Michigan State University paid a public-relations firm upwards of $500,000 to keep track of and report on the social media activity of former Olympic gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar‘s victims and certain journalists covering the case, reports the Lansing State Journal.
According to the report, Michigan State paid Weber Shandwick, a New York-based public-relations company, 517,343 for more than 1,440 hours of work monitoring social media in the month of January. Weber Shandwick assigned 18 employees with hourly rates ranging from $200 to $600 per hour to monitor the assignment. Of those 18, three billed MSU for more than $50,000, one charged $96,900, and another $120,893 for their work. As Michigan State is a public university, all documents are public record.
Michigan State’s Office of Communication and Brand Strategy simultaneously kept tabs on the social media activities of certain high-profile victims as well as news agencies and journalists reporting on the case. Per the report, “Summaries of articles and social media activity, including how much attention certain tweets or stories were getting online, were emailed to other MSU spokespeople or to top university officials. Later, once Weber Shandwick took over, emails were sent to MSU’s outside attorneys for the lawsuits related to Nassar,” writes the Journal.
On the morning of January 16th, the first day of Nassar’s sentencing, a Weber Shandwick employee emailed the University regarding the role the victims played influencing public opinion. The employee said, “Conversation around the upcoming sentencing and MSU’s role in the matter continues to be driven by victims of Nassar, their families and regional journalists,” according to the Journal.
Rundowns of the previous day’s media coverage were also sent to former MSU President Lou Anna Simon, the members of the Board of Trustees, and the university’s in-house attorneys, among others.
The Journal writes that “The firm detailed local and national coverage, and how much engagement (retweets and likes) tweets from victims, celebrities or journalists were getting.”
Emails from Weber Shandwick employees also mention certain journalists by name, including reporters from BuzzFeed, The Detroit News, Michigan Radio, the Huffington Post, ABC News, USA Today, The Guardian, and ESPN, among others. Additionally, Weber Shandwick notified MSU of which celebrities had voiced their support for the victims of Nassar, including Kristen Bell, a Michigan native herself, and Chrissy Teigen.
On January 25, the day after Nassar was sentenced, a Weber Shandwick employee emailed MSU communications informing them that social media conversation had increased by 17 times in the past 24 hours, with 381,000 mentions of MSU and Nassar together.
Nassar’s former boss, William Strampel, has also resigned from MSU following charges of misconduct in office, sexual assault, and two counts of willful neglect of duty.
Currently, more than 250 victims of Nassar are suing Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics in federal court, claiming USA Gymnastics did not do enough to protect them. One former swimmer, Marie Anderson, testified that she was abused by Nassar when she was 15 under the guise of “pelvic adjustments” to treat a lower back injury.
The students and alumni need to burn this place to the ground, and I don’t mean arson. They need to withhold their tuition checks and alumni donations until there is a complete purge of the school administration who was in any way involved in the Nasser debacle and then set up an investigation by the state or a third party investigator to investigate every single department. It’s clear that this goes way beyond Nasser and Strampel.
Ah. This is a shame. Glad my dad (MSU alum and student-athlete) isn’t around to see his alma mater tank and continue to demonstrate they just don’t get it. Still. Or yet. Because they will get it. Eventually. When it’s too late.
This sounds like MSU was trying to get a fix on how people felt about the university, and to see how their “brand” was doing in terms of reputation. In other words, they wanted to see how far into the toilet they were. I’d say that they didn’t need this social media survey to know that not only is the university’s reputation in the toilet, but it’s all the way into the depths of the sewage system.
Not to mention if public relation firms are getting this kind of money and with all the scandals hitting the news lately combined with the fact that they hire people who just browse social media… maybe a lot of my students that I am worried about since they cant ever put their phones down might actually turn out to have successful careers doing exactly that….
Death penalty. This is borderline evil.
Give all the athletes an immediate release to transfer, or uphold their scholarships if they don’t.
Yes. The current student athletes can’t be hung out to be damaged by this. Let them all have a full release if requested.
That’s the unfortunate thing about punishments in NCAA athletics. People, particularly the athletes, are punished for things of which they had no part.
$200-600 per hour to do what?? Browse social media or stalk the internet footprint of the victims and those reporting on it? I can get my 3rd period class to do that in 1 hour and only have to give them a 100 on a daily assignment, if that.
The big question should be WHY??? Why did they do this? What is the point of this? My first thought is that this would add to the violated feeling that they victims already felt… to know that they were being stalked online by the University and a major public relations firm? I understand there is an expectation when you post stuff online that anyone can see it, but this still… Read more »
MSU needs to get the ban hammer
Honest to god, if a team gets caught drinking on a trip they lose a whole season. MSU protects a child molester and they’re not even harmed.
Sounds like Michigan State got their strategy from USA Swimming. They certainly know how to waste taxpayer and donor money just like USA Swimming wasted membership and sponsor money to try to save their own a**es.
I read a note saying the Oesteopathic Medicins Prof was arrested on child porn but that seemed to disappear so not likely so .
These are the reasons I think international high level sports will not survive . Not only are there continual push to permanent frozen wars but the quality of personnel in sports admins is decrepit .
Ive been tuning out for several years but get dragged back by the Crash Spectacle .