From the East Valley Tribune:

A Texas public relations blog lists Arizona State University President Michael Crow’s response to Playboy magazine’s party school ranking as “one of the worst spins of 2005.”

The year’s “Top 10 Worst Spins” was published Wednesday on the blog Media Orchard, a Web commentary run by the Dallas firm Idea Grove. Crow was 10th on the list of worst spins, which was led by former Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown, who had resigned amid outrage over his lax response to Hurricane Katrina. Ford Motor Co. was second on the list for its decision — which it later rescinded — to pull advertisements from gay publications, the blogger wrote.

The blogger criticized Crow for his response to Playboy’s recent declaration that ASU is one of the nation’s top party schools. Crow said the adult magazine’s characterization of the university had little to do with the type of institution it truly is. “Michael doth protest too much, wethinks,” opined the blogger, who signed the commentary with the initials “SB.”

The blog’s criticism of Crow came just weeks after the university leader started his own Web commentary on ASU’s site — one of the first blogs written by a college leader.

Crow said Thursday he stands by his comments that Playboy’s ratings are “not valid in a survey sense.”

“We are a great place to learn and have fun,” Crow said.

Idea Grove blogger and owner Scott Baradell of Dallas said the goal of the rating was to critique bad public relations moves. He said Crow should have responded to concerns about Playboy’s distinction with a different spin. ASU should “focus on the positive (attributes) and not worry about whether they’re on the Playboy list or not,” Baradell said.

Oh — and the mysterious “SB” is Scott Baradell, if there was a question.

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