"Brand is everything," said recently departed failed NBC boss Jeff Zucker. And at long last, MSNBC has found its brand: "Lean Forward." That really says it all, right? "Lean Forward." What?

PR industry: 85% female. PR industry top management: 80% male. Try spinning that shit.

Incompetent superflack Ronn [sic] Torossian actually wrote an op-ed on "The Importance of SEO." Ahem.

Making money in online media is tough. So we wish success to all most who try. However! This sweet and friendly Dan Lyons profile of PR man Dan Abrams calls for some gentle clarification.

A Marine Corps PR contractor has been fired for telling the truth. Hey, it happens.

Apple was busted today for deleting multiple customer forum posts about a negative Consumer Reports review of its new iPhone. Maybe an Apple.com moderator simply went rogue, but now the company will have to deal with the PR fallout.

ESPN is airing an hourlong teevee special tonight, for basketmaking machine Lebron James to announce which team he's going to sign with. To get this, ESPN ceded near-total control of the show's advertising (and reporters' question-asking!) to Lebron. The explanation?

Arizona is currently besieged by insane politicians, idiot citizens, racist educators, even more racist laws, and a nationwide boycott. Nobody's visiting, for some reason? The clear solution: better PR.

With the news of Gary Coleman's tragic death and the subsequent sad spectacle of his deathbed photos being sold to the media, the world has wondered: What does Gary Coleman's former agent Victor Perillo think about this? At last—answers!

Famously-surnamed blank slate Andrew Cuomo is running for governor of New York. His longtime ladyfriend is famous American pseudochef Sandra Lee. So, she is probably incredibly charming and media-savvy, eh? Ha, the funny thing is, she is not.

Remember that kooky video last week of the hospital PR man who simply would not stop touching a local news reporter, no matter what? Is there anyone in the world who thought that flack was good? Oh yes—there is.

Huzzah, it's time for another risible media query from Help a Reporter Out, where flacks and desperate journalists connect. Put on your thinking caps: Can you come up with a bright side to this oil spill? Anyone? [UPDATED below].

Is there anyone left who's not boycotting Arizona? Oh yea: PR executives.

The Chinese workers who build Apple products keep killing themselves, so their employer has asked them to sign a pledge they won't commit suicide. The actual document is after the jump.

If there's one enduring lesson I took away from my late-night argument with Steve Jobs, it's that Apple's relationship with the public is undergoing a quiet revolution. Are we about to see a new, more open Apple?

Procter & Gamble is absolutely thrilled about this massive oil spill, because the free PR they get for cleaning off oily animals with Dawn™ brand soap is priceless. For the rest of us, bad news: it's worse than you thought.

The last time guy-site Thrillist put on a junket—to Jamaica, last fall—it ended up costing a New York Times freelancer his job, and prompting a stern warning to everyone else. But hey, free trip to Miami in June!

Kudos to PETA's PR team, which has managed to combine its usual "naked celebrity" news peg with an additional "too hot for Apple!" news peg, thereby capitalizing on the internet's top two obsessions, porn and iPhones. Well done.

We learned last night—via press release—that the recently deceased actor Corey Haim has somehow communicated from beyond the grave that he "misses" D-list actress Hazel D'Jan. (Who, btw, needs to fire her publicist.)

Steve Jobs is paranoid about security. The Apple CEO doesn't just happen to allow strangers to approach him, as during Jobs' coffee with his Google counterpart last week. Just ask anyone familiar with Jobs' high-security New York Times visit.