For more than 10 years (1994 - 2004), I wrote a self-syndicated column called “Utah Tech Watch” that began as a biweekly column and six months later moved to a weekly schedule.
Over time this column was published by three papers — the Deseret News (now the Deseret Morning News), The Daily Herald (in Provo, Utah) and The Enterprise (Utah’s weekly business paper) — as well as being distributed for free via email to several thousand subscribers.
Each year, one of my most fun and yet difficult self-directed assignments was to identify the top 10 stories of the year.
I plan to resurrect “Utah Tech Watch” as an online media property in 2008, and when I do, I’ll also resurrect its annual Top 10 stories piece. But for now, let me transpose this idea to this SOAR Communications blog with what I propose are the Top 10 Global SOAR Stories of 2007.
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Nike, the $15 billion dollar shoe and sports apparel leader, tore up its contract with beleaguered pro football player Michael Vick yesterday after details of his plea deal with federal prosecutors came to light. (NOTE: Vick’s official website has been overwhelmed by Internet traffic and as of the date of this writing its “Bandwidth Limit Exceeded.”)
The terse, 33-word statement was direct and to the point, stating that Nike considers “any cruelty to animals inhumane, abhorrent and unacceptable” (bolding added by author).
The official definitions of each word? Here’s what Dictionary.com says:
- Inhumane - “not humane; lacking humanity, kindness, compassion, etc.”
- Abhorrent - “causing repugnance; detestable; loathsome: an abhorrent deed.”
- Unacceptable - “used of persons or their behavior; “impossible behavior”; “insufferable insolence” [syn: impossible] ” [NOTE: This was the 3rd definition listed.]
OUCH! OUCH! OUCH!
In Nike’s 2003 Annual Report, Phil Knight’s letter to shareholders (Nike’s then chairman/president/CEO), included Vick in a short list of seven athletes he singled out as those with promise “to reach new levels of human potential,” to which he added it was “(Nike’s) job to help them get there.”
Those listed with Vick in Knight’s letter? In order, they are
Apparently great company to be in (at the time). I wonder how those six other athletes feel about their association with Vick now?
