Nick Nichols

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Nick Nichols (real name: David Nichols[1] ) co-founded the Nichols-Dezenhall public relations firm (which became Dezenhall Resources after he left in September 2003). He is now chairman of the communications firm CounterPoint Strategies.[1]

Nichols "develops and teaches graduate-level crisis management courses at the Johns Hopkins University...in crisis management and risk communications." [2]

Background

"Mr. Nichols began his career as an investigative news correspondent. He subsequently became chief of staff for the Wisconsin legislature’s joint committee on finance, and was later appointed state deputy secretary of revenue. He relocated to Washington, D.C. to become senior media spokesperson for the Cuban-Haitian Task Force under the Carter and Reagan administrations, where he managed crisis communications following the controversial 1980 Mariel boatlift. Before forming Nichols Dezenhall, Mr. Nichols was senior vice president and account group manager at Needham Porter Novelli (Omnicom), then the fourth largest public relations agency in the world." (2005) [2]

Modus operandi

In a March 2001 speech to the National Pork Producers Council annual meeting - titled "Stopping the Attackers in Today's Assault Culture" - Nichols outlined the sort of aggressive strategies he recommended to counter activist groups. "Nichols recommended gathering as much information about activist groups and launching guerrilla campaigns to destroy their credibility," O'Dwyer's PR Daily reported.

"Nichols' advice is to show how activists have wrong facts, fabricated crises in the past, exist beyond the cultural mainstream and are supported by 'money-grubbing lawyers'," O'Dwyers reported. [1] (Sub req'd)

According to O'Dwyers, Nichols presentation included projecting quotes from Al Capone ("You can get more with a smile, a kind word and a gun then with a smile and a kind word.") and George Carlin ("If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten!")

Ron Arnold connections

The first edition of Nichol's book - Rules for Corporate Warriors - was published by Free Enterprise Press, a part of Ron Arnold's Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise (CDFE).

Nichols joined the CDFE as a Senior Fellow in January 2005.[3]


Climate change

Nichols is on the advisory board of Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow[4]

Nichols and the CDFE's Paul Driessen wrote "Global warming: Science versus Spin," an essay for The Science and Environmental Policy Project, dated 13 July 2003.[3]

Books

Articles by Nichols

Resources and articles

Related Sourcewatch articles

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 View Faculty - David Nichols. Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved on 2010-01-03. “David Nichols currently serves as Chairman of CounterPoint Strategies, a high-stakes communications firm with offices in New York City and Washington, D.C. He is the founder and retired Chairman and CEO of Nichols - Dezenhall Communications Management Group, Ltd., where he specialized in crisis management, risk communications and spokesperson training. Before forming Nichols - Dezenhall, he was senior vice president and account group manager at Needham Porter Novelli (Omnicom). Nichols began his career as an investigative news correspondent. He left the news business to become a campaign press secretary for New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay. He later served as Chief of Staff for the Wisconsin Legislature's Joint Committee on Finance, and was subsequently appointed Deputy Secretary of Revenue, a state cabinet-level position. He relocated to Washington, D.C., to become senior media spokesperson for the Cuban-Haitian Task Force under the Carter and Reagan administrations, where he managed crisis communication following the controversial 1980 Mariel boatlift. He has appeared as a spokesperson on numerous television network news programs.”
  2. 2.0 2.1 NGOs: Indispensable or Unaccountable?, American Enterprise Institute, accessed December 28, 2007.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Nick Nichols. CDFE. Retrieved on 2010-01-03.
  4. Board of Advisors. Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow. Retrieved on 2010-01-03.

External links