You don't need me to tell what's wrong
Last week, colleagues and former students encouraged me to write about the colossal PR blunders of April: Pepsi's misguided TV commercial in which a rich white woman ends a street protest by handing a cop a soft drink Press Secretary Sean Spicer's gross stupidity in using Hitler and the Holocaust in describing Syria's use of chemical warfare United Airlines' ghastly mishandling of "re-accommodating" a passenger on a commercial jet -- and bloodying both passenger and senior management in the process. These tragic blunders didn't need my commentary. News media pundits and late-night comedians carried the ball far across the goal line. They pointed out the universal tone-deafness of Pepsi, United, and Spicer. They didn't need me to spike the ball. Businesses and government officials have been saying dumb things for decades. There's nothing new about these errors. Each reflects an acute case of self-absorption, and a total disregard for