I don't mention it very often, but my professional background is in public relations. And in that capacity, I spent a bit of time training business owners and community leaders how to effectively speak to the media. But that was years ago, and I don't think about it that often. Until lately...

Given my background, I have had more than a passing interest in the Herman Cain and Joe Paterno/Pen State incidents of late. But I've also been equally as interested in one of the story lines on one of my current favorite TV shows, "The Good Wife."

In fact, the "Good Wife" story has been quite intriguing, as it also involved sexual misconduct. Specifically, a show regular, campaign manager Eli, is brought in to help a potential candidate, who has an embarrassing photo in his background. (It's a situation of college pranks being photographed, and the fact that we live in a Facebook age.)

In last Sunday's episode, Eli advises the man -- after carefully first asking him if there are ANY OTHER embarrassing pix of him out in the wild, and being told definitively "no" -- to "out" himself personally with regard to the photo, so that he and Eli can "manage" the flack that will certainly ensue following publication of the potentially embarrassing photo.

Of course, once they bring in the big media guns and put the potential candidate out on the Chris Matthews show -- it turns out that Matthews has discovered that there ARE more "smutty" photos, and the advantage is not only lost, but the potential candidate's career is probably all washed up...

Art imitating life, I guess, since Herman Cain and Joe Paterno are both on the hot seat these days, due to bad responses to sexual abuse situations.

I recently read an article on the Less Than Obvious Commonalities Shared Between Herman Cain and Penn State written by a guest poster to the well-respected PR blog, Bulldog Reporter's "Daily Dog."

It's a long article, but I thought it was worth sharing. Take a look. And then let's chat about this topic...