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The Flack

The Flack™ for Friday, August 23, 2024

The Flack highlights changes and trends in the news, examples of communications practices, and content we at BYRNE PR thought you might find useful.

We hope you enjoy, and we always welcome your feedback.

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Jack Daniel’s Maker Scraps DEI Policies After Threat Of ‘Anti-Woke’ Boycott – Brown-Forman, makers of Jack Daniel’s whiskey, is the latest company to pull back on DEI initiatives due to consumers threatening to boycott the brand. This comes on the heels of similar decisions by Harley Davidson, Tractor Supply and several other companies. The New York Post looks at the decision and how it might affect the brand.

No Joke: The Onion Thinks Print Is The Future Of Media – This week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago attendees saw something that hasn’t been seen in over a decade … a print edition of The Onion. Yes, the satirical newspaper/media organization founded in Madson, Wisconsin, in 1988 is going back to print. And it could be a sign of things to come. The New York Times takes a look.

A Wave Of Biological Privacy Laws May Be Coming As Tech Gadgets Capture Our Brain Waves – Elon Musk and his company Neuralink recently announced it has implanted its second patient with a brain chip that allows the patient to control objects with nothing but their thoughts. And it’s working! But Neuralink isn’t alone. Many companies are developing technologies that track brain activity. So much so that biological privacy laws (yes, that’s a term) are coming. CNBC takes a look at what some might describe as a disturbing trend.

Bari Weiss Knows Exactly What She’s Doing – Are Bari Weiss and The Free Press the future of journalism? The New York Times (her former employer) takes a deep dive.

A New Hope For Saving The Universities – As university campuses across the country come to life with students returning, it’s likely the protests we saw in April and May will also return. So where do we go from here? What is the role and future of universities? Find a comfortable chair and your favorite beverage for Commentary magazine’s thorough review of where we are and where we might be going.

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Beach Reads:

Vacation Tips for Anxious Workaholics

Gen Z Loves Cassettes. But Wait, How Do These Things Work?

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flack

noun

: one who provides publicity

flack

verb

: to act as a press agent or promoter for something

The word flack was first used as a noun meaning “publicity agent” during the late 1930s. According to one rumor, the word was coined in tribute to a well-known movie publicist of the time, Gene Flack.