Jay Leno: “Please welcome President Barack Obama.” (Applause) President Obama: “Thank you.” (Applause) Obama: “…Let me just say, I think Kevin (the band leader) looks good in a suit.” (Laughter)  “He looks a little like Secret Service.” (More laughter) Nice opening line.  Did he write that one himself? Leno: “Now it’s only, what, 59 days now…  Is it fair to judge...

Doesn’t he know that movie stars belong in the tabloids… police arrested… D.U.I. photo on TMZ? What’s this, Ann Curry interviewing him in Darfur? Must be a movie shoot or something.  I turn up the volume. Watching the NBC Dateline story, I learn that Clooney has travelled to Darfur a number of times not only in his role as United Nations messenger of...

Early in my career, I would read the morning papers and make a list of those organizations that were facing ethical crisis.  I’d then write a letter addressed to both the president of the organization as well as the head of Human Resources offering my services. I must have contacted at least a hundred corporations, associations or other organizations in...

Who do you believe – entertainment or news? That’s not a trick question. Last Thursday, CNBC’s lead financial reporter and host of Mad Money Jim Cramer paid a visit to Jon Stewart’s Daily Show on Comedy Central.  It was a showdown of sorts. Stewart had been running video clips of CNBC gaffs like Rick Santelli’s rant against an Obama policy announcement and Jim Cramer’s videos showing him...

About a third of the way into the memoir is one of those ‘40s, Hollywood pictures taken at some swanky restaurant like the Brown Derby by an eager, gossip columnist back in the days when people taking photos of stars had the “reasonably” good sense to snap them in reasonably good surroundings. The caption reads:  “On the left, Dolores del Rio,...

“Everybody does it.”  “I hardly ever lie.” I collect ‘em, like baseball cards. “You don’t understand, Jim,” the owner of a large company once told me, “it’s just industry practice. We don’t want to do these things, but if we want to operate from a level playing field, sometimes we have to [be unethical].” Last October, Lehman Brothers Chief Dick Fuld told...

Stanley Sheinbaum is the epitome of a world citizen. He spoke out forcefully against the Vietnam War and was the defense strategist for Daniel Ellsberg during the Pentagon Papers trial. When a coup in Greece imprisoned his friend, Andreas Papandreou, Sheinbaum took great personal risk to save Papandreou’s life. In a bold move, Stanley led a group of American Jews...

While researching an organization, in preparation for a talk, I discovered that the group had a very strong ethics component in place.  In fact, a recent situation proved that ethics was not only taken seriously, but critical to the credibility of the organization. This caused me to ask a very basic question:  “Why hire me to give a talk?” Their...

I don’t think Rush Limbaugh really likes being called an entertainer. What’s wrong with being an entertainer, Rush?  Jay Leno’s an entertainer.  He entertains millions and makes a lot of money doing it, too.  Jerry Seinfeld’s an entertainer and makes a lotmore money doing it! The problem is that Rush thinks he’s something else.  He thinks he’s Big Daddy from Cat on a Hot...

“We are committed to: “Integrity – We will conduct ourselves with integrity in our dealings with and on behalf of the [organization]. “Excellence – We will conscientiously strive for excellence in our work. “Accountability – We will be accountable as individuals and as members of this community for our ethical conduct and for compliance with applicable laws and [organizational] policies and directives.  » Read more about: Here’s...