Katie Couric just proved it — there is no limit to how far a pretty face can go without much thought. (I can’t wait to rush home and give my daughter the news that she doesn’t have to study any more!)

Katie decided to share her ridiculous idea that sexism is a more ingrained problem in the American culture than racism. Sorry, Katie, but I’m trying to recall the last time somebody burned a bra in the middle of the night on the front yard of a woman-headed family.

My brand is Rosenberg Communications. I guard it like the Air Force guards nuclear warheads. (Oops, maybe not the best analogy.) It’s why obsessive-compulsiveness is my favorite state of being, why perfection is my favorite aspiration.

Somebody I know recently did a blogging blooper because she didn’t guard her brand very closely. She does a broadcast e-mail for every blog post (not something I would do). Hers is a political blog — a very good one, actually. Recently, she had a guest blogger. This guest blogger used the post to endorse one of the presidential candidates. Unfortunately, it wasn’t clear that it was a guest blogger. Some of the regular readers were dumb struck that the blogger I know issued an endorsement, and who she apparently endorsed. My friend the blogger had to issue a clarification.

Having a guest blogger: free.

Posting a guest blog: free.

Not watching who is perceived to be speaking for your brand: Really, really costly.

This past April I spent several hours in the Knoxville church where a crazed man shot up a children’s performance of Annie this morning. My brother was married there. All of my children played a role in the wedding. My brother’s father-in-law is a lay leader at that church. And, by my watch, I was in my church in Maryland when this lunatic was shooting up that church.

My brother and his wife are in Knoxville today. Fortunately, the family decided to go hiking rather than to services this morning.

I can see the church. I can see where I stood during the rehearsal, where my son stood as an usher, and my daughter entered as part of the bridal party. I remember where the piano is that my other son played throughout the wedding ceremony. And I see bullets flying around the church.

There’s no meaning I can divine here, other than just being glad that nobody in my immediate family or extended family were there, at least not physically.

This week’s recommended reading from your friends at Blogenberg:

• The New York Times carried this great piece on “friending” people online.
• According to Ad Age, the changing media landscape underscores the importance of strong partnerships among communications firms in different disciplines.
• This new Pew Research study on blogs and blog readership yields a mixed bag for blogs – increased readership, but not a majority of web users. (Lesson: still need traditional media - online and off - as part of your PR bag o’ tricks.)
• Your digital network is no different than your off-line network. You still need to cultivate it, value it, and invest in it.
• On The Media takes a look at the clash of old media expectations of copyright protection and new media practices of copying and linking at will.
• There are firms that can help you manage your online reputation.
• Agree with it or not, the Story of Stuff provides a thought-provoking look at what happens to all the “stuff” we make and use (not to mention the great presentation).
• The Good Experience blog explains how manipulation can be a force for good.

Two highlights from the Blogenberg B-school:

One of my favorite business phrases is fast becoming, “I feel for you, but I don’t care.” I recently used it when I was told by a vendor that a key member of their team got injured and is in need of surgery. I used it just the other day when I called in a subcontractor to discuss a trend line of declining responsiveness. Every time I use it I am sincere. I do feel for everybody I deal with. But what I care about is simple — the Rosenberg Communications’ bottom line. I feel for lots of things, but in business, I care about only one thing. If you are in business, feel but don’t care, unless you’re talking about your bottom line.

You should read a lot, if you’re an entrepreneur. But don’t waste your time on business books. Most are trees killed for no good reason (my brother the Stanford MBA echoes my sentiment). Instead, read biographies of people who have done great things. My readings include biographies of Martin Luther King, Jr., Lyndon Johnson, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, John Adams, and, my current reading and — I think — the best, a two-volume set by Edmund Morris about Theodore Roosevelt. I learn how people who have done great things did those great things. I learn how personality — healthy and dysfunctional — is both harnessed and overcome to tackle imposing obstacles. I get inspired about how to care about my bottom line.

As a public service, Blogenberg is launching The AEWP (Another Enlightened White Person) alert. One was spotted on Fox News Channel. Bob Beckel, ubiquitous Democratic strategist, was asked why it is, seemingly, that comedians, satirists, etc. are hesitant to make jokes about Barack Obama. “One, he’s black and I can say that as a liberal,” was Beckel’s response.

On the Blogenberg AEWP meter this rates a double wow, as in Wow, I didn’t realize that liberals are issued a “Free to talk about black people” card and Wow, since I tend to lean conservative on a lot of issues — and I don’t have one of those cards — I must now refer to my wife and children as, I don’t know, I guess by saying, “They are my family but I am white and they are not, and I can say that because I’m not a liberal.”

