Led Zeppelin, Detroit, the Great Depression, and spin

[Bozita]

http://www.star-telegram.com/ed_wallace/story/1229828.html

Posted on Sun, Mar. 01, 2009
Led Zeppelin and Detroit in the Depression
Ed Wallace
Special to the Star-Telegram


1973: Led Zeppelin was arguably the biggest band in the world, but their relationship with the media was also problematical. Their image as the "barbarians of rock" didn’t help, and neither did that incident with the female reporter from Life magazine. Now the boys badly wanted both to fix their troubled media relations and to solidify their position as the new masters of rock.

At the second stop in their 1973 tour, Tampa Bay Stadium, 56,800 fans turned out to see them perform. Their publicist, Danny Goldberg, immediately wrote a press release announcing that Led Zeppelin had broken the Beatles’ 1965 record at Shea Stadium. While Goldberg admits that wasn’t really a fully honest statement, the size difference between the two venues was accurate. The truth was that Tampa Stadium could hold more people than Shea could; so saying you beat the Beatle’s Shea record was a bit disingenuous.

Goldberg sped to the Tampa UPI bureau and posted his PR piece disguised as news on the wire. Hundreds of newspapers picked up the release as news, and for the rest of the year the quote that Led Zeppelin was "bigger than the Beatles" appeared in virtually every article written about the band.

At this point you’re probably wondering why that story’s in this column, since it has nothing to do with either the automotive industry or the economics of world society that form the basis of this column. I decided to go with the Led Zeppelin story because it’s harmless, especially seen 36 years after the fact. But it’s also a perfect illustration of a currently critical truth: PR and spin, posing as news, can be both true and meaningless or inaccurate in context. Even so, such spin on facts can forever change the perception of the person reading it.

Of course, PR often still passes for news today and is similarly distorted to alter perceptions. But is the slant being disseminated harmless or harmful?

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[Dennis Donovan]

1. Slightly OT, this is the same Danny Goldberg who was in charge of...

...Air America radio at the time they cancelled "Morning Sedition."

[Captain Hilts]

2. Thought-provoking! Thanks. nt