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Top of Mind Thursday Memo Archive
Top of Mind Thursday – April 20, 2023: Outfoxed
This week, Dominion Voting Systems settled its $1.6 billion lawsuit with Fox News for $786 million on the morning the trial was about to begin.
Dominion charged Fox had knowingly aired false and defamatory statements about Dominion’s role in the 2020 election, including that Dominion machines had been used to steal the election away from the former president.
The first amendment protects the right to free speech. To win a lawsuit like this, the plaintiff needs to prove not only that false statements were made, but that they were made with actual malice. In most cases, this is impossible to prove, but here there were statements made by Fox on-air personalities and owner Rupert Murdoch that indicated they knew what they were saying was false. If ever there was a case that could pass muster in this area, this was it.
So why did Dominion settle? There was no guarantee a jury would find Fox guilty and, if they did, that the settlement would be this large. Even if Dominion won, there would likely be costly appeals and delays. One could also argue they proved their point by publicly exposing what went on behind the scenes at Fox.
Some are saying Fox got off easy. Yes, this was the largest known settlement in this type of case, but Fox revenues are nearly $3 billion per quarter–this won’t bankrupt them.
However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Another voting machine company has an upcoming suit against Fox, and they can use all of the material from this case in their suit. Furthermore, Dominion has pending lawsuits against other right wing media outlets, as well as some of the individuals who made the defamatory statements, like Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell.
In the end, who won? Did truth prevail? Fox outlets buried the story, but it’s unlikely their core viewers would want to hear it anyway. Perhaps for an organization with as deep pockets as Fox, the lesson is lost. But most of the rest of us couldn’t afford to absorb a settlement anywhere near this size.
Today, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell was ordered to pay the $5 million reward he offered for anyone who could debunk his stolen election theories. Someone did prove his information was incorrect, he refused to follow through on his promise, and a court has now ordered Lindell to pay up.
There are repercussions to knowingly spreading false information. What is your organization doing to make sure you’re not caught in the proverbial henhouse? No better time to clean up your act than now.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
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Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – April 13, 2023: Knee-Jerk Reaction
Last Wed, I had surgery on my right knee to fix a torn and disconnected meniscus (Disclaimer: That’s why there was no Top of Mind Thursday last week).
All went well, and I am recovering nicely–but much more slowly than I anticipated. It takes much longer to get from Point A to Point B, and my single flight of stairs has grown to be as difficult to navigate as Mount Everest.
A few lessons from my recent experiences:
- It really takes a village. When some of your abilities are taken away–even for a short time–it becomes apparent how much we need to rely on others to help out.
- Pre-planning is necessary, but not sufficient. Knowing this was coming, I tried to be as prepared as possible, but still there were things that didn’t work as planned: The surgery was delayed for hours, my mobility was more limited than I expected, etc.
- Priorities need to change in real time, based on what really needs to be done, vs. what we thought we could accomplish.
- Don’t believe the most optimistic predictions. It would have been wonderful if I could have immediately hopped up and down the stairs, like I did last time I was on crutches 35 years ago, but in real life, things don’t happen that way.
- The better shape you’re in to start, the easier these things are. This was the main argument from my surgeon about why to do this surgery now, vs. putting it off a couple of years. Though I wasn’t terribly out of shape, I could have started from a better point.
- Progress comes in bits and pieces. You take what you can get and build upon it.
All these points apply beyond this situation to our personal and business lives. We can’t know what unexpected situations life will throw at us, but we can be pretty sure there will be something sooner or later.
Are you as prepared as you can be for what might be lurking around the corner? Time to get in great fighting shape now, to be better able to handle those bumps and bruises that might hit when we least expect them.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – March 30, 2023: An Intelligent Way to look at AI Bots
***No AI tools were used in the preparation of this message.***
With all the attention around AI tools like ChatGPT, will this disclaimer be required on content that was generated the old fashioned way–by regular ordinary humans?
The answer to that depends on how you define artificial intelligence. There are some who worry about machines taking over the world and displacing the human race. Others say whole classes of jobs may be eliminated by AI algorithms. Still others say these tools open up whole new horizons that weren’t available before.
Now, a group of industry luminaries is proposing that AI tool development be put on hold for six months to review the potential disastrous impact on the human race. It’s too late to try to put the genie back in the bottle, so why raise these issues now?
That brings us back to the question of what exactly is artificial intelligence. Thirty years ago, I worked with a startup that had an AI-based tool that wouldn’t even cause a second look today. I’ve also seen blockbuster AI technology come and go with merely a whimper. That’s because AI is nothing more than technology and algorithms that do things we haven’t seen before and therefore didn’t think were possible.
Not that long ago, Siri and Alexa and the algorithm on Netflix that recommends your next movie at one time would have all been considered advanced AI. Today, ChatGPT allows a bot to create fairly good content with little human interaction. What I’ve seen so far, though, is usually grammatically correct, somewhat sterile, and often more fiction than factual.
I have no doubt these tools could write a play in the style of Shakespeare or the next book in the Harry Potter series. That’s because they analyze existing content and use that to guide their output. But could an AI bot create the first work of Shakespeare or envision Hogwarts if JK Rowling hadn’t done it first? Highly unlikely.
Technology by itself is neither good nor evil. Every tool known to man can be used to help mankind or hurt it. Rather than focus on what these tools shouldn’t be allowed to do, a more effective approach is to consider how to use them effectively and ethically.
What guidelines do you have for adopting new technology? Don’t wait for a bot to write these for you.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – March 23, 2023: Can You Bank on That?
About two weeks ago, one of the largest private banks in the country, Silicon Valley Bank, was declared insolvent and taken over by the FDIC.
The last banking crisis, in 2008, was caused by consumer banks aggressively offering subprime mortgages to unqualified buyers, who couldn’t pay them back. There was fraud and intentional miscommunication to buyers, who were stuck with loans for which they were never truly qualified.
This was different. SVB, who has funded many of Silicon Valley’s brightest young companies over the last 40 years, made a series of poor investment decisions in light of current market conditions. This made depositors concerned enough to rapidly withdraw their money and cause a run on the bank. Federal guarantees are limited to $250K per account–not enough to cover the exposure of startups, who were keeping millions of dollars of funds raised at SVB.
Then two things happened. The federal government stepped in to ensure SBV depositors would receive their funds in time to run payroll and meet day-to-day requirements. And, amazingly, most of the biggest banks in the country agreed to bolster another local bank, First Republic, a well-managed bank caught up in the panic and chaos.
Why would they do that? Because too often people react emotionally. In an effort to take care of themselves, they cause a panic that affects not just the institution in question but can spread to the whole sector. The big banks realized that in this case, helping a competitor might be the best way to help themselves.
Are you prepared to do what’s needed to help support your industry or market–even if it means possibly helping a competitor? How confident are you other players would do the right thing for you?
As Mr. Spock said in Star Trek, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
You can bank on that.
Check out our marketing thought leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com