war in the Middle East and then continue to bully anybody who might suggest otherwise and warn American citizens that they have to be careful of what they say in a free nation that he perhaps doesn™t think protects, you know, freedom of speech?
Who™s next up on the 49ers speakers bureau? Rush Limbaugh? Then Pastor Jeremiah Wright? (Well, you and I know it wouldn™t be Wright or anyone of that political/social stripe, not for Mike Nolan™s Hearty Fellows, but if it was Wright, it™d be just as stupid as Fleischer. JUST AS STUPID.)
Why, this could be the most successful sports PR campaign since former Gore flack Chris Lehane was hired by the NHL!
“Yes, it was the game plan to throw the ball 84 times against the Seahawks today. And we actually like to focus on the 18 passes that Alex Smith did complete rather than the 12 interceptions and 54 other incompletions that he threw.”
It’s going to take more than Ari to put a spin on the debacle that this once-proud franchise has become.
Actually, my comment was to “anonymous”