This week’s recommended reading from your friends at Blogenberg…

• John Jantsch offers a practical way for small businesses to use Twitter.
• Seth Godin echoes our feelings about being a small business: Small is a weapon, not an excuse.
• Renaissance man Jonathan Fields writes about his personal experience as he tries to recondition his brain while still using his smart phone.
• Beware of the “Free Public Wi-Fi” you find in many public places these days - it could be a trap.
• Mashable suggests strategy for following “500 business blogs in just 10 minutes a day.”
• It never hurts to take writing advice from Kurt Vonnegut. Here Merlin Mann links to one of Vonnegut’s essays on writing.
• We thought this was an effective commercial produced in the UK to raise awareness and money to address the shortage of clean drinking water in the developing world.
• Guy Kawasaki links up a bunch of great resources on how to change someone’s mind.

ESPN put a microphone inside my brain this past weekend. This breakthrough sports journalism provides the first-ever opportunity to hear what a parent is really thinking at a youth sports event:

Stimulus enters my eyes: My son, the goalie, is running around with the ball, evading other team’s attackmen while he looks for a teammate to pass to. Stimulus enters my ears: Mother of other goalie on team yelling, “Get rid of the ball. Don’t run around like that. Not against this team.” Unfiltered thought in my brain: Shut up woman. Your son may be pudgy and slow but my son can run.

Stimulus enters my ears: Father of a member of my son’s team yelling (constantly), “Okay defense, time to tighten up. Toughen up defense!” Unfiltered thought in my brain: Good thing you’re yelling at the boys because it never would have occurred to defensemen to try to play tough defense.

Stimulus enters my ears: Fathers from a different team yelling at their sons or sons’ teammates every time they make a mistake on the field. Unfiltered thought in my brain: I’m sure your boys just love having you stand on the sidelines.

Stimulus enters my eyes: (you’ll figure it out). Unfiltered thought in my brain: Lacrosse is much better than ice hockey. Mothers wear less clothing.

ESPN is now talking about basing a reality show inside my head. It will be called Pardon the Blogenberg.

This week’s recommended reading from your friends at Blogenberg:

• The FLiP blog recently interviewed Haviland Rummel, one of the first fellows selected by one of our favorite clients, The Hitachi Foundation, to participate in the Yoshiyama Business in Society Fellowship.
• Not even TV and movies are immune from changes in media habits, reports Yahoo! News.
• There was a behind-the-scenes, but nonetheless relevant and interesting, debate this week about whether Members of Congress should be allowed to post videos and other content online that they shoot or produce on sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Qik (streaming video live from cell phones). Here’s a good rundown of the issues involved in the debate. (Examples of where Members post videos: YouTube, Qik.)
• Steve Rubel discusses how you can use social media to be more productive while staying sane.
• Using David McCulloch’s book as a starting point, Stephen Dubner asks whether the accumulation of information has replaced experience as the most reliable guide for decision-making, a question with profound implications. Join the discussion on the Freakonomics blog.
• More and more companies are using Twitter to find and assuage the dissatisfied. (Example: Comcast on Twitter.)
• Photographer Rachel Barrett is documenting New York’s newsstands and their declining numbers. Whatever the cause of that decline, the project is interesting and the pictures are worth a look.
• Seth Godin shares three principles for using graphs in your presentations and reports.

This car has been retrofitted by a friend of mine and her husband to run on filtered vegetable oil. Every month they collect 100 gallons of vegetable oil from a Japanese restaurant. “It does take time to collect and then filter,” she says. “But once you get the hang of it, it’s not bad — the biggest time factor was establishing a relationship with a restaurant that was interested in working with us.”

How cool is that? Plus, they never have to pick something up to bring to a barbecue — they’ve got salad dressing in the tank.

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Bonus Blogenberg: Here’s one thing I’ve figured out: it’s harder for a dad to get out of the way of a son than to get out of the way of a daughter. Blogenberg readers know I’ve got twins — a boy and a girl about to start high school. Both are very good athletes. Both were recruited by high schools. Both are being welcomed and embraced by their respective high school coaches. I’m extremely proud of both. But for the boy, I have to continually keep myself from acting like his agent (which would not be a good thing). I don’t have that urge for my daughter. It’s because I see myself in my son. For obvious reasons, I don’t see myself in my daughter.