I'm going to go with "pretty good." Also, what the fuck Planned Parenthood, aren't you going through constant funding dilemmas? I'm hoping they at least asked if he would forego the naming rights.
I think the issue is that as a publically funded organization, they have to be constantly vigilant about their image and who they accept donations from. If they accept money from somebody who has pretty publically talked shit about them, and women in general, it hurts their credibility and their brand. I have no idea whether they will have issues making up that 500k, but it's not nearly as ridiculous as headlines might make it seem. I'm also super suspicious, because this reeks of a Ryan Holiday publicity stunt.
Considering he wrote the original piece about it and has a book coming out this summer about such stuntery I'd say that is a pretty good bet. Tucker Max wasn't worried about his tax burden or reputation near as much as he was getting his name in the news. And this is probably better than actually having a clinic named after him in that regard. I do have a question though: if they aren't willing to stand by the tweets why wait to scrub them until after the article goes live? Did they just drop the ball on that? Also, I would love to hear audreymonroe's thoughts on this.
It was clearly a publicity stunt from the get-go. I think the initial publicity intention was to have a Tucker Max Planned Parenthood clinic - which would have been hilarious all on its own. But now Ryan is recouping some publicity from the fact that it didn't work so he wins either way. From the version of events that Ryan posted - they didn't try and organize any kind of alternate / anonymous deal or some kind of deal with a PR release to distance Tucker from his dick behavior while still letting them take the money. Which seems kind of like a dumb move to me. I mean I see why PP wouldn't want a Tucker Max PP Clinic to be the next fratty joke doing the rounds. But not even trying to salvage it? For half a mill? Seems poorly thought out. Lots of people in the threads about this seem to be taking the fact that Tucker was trying to get some secondary benefit out of a half million dollar tax dodge donation like it's a bad thing. That confuses me as well. Who the fuck donates half a million to reduce their tax position, and doesn't try to get some secondary benefit out of it? I guess Bill and Melinda Gates can drop that kind of donation and not care if anything good comes of it - but almost anyone else who has that kind of money still doesn't have enough to not want to get something for it. And also? I don't think the original plan was anything like trying to redeem his reputation. I think it was just a recognition of the advice his accountant gave him and an attempt to find something funny to do with it for publicity so it wasn't just a sunk cost with no benefit. I also suspect that the line in the story about Tucker going away and thinking about it and then remembering when PP helped him out when he was poor and going in that direction was pure reality. Because Tucker is a narcissist, and the most deserving charity in the mind of a narcissist, is one that helped him.
True enough. But I would swear I remember something about him being pretty active in charity already (military charities maybe) and criticizing celebrities for doing the whole donation as a publicity stunt thing. Does that ring a bell with anyone else?
I remember some threads about the fact that Sean Penn is a tool for going and getting in the way in New Orleans after Katrina, while wearing a knife proof vest, and posing for cameras. There were a few general tirades (although I can't remember if they were Tucker's specifically) about celebrities thinking they were experts on international politics because they'd been in a few movies. I'd see that as being pretty different to giving someone a shitload of money and keeping out of their business other than trying to use them as the straight men for a publicity stunt. I suspect a stunt that would have been far less successful for them if it had gone through. I mean Tucker standing in front of the Tucker Max planed parenthood clinic for a gag photo would get a few laughs and might give him a punchline or two for a blog post. But I don't really see it getting the kind of attention that this is getting. I think Tucker is still pretty involved in the for the troops charities. But he's quoted in the Forbes story I don't think he was looking to move away from his current charity stuff. Just to find a new one that promoted his book as well.
