Public Relations

Amazon.com Inc. shut like a book. Domino's Pizza Inc. was late but eventually delivered. And CNN focused on the good news. When the three major brands engaged with their Web-savvy fans and critics in separate incidents last week, their responses demonstrated how corporations are still learning how to control their messages -- and reputations -- in a fast-twitch online world.

Two Brentwood publicists said they dropped octuplets mom Nadya Suleman as a client Saturday because they have received a slew of death threats. Suleman, a 33-year-old Whittier resident, was unmarried, unemployed and already had six children using a sperm donor when she gave birth to eight children from the same donor Jan. 26 at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower.

A beaming Dr. Karen Mapes appeared on "Larry King Live" this week to discuss the epic birth of octuplets she supervised at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower, but the ticker at the bottom of the screen said it all: "OCTUPLETS OUTRAGE." The story of Whittier mom Nadya Suleman has quickly turned from medical miracle to public fury -- so much so that Suleman herself complained in an interview that aired Friday on NBC's "Today" show that society is unfairly judging her.

In the shadow of the $440-million "bird's nest" Olympic stadium, migrant workers toil for a few dollars a day. A few miles away, bulldozers destroy a neighborhood where petitioners gather to seek justice from the government. Farther afield, foreign journalists endure sporadic harassment despite promised press freedoms, with Chinese reporters, bloggers and activists facing far greater restrictions.

The Colombian government said Saturday that it had fired Mark Penn's public relations firm after Penn, the chief campaign strategist for presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton, apologized for meeting with Colombian officials pushing a trade deal with the U.S.

On television screens around the world, images of protesting Tibetan monks and an Olympic torch doused by protesters have been replaced by footage of Chinese rescuers pulling children out of the wreckage of this week's massive earthquake. The country is in pain and mourning. But the tragedy that struck Monday, and has taken more than 12,000 lives, also has given China an opportunity for a dramatic image makeover.

Stung by bad publicity from last week's massive campus drug bust, San Diego State University has begun a public-relations blitz with the theme "We're prouder than ever." The university has taken out a full page in today's Union-Tribune with names of more than 500 alumni and local notables boosting the school. The $19,000 ad was paid for, in part, by Cox Business, a division of cable and television giant Cox Communications, and by restaurant owner Ralph Rubio.

Hasbro Inc. to Scrabulous: N-I-X-E-D, for a minimum of 13 points. The toy company scored big Tuesday in its legal match against the popular but unauthorized version of Scrabble that's played online by millions of Facebook members. The India-based creators of Scrabulous shut down the game to players in the U.S. and Canada, where Hasbro owns the rights to Scrabble, a week after Hasbro sued them, alleging copyright infringement.

As a stream of walkers trickled through Lancaster's main park one recent morning, Marie Ann Nicholson fell into step beside Mayor R. Rex Parris. There was a boarded-up house on the street where her daughter lives in a "nice neighborhood," Nicholson told Parris. The property was vacant. The front lawn had dried up. "It's a total eyesore," said Nicholson, 71, a lifelong resident of Lancaster.

It was one thing for the government to draft a plan to get financial institutions out of trouble -- and quite another to sell it. Administration officials and congressional leaders violated the most basic rules of politics, marketing and public relations in peddling the controversial $700-billion financial system rescue.