Word: itt
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...ITT people can play rough when the company's interests are threatened. Eileen Shanahan, a New York Times economics reporter in Washington, charges that she was repeatedly badgered by company public relations men when she was covering ITT's unsuccessful efforts to acquire the American Broadcasting Co. in 1967. She says that ITT publicists, including Edward J. ("Ned") Gerrity Jr., the public relations chief, complained to her that her reporting was biased, threatened to call her editors and questioned her former employers about her sex life. Gerrity denies knowledge of any threats against Mrs. Shanahan or of investigations...
...ITT's public relations men lavish Christmas gifts and expense-account lunches on journalists and politicians. Important Government contacts are provided with a private plane for business and pleasure junkets to sports events or weekend hideaways. Favored Government officials are sometimes surprised to be called on in foreign cities by ITT personnel, who will rustle up company-paid hotel accommodations and find a good restaurant. Though business is often unmentioned in all the fun and games, anyone taking advantage of them naturally becomes indebted, in various degrees, to ITT...
...crucial part of public relations at ITT is anticipating press and television stories about the conglomerate and trying to get the company's view included. It helps that many of ITT's publicists are former newsmen. Company flacks often go to press clubs, attend the weekly lunches of U.S. correspondents' associations abroad and put in appearances at meetings of journalistic societies like Sigma Delta Chi. Says ITT's Washington News Director John Homer: "It's good for us, and frequently it's good for them...
Sometimes ITT's operatives are too smooth for their own good. Recently Yale Brozen, a University of Chicago economist, assailed the Federal Trade Commission in a speech, likening the agency's crackdown on deceptive or puff advertising claims to "star-chamber proceedings" and "Salem witch hunts." The speech got wide publicity. One fact not mentioned in the stories was that Brozen is a paid consultant to Harshe-Rotman & Druck, a public relations firm, which arranged for him to speak in various luncheon clubs. The firm is employed by ITT Continental Baking Co., which has been warned...
...ITT Senior Vice President Gerrity, 48, a onetime columnist for the Scranton Times, joined the company in 1958. For a publicist, the generally affable Gerrity wields unusual clout. He is in charge of all ITT's advertising and public and Government relations and is a member of the 12-man management policy committee, headed by Geneen. He confers every day with Geneen, travels with him and acts as a sort of privy counselor. Geneen will say to Gerrity: "Here's what we've been thinking of doing. How will it sound? What can we say?" Last year...