"We're gonna nail 'em!" That's the threat made against Eric Dezenhall's clients - usually corporations and well-known people - by aggressors trying to launch media-hyped smear campaigns and attacks because they feel they've been wronged, or just because they want publicity. 'Nail 'Em!' is an exploration of the personalities, conflicts, and motivations involved in such attacks and Dezenhall's unique communications approach to slowing, preventing, and reversing such situations.
"This should be required reading for those interested in the media and anyone who has any doubts as to the truthfulness of what the media is shoveling." -- Bully Magazine, April 11, 2000--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From the Publisher
"This is a well-written, powerful, and important book. . . .While Dezenhall concentrates on individual victims...it ultimately becomes clear that the real "'Em" in the title is all of us." -- Michael Fumento, Senior Fellow, The Hudson Institute, and author of SCIENCE UNDER SIEGE
Eric Dezenhall is an author and damage control expert based in Washington, D.C. He is the CEO of Dezenhall Resources, a nationally recognized high-stakes communications firm. He frequently lectures in academic and business circles, and regularly appears as a damage control expert in the international media. He has appeared on network television and radio outlets including NPR, CNN, FOX, CNBC, and MSNBC; and has been quoted in publications including Fortune, USA Today, Forbes, and the Washington Post. He has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today and is a regular contributor to the Daily Beast and Huffington Post.
Eric is the author of eight books, including two non-fiction texts on crisis communications and corporate witch hunts, entitled Damage Control: How to Get the Upper Hand When Your Business is Under Attack (Portfolio, 2007) and Nail 'Em! Confronting High Profile Attacks on Celebrities and Businesses (Prometheus Books, 1999), both of which have been widely cited in business, media and academic circles. He is also the author of six novels: Money Wanders (St. Martin's, 2002), Jackie Disaster (Minotaur, 2003), Shakedown Beach (St. Martin's, 2004), Turnpike Flameout (St. Martin's, 2006) and Spinning Dixie (St. Martin's, 2007). His sixth novel, The Devil Himself (Thomas Dunne, St. Martin's), which deals with the collaboration between the U.S. Navy and organized crime during World War II to secure American ports from Nazi attack, will be published in July 2011.
As an investigative writer, Eric wrote articles about the newly discovered diaries of the late mobster Meyer Lansky, which appeared in the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, the Baltimore Sun, The New Republic, and Ethical Corporation. A documentary he co-produced on organized crime aired on the Discovery Channel.
Eric is a graduate of Dartmouth College, where he studied political science and the news media. He serves as a Trustee of the Institute for Responsible Citizenship, an organization devoted to fostering educational and career opportunities for outstanding young African-American men. Eric was a founding member of the Board of Directors of the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition. He lives near Washington, D.C., with his family.
I attended the author's book signing and after hearing him speak for almost an hour addressing comments and taking questions I did not want the discussion to end. Mr. Dezenhall is brilliant, extremeley funny and very resourceful. He writes the book with the same engaging prose and examples. He singles out the prototypes in many of the highly contraversial clients and situations he deals with in his work. We begin to see a pattern in the victims, villians, vehicles and values of the pr attacks and defences. His strategies and creative comebacks in any given situation are truly impressive.
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With insight, professional frameworks, and wit, Dezenhall has succeeded in painting an important and terrifying portrait of the new 'Attack Culture' and how it is shaping media and our lives. At the same time, his work defines and brings credibility to the profession of 'Crisis Management' -- a profession entirely distinct in philosophy and approach from its oft-compared cousin, 'PR'. Bravo!
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Dezenhall's analysis of the "attack bias" in the media is must reading. Because humans pay more attenton to negative news, editors and reporters go after any likely target (AND shy away from criticisms that would require scientific evaluation where their errors might be caught). The result is a breathless, eager, and ultimately disastrous ignorance of the facts. If you are fed up with mmass media superficiality, this book will help explain why -- and hopefully convince some editors to go back to more traditional standards of their craft.
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