Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Some Thoughts on The PR of The Coal Mine Tragedy
All of our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the miners who died, as well as the sole survivor.
The ordeal of this situation brings up, what I think, is a critical issue of Public Relations. I have a degree in Journalism (whether it shows in my writing or not is another issue) and one thing, among many, that I was taught in PR is, in situations like this tragedy, you tell the truth. Always.
Although it is early to start pointing fingers, and there is conflicting information, it appears that the mining company spokesmen, likely and deliberately, disseminated incorrect or misleading information that all miners were alive, giving false hope to the family and friends. This inexcusable handling of public relations is unforgivable.
You always want to err on the side of caution when something like this happens. If you are in charge of PR when a disaster like this happens, and you don't know something, or you don't have accurate information and you are uncertain of the facts, you do not speculate on what you do not know or what you are unable to confirm. You do not spread false hope. Again, you err on the side of caution.
This is nothing more than simple, common sense. And any corporation that doesn't put someone in charge of PR who knows this, who practices it, puts themselves at risk of credibility as well as lawsuits.
It's okay, as a PR person or spokesman, to say, "We don't know." It is perfectly acceptable to say, "We don't have all the details and we're not going to speculate on incomplete information."
You tell the truth. You do not speculate. You do not give out false hope. How difficult is this to do?
©2006
The ordeal of this situation brings up, what I think, is a critical issue of Public Relations. I have a degree in Journalism (whether it shows in my writing or not is another issue) and one thing, among many, that I was taught in PR is, in situations like this tragedy, you tell the truth. Always.
Although it is early to start pointing fingers, and there is conflicting information, it appears that the mining company spokesmen, likely and deliberately, disseminated incorrect or misleading information that all miners were alive, giving false hope to the family and friends. This inexcusable handling of public relations is unforgivable.
You always want to err on the side of caution when something like this happens. If you are in charge of PR when a disaster like this happens, and you don't know something, or you don't have accurate information and you are uncertain of the facts, you do not speculate on what you do not know or what you are unable to confirm. You do not spread false hope. Again, you err on the side of caution.
This is nothing more than simple, common sense. And any corporation that doesn't put someone in charge of PR who knows this, who practices it, puts themselves at risk of credibility as well as lawsuits.
It's okay, as a PR person or spokesman, to say, "We don't know." It is perfectly acceptable to say, "We don't have all the details and we're not going to speculate on incomplete information."
You tell the truth. You do not speculate. You do not give out false hope. How difficult is this to do?
©2006
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