Well, I was waiting until Rob4Broncos' thread got picked up, but I'm assuming all of this would be transferred over there when/if it does anyway. We were arguing about this all day today, and I think it's a pretty interesting debate. I don't actually have a totally firm opinion on it, although I'm, unsurprisingly, leaning towards Planned Parenthood's side over Tucker Max's. Regardless of whether or not you think Tucker is a misogynist or not - support of which would kind of clash with Planned Parenthood's whole vibe - I think that PP can't be blamed for not agreeing to be the butt of a joke. They were in a bit of a damned-if-you, damned-if-you-don't situation. I'd imagine that Tucker knew they would turn him down, and could use it to (continue to) shit on PP's image and mission, which he would've done regardless if they accepted the money. If there was any chance that he genuinely wanted to help PP's mission (which I think would have actually been a nice, fitting way to further his "image rehabilitation") then I'd react differently, but it's so clear from everything leading up to the attempt and immediately following it that it only had to do with his own interests and to make the organization look bad. Let's face it, the vast majority of Tucker's fans wouldn't look into the announcement too critically and just take it at face value/leap to his side, not to mention that I'm sure the usual army against PP could easily use it as fodder. If he was simply doing it as a publicity stunt, it wouldn't make me as angry as having the added bonus of also attacking the organization. He didn't pick Planned Parenthood out of a hat; he knew exactly what he was doing. Also, what hasn't really been mentioned in the articles about it is that this isn't an original idea. One positive thing I can say about the anti-Planned Parenthood, anti-women's health, anti-reproductive rights camp is that they're pretty damn creative. We have to field a lot of calls from people who want to make these kinds of backhanded donations. There's always someone who wants to donate baby clothes and toys and then gets upset when they're turned away, or they want to donate money - yes, maybe a lot of money - to improve ultrasound equipment to better hear the babies screaming or whatever. So then they get to say that apparently Planned Parenthood doesn't need anymore money so let's all stop giving them tax money for abortions. (Which they can't fucking use them for, if anyone here is under that impression.) It's just a weird, different way to get the opportunity to attempt to guilt the organization and get their side of it heard and then use it against PP. And I don't even deal with the areas of the country that REALLY hate Planned Parenthood, with the exception of Virginia, so my team has probably only been exposed to the least of stunts like this. I wouldn't agree if they took money from these people either. I'm kind of disappointed that they took back Komen's money once they backed down, especially since they raised - what? - twice their yearly grant in three days or something like that. I was also one of those people who disagreed with Invisible Children for taking money from the organization who supported the super-homophobic regime they'd be keeping in power. I think organizations have the right to a gift-giving policy and to refuse donations from people who hate them, and I think it's difficult if not impossible to separate taking someone's money as implicitly aligning yourself with their values. But. Planned Parenthoods in Texas especially could use money right now. If it really came down to a clinic staying open or taking money from Tucker Max, I for one am not going to sit here and say "I wouldn't give Tucker Max the satisfaction! Fuck those thousands of women who rely on that clinic being here!" It's just that, in the grand scheme of things, I don't think $500k makes that much of a difference. Without a doubt they'd be able to put it somewhere if it was another donor, but a nation-wide company turning down a donation of that size isn't quite as drastic as it would be for me to turn down that kind of money. (Tucker, if you read this, I will gladly accept your donation on Planned Parenthood's behalf, and use it to communicate for them REALLY REALLY REALLY WELL.) Also, I know I'm not an expert on this, but I laughed when I read that he expected an entire clinic in exchange for 500k. I was under the impression that that kind of money would maybe buy him a Tucker Max Hallway, preferably the one where they do STI Testing. Anyway. If I read a week from now that a Planned Parenthood in Texas shut down, but would've made it if they had another $500k in their budget, I'd be pissed. But for now, I got your back, employer. Raise, please.
On a different note, I finished reading Hilarity Ensues recently, and it was the worst of Max's three major books. Not because of the writing, but rather, because Tucker was simply running out of material. There were some really good stories, and the "Deadliest Catch" chapter in particular was excellent. However, half the book was dull filler; unexceptional adventures with a minimum of humor. As such, I think Tucker's decision to move in a new direction was especially astute. Again, I wish him the very best of luck.
There's also the fact that this all went down last year and they waited until the first firestorm of newsworthy (the twitter thing) publicity died down before releasing the story. I'm betting the farm on this being nothing more than a stunt, seriously, who goes to a PR guy for tax advice?
Sometimes I don't understand how somebody can so smart, shrewd and absolutely delusional at the same time.
