Talk:Geoff Morrell (spokesperson)

A few suggestions for this article

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Hi. I have three suggestions for this article for which I am hoping to get impartial input and help with. I would first like to introduce myself: my name is Arturo and I am BP's representative on Wikipedia. Because of my connection to the subject, I will not make any edits to this article and will leave the final decision on what edits should be made to other editors.

Employment at BP

This brings me to my first suggestion. Geoff Morrell was hired as the head of communications for BP America in 2011 and was recently appointed as BP's senior vice president of U.S. Communications and External Affairs, however this is not mentioned in his article. This older Politico article verifies when Geoff joined the company, and this Politico article from last week confirms his recent promotion. I would suggest adding this information to the "Professional career" section and to the article's introduction. For the "Professional career" section, I would suggest a short sentence along the lines of:

In September 2011, Morrell joined BP as the company's head of US communications and in 2013 became the company's senior vice president of US communications and external affairs.

• Done--Dkriegls (talk to me!) 00:04, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

The Negotiator

Geoff had a small part in the 1998 movie The Negotiator playing himself as a news reporter. I've found a Chicago Sun-Times source that confirms this, though I haven't been able to find a free version to share here. If anyone has access to Highbeam you can view the article here. The relevant text reads:

A negotiator note: CBS reporter Geoff Morrell hit the L.A. premiere of the Kevin Spacey-Samuel L. Jackson film "The Negotiator" last week because . . . Morrell was in it.

To wit: Morrell not only got to walk down the red carpet, but he was stunned at his large-screen image as a WBBM-Channel 2 reporter.

Given the confines of the section headings in the current article I would suggest adding this information to the "Professional career" section so it fits in chronologically. Here is what I suggest:

While working as for WBBM-TV in Chicago, Morrell appeared in the 1998 movie The Negotiator playing himself as a news reporter.

• Done--Dkriegls (talk to me!) 00:35, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

Change of article name

Geoff Morrell is not commonly known or referred to as "Geoff S. Morrell", and it is likely that his middle initial was added to the title to differentiate it from the Geoff Morrell (actor) article. I'd like to suggest changing the title of this article to "Geoff Morrell (spokesperson)". This would remove the need for the "S." that is not commonly part of his name and would better explain the subject of the article. To help with this request, I will add a requested moves template below, also. In addition to moving the article, I suggest that the "S." can also be removed from his name in the introduction.

Thank you in advance for reviewing these suggestions. Again I'm looking to hear what others think of these potential changes. If you agree that these changes are appropriate I hope you will go ahead and make them. If you have any questions I'll be watching this talk page. Thanks. Arturo at BP (talk) 22:20, 10 September 2013 (UTC)

• Done--Dkriegls (talk to me!) 23:59, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Hi Dkriegls, thank you for your quick reply and help here. All the changes look good to me and I really appreciate you taking care of some of the other organization and sourcing issues with the article.

Regarding the added details about Geoff's role at BP, I have a small further request. Given that he has become well-known for this, too, in addition to his prior role at the Department of Defense, would you be willing to slightly alter the final sentence of the introduction to note that after he left that role in 2011 he joined BP? Would you also be able to update the Geoff Morrell disambiguation page with the new page name? Thanks. Arturo at BP (talk) 22:18, 18 September 2013 (UTC)

No problem. Done. Dkriegls (talk to me!) 03:29, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Thank you very much. I've closed the request edit tag at the top of this message. Arturo at BP (talk) 16:52, 26 September 2013 (UTC)

Several more suggestions for this article

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Hi. I have a few more requests to clean up and improve this article. Since this article is mostly about Geoff's career, I've broken these requests down by employer so they are easier to follow and locate in the article. While this might look like a lot, these are mostly minor updates and corrections. Here are my suggestions:

WSET

Geoff's employment at the WSET station is mentioned, however the location is listed as "Roanoke, Virginia", but it would be more accurate to say that he was a reporter in "Lynchburg-Roanoke, Virginia". This is supported by the source used and is how the location is listed in the WSET-TV article. Can this be corrected?

WBBM

This portion of the article states that Geoff left WBBM "when his contract expired", however the source does not say anything about his contract expiring and according to Geoff this is untrue. Can this be revised to say simply that he "left WBBM-TV in early 2000 and joined ABC News"?

ABC

I would like to suggest expanding the information about Geoff's time at ABC. I've found this American Journalism Review source that mentions that he was a White House television correspondent for 4 years while at ABC. Would it be possible to add this in?

Department of Defense

First, the introduction states that Geoff left the Department of Defense in June 2011, however he actually left the position in July. The source currently used to support this was published in June of 2011, which is how I believe this error was introduced, but if you read the source it says:

So I plan to relinquish my responsibilities on Thursday and will leave the Pentagon for good in July to focus on considering what comes next for me and my family.

Can this be corrected?

Second, if editors think it is appropriate to include, I think that it might add context to the article to note in the "Career" section that Geoff served two presidents during his time as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. In this Politico source it says:

He covered the White House for ABC News, then was Pentagon press secretary throughout the tenure of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, spanning two presidencies and consumed by two wars.

What do others think about including this?

Third, this section does not include any information about why Geoff left the Department of Defense, so the statement that he was replaced by George Little is without context. The U.S. Department of Defense source, already in use in the article, could be added as a citation to the section to note that Geoff left the Department of Defense when then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates retired. As part of the change of administration, he was succeeded by Little. What do others think of this?

BP

When Geoff first joined BP, in addition to being the head of U.S. communications he was also given the title of vice president. I was able to find this new source that includes this information. Can this be added in?

Lastly, Geoff was promoted to senior vice president in September of this year. This is supported by the source currently in use, could the month be added in since "2013" on its own is very broad?

Thanks for reviewing these suggestions. As with my request above these are all suggestions and I'm looking to hear what others think of these potential changes. Again, I won't make any edits to the article myself because I am BP's representative on Wikipedia. If you think these suggestions will improve the article I hope you will go ahead and make the updates. Thanks. Arturo at BP (talk) 16:56, 26 September 2013 (UTC)