Almost every executive or public official interviewed for television news or print speaks through the filter of public relations, mainly because everything has to be "spun" these days. Never has this been more obvious or obnoxious than when I was on the phone doing a recent interview for Law Enforcement Technology. The executive and I had scheduled a 30-minute time slot, but the interview ran slightly over, and while the interviewee, a pretty darned intelligent guy, was answering a question, the PR woman cut in and asked him, "Do we need a hard stop here?" My reaction was one of amazement. First, "hard stop" is current slang for "a computerized break" and mostly used on cable news shows where they program in commercial breaks so you have to listen to some B-List actor brag about how wisely he invested his money.
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