Tucker has been very transparent and honest about publicity being part of his motivation. After all, he linked to Ryan Holiday's Forbes article as being the most accurate write-up of the episode. That article contains this direct quote from Tucker; “Ryan, I have a huge tax burden this year. I can reduce it with a large donation to charity, but I want to promote my new book at the same time. Can you come up with something cool that does both?” So Tucker wanted a donation that was cool, helps him with his taxes, and promotes his new book. I don't see anything wrong with that, and I'm surprised that PP rejected it, considering the dire financial straits they were in in Texas. Yes, audreymonroe is correct that you can't accept donations from just anyone. However, Tucker Max is not a terrorist, a fundamentalist whacko, or even someone that is against abortions. He is just a writer who writes stupid shit. PP has certainly accepted donations from immeasurably worse human beings.
I don't understand this. If the KKK offers a black church some money, it's in the black church's interest to take the money not just because it would then have more money to promote its causes, but it is also benefited because the KKK now has less money to do its evil shit with. How is that different than Planned Parenthood taking money from Tucker Max? Obviously I'm not comparing Tucker and the KKK, just the logic behind Planned Parenthood's decision.
Tucker: Tucker: Tucker: Tucker: Ryan Holiday: Hmmmm... So what the fuck was it about, then? Was it about the tax break? Was it about press for the book? Was it about getting his name on a building? Was it about being a good citizen and making a sizeable charitable donation to a cause that he feels passionately about? Or was it just a PR stunt that blew up because of the irony that a man who brags to the world about all the pussy he rakes in would have his name on the very building that most of the women he's banging should be visiting? He did it for PR. And it worked. Really, really well. And we're all predictably proving that bad press is still press - and that Ryan Holiday, Tucker's marketing and PR guy, is worth his weight in gold.
No, your viewpoint makes perfect sense if the black church would not in any way be beholden to the KKK, and people in the US were a bit more sane in terms of their perceptions. But even taking the latter into account, I think Tucker does a great job of outlining how PP could have accepted his money in that blog post; I don't see what the contradiction is. Yes, part of Max's desire for the donation is publicity. But Tucker also legitimately wants to help Planned Parenthood. A person can have more than one motivation for an action.
I don't think Planned Parenthood turned down the donation for self righteous reasons. The rejection was political and for their PR. Naming a clinic/wing/waiting room/whatever after Tucker is like handing PP's opposition a basket of hand grenades. PP has a net worth of about a billion dollars right now, so Tucker's donation is a drop in the bucket. I can easily see potential donors and current donors becoming averse to the organization after the press fall out. It's terrible PR for PP, and could end up costing them a lot more than the 500k they would be accepting. Turning Tucker down was a smart decision for their long term goals. Keep in mind too that PP is already getting tax dollars from the Obama regime, and stands to receive much more if Obama is reelected and his health care plan goes into effect. When people start complaining about the government wasting money they'd be waving Tucker Max's donation in all kinds of criticism towards the organization. And they named a room after this asshole where they hand out abortion pills! Yeah, there's no way to gauge what the real risk of accepting the donation would be, but it doesn't seem worth it.
Except for the part where they already had to close down Texas Planned Parenthood clinics due to a lack of funds. And this was after the date when they rejected Tucker's donation. (August 2011) Net worth is a poor way to gauge this situation. McDonald's has a yearly revenue of $24 billion and a net worth way higher than that, and yet, poorly performing McDonald's locations close all the time. This is all pure speculation. Personally, I think you're making a mountain out of a mole hill. Tucker is not particularly famous, he hasn't received much negative press outside of a few campus feminist groups, and thus, the "PR fall-out" you're predicting sounds exaggerated and unlikely. But even on that score, Tucker mentioned three different ways that PP could accept his donation while frowning upon/separating themselves from his views. (I quoted it above) I don't understand what government wasting money has to do with Tucker's donation. Planned Parenthood has always been a combination of state and private funding. They have also received private donations much higher than the $500,000 Tucker was offering. So who would be complaining about what, exactly? An organization as controversial and as severely hated as Planned Parenthood is (about a million times moreso than Tucker Max) worrying that they will ruffle a few feathers by accepting a donation from an author who writes stupid comedy books? Questionable. However, when this causes clinics to shut down and thousands of women not to receive the reproductive and sex health services they need? Then it's just fucked up.