Conspiracy theorists spark PR headache for federal agencies
The Social Security Administration took to its blog to defuse a PR crisis amid reports that it and other federal agencies were buying thousands of rounds of hollow-point bullets.
That’s just one scenario proposed by critics when federal agencies not known for kick-down-the-door SWAT enforcement recently sought to buy thousands of rounds of hollow-point ammunition.
Faced with a still-simmering PR crisis in an era of distrust of the government, the Social Security Administration took to its new blog last week to explain that it is one of many federal entities with enforcement agents.
‘An excellent vehicle’
“We found the blog to be an excellent vehicle for communicating this message to the media, to interested Members of Congress and their staffs, and to the public,” spokesman Jonathan L. Lasher told me in an email Tuesday.
“Our new website is less than a year old, and the blog is an even more recent addition, and the traffic to that post has been very, very high.”
No wonder. Even as officials sought to explain the bullet buy, guns were blazing across the Internet.
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