If you are the person who has the responsibility of monitoring your brand’s reputation one of your greatest fears is that your CEO will be “found out”. Ask the folks at Yahoo today how it feels to put out the reputation firestorm that has been ignited by Scott Thompson’s “little white lie”.

Now the folks at AT&T look like they may have a cringe-worthy moment as their CEO, Randall Stephenson, is telling folks that when their Android device doesn’t update it’s not AT&T’s fault, it’s Google’s. The following comes from 9 to 5 Google reporting on Stephenson talking at a wireless conference

Stephenson blamed Google, claiming, “Google determines what platform gets the newest releases and when. A lot of times, that’s a negotiated arrangement and that’s something we work at hard. We know that’s important to our customers. That’s kind of an ambiguous answer because I can’t give you a direct answer in this setting.”

Spirit Airlines is in the midst of what could only be described as a reputation dumpster fire.

Here is the quick back story. A Vietnam war veteran, Jerry Meekins, purchased a ticket on the airline to go to Florida to help his daughter out after a surgical procedure she was having. He purchased the ticket to make the trip. Mr. Meekins has battled esophageal cancer for two years (he is 76 years old). In between the time he purchased the ticket and the actual flight date he was told by his doctors that the cancer was now terminal and that he should not fly.

As much as we might hate to admit it, it is important for the social media industry to police itself on many levels and not just allow stupid social media tricks to go by unexamined, or unpunished, depending on your mood.

The latest to grace the Social Media Hall of Shame is KFC Thailand. According to an AP story the folks running the Facebook page for this group thought it was a prudent move to try to sell some chicken as people were dealing with the earthquake and the fears of a possible tsunami this past Wednesday:

KFC Thailand has apologized for posting a Facebook message that urged people to rush home during Wednesday’s tsunami scare and order a bucket of KFC chicken.

ABC just launched a new comedy series titled Don’t Trust the B– in Apartment 23. Even without the missing letters, it’s pretty clear to all of use what the “B” represents, especially after you’ve seen two minutes of the show.

Standards being what they are, ABC can’t write in those extra letters and it’s probably just as well. Written out, the title would be very harsh, but with the mysterious “B–”, it’s quirky and cute.

According to CNN, the show’s cast didn’t believe it at first and then they got totally behind the title.

Says star Krysten Ritter,

“If I say ‘Don’t Trust the B– in Apartment 23.’ If it’s ‘Apartment 23,’ I have to explain way more. It makes my life so much easier!”