Posted on March 12th, 2008
The sad, shameful and sudden fall of Eliot Spitzer is grist for so many mills that it will defy the 24 hour news cycle; the commentariat will grind away on the private and public agony of the disgraced crusader longer than your average scandal. It is just so rich with irony, so inexplicable, so salacious and the humiliation of the man so profound that it is simply irresistible.
The agony, of course, is not Eliot Spitzer’s alone. There, by his side, through two short but certainly excruciating public statements, stood his wife, Silda Wall Spitzer. The chorus of disbelief heard immediately. Most incredulous were other women. Why? Why would this accomplished, intelligent woman stand by a man who had plunged her into the misery of his indiscretions? Conjecture and comment from the talking heads and knowing but typically anonymous quotes from sources supposedly close toMs.Wall Spitzer are the hottest sidebar to the scandal story. (more…)
Posted on February 20th, 2008
Major League pitcher Roger Clemens invested more than four hours of his time before a Congressional Committee denying the use of performance enhancing drugs. About a week later, his former teammate and friend Andy Pettitte spent less than an hour talking to the media about his admitted use of Human Growth Hormone (HGH). When you do the math, Pettitte got a much better return on his investment of time and effort.
Both Pettitte and Clemens were among the 89 current and former Major League baseball players named in the Mitchell Report as users of steroids and HGH. Former U.S. Senator George Mitchell took 20 months to investigate the use of illegal drugs in America’s pastime. For the most part, players like Clemens and Pettitte did not meet with Mitchell or answer questions for the report. In the case of Clemens and Pettitte, their former trainer Brian McNamee was the source for much of the reports very damning information that the two elite pitchers, one a sure Hall of Famer, had used performance enhancing drugs.
In the court of public opinion you are judged by your deeds (or alleged deeds). This is balanced by something else that is often difficult to measure: your bank of good will. Using the controversy surrounding the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports is a very good way to explain this concept. Let’s start with Barry Bonds. (more…)
Posted on September 28th, 2007
You know the story. The Idaho Senator pled guilty to charges stemming from a sex sting operation in an airport men’s room. The lid stayed on that story for a couple months until the news was broken by a guy who spends his time outing public figures he believes are closeted gays.Once the news broke, Senator Craig declared it was all a big mistake. He was not soliciting sex in the Minneapolis airport; he pled guilty because, he has said through his attorney, he was panicked about an investigation being conducted by his home state’s leading newspaper alleging that he is…gay.
His choices, it is safe to assume, are equally unpalatable. Wage a legal battle to clear your name and fight to keep your Senate seat while the 24 hour news cycle broadcasts and publishes and blogs endlessly the lurid details of your men’s room arrest. Or, go quietly. Go home to Idaho. Home to private life and let the salacious matter fade from the front page but live with the knowledge that everyone believes you did solicit sex from an undercover cop.
Which choice are you going to make, Senator Craig? Which choice do your family and friends and staff want you to make? There must be intense debate. Should you fight to clear your name, save your political career and hold onto your Senate seat?
Meanwhile, the conventional wisdom is you’re doomed. Your political career is over. You can’t remain in the Senate.
Is that Senator Craig’s real goal? What is the outcome he really wants or believes he can achieve? (more…)
Posted on August 27th, 2007
Atlanta Falcon quarterback Michael Vick says he’s sorry. He’s sorry he lied to National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell. He’s sorry he deceived Falcon team owner Arthur Blank. He’s sorry he let down his teammates, fans and even kids who might view him as a role model. And he’s sorry he used bad judgment. All of these sentiments were expressed in a four and one-half minute news conference on the day Vick formally plead guilty in federal court to his role in a well publicized dog-fighting scandal. He did not take questions from reporters.
While most executives and business owners may rightly feel they will never be accused of anything as heinous as the crimes Michael Vick has pleaded guilty to, the Vick case does offer lessons to businesses and executives who find themselves guilty of poor behavior. Michael Vick the brand has been badly if not fatally broken. Michael Vick the business consists of a 10 year contract with the Falcons for $130-million. He also had millions in other endorsements including a deal with Nike that has since been nixed. A lot of businesses would love to have that sort of earning power. Michael Vick, like any business with a damaged reputation, must take some very carefully considered steps in order to recover even a portion of past glory. (more…)
Posted on August 7th, 2007
What a performance it was!
Destined to become must-see-viewing in every crisis communication consultant’s training seminar.
Bob Murray is the owner-operator of the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah where six miners have been trapped 1500 feet underground since the mine collapsed before dawn on Monday morning.
Murray violated every canon of crisis communications during a televised news conference Tuesday morning. In the course of the extended appearance on live national television Murray:
· Spent precious little time expressing concern for the trapped miners and their families.
· Spent comparatively little time explaining what was being done to reach the trapped miners.
· Devoted most of the news conference to arguing the disaster was the result of an earthquake, not a collapse of the mine itself.
· In the process of making his argument for earthquake versus structural failure of the mine, Murray contradicted scientists from the University of Utah and the National Earthquake Information Center who have suggested that seismograph readings registered at the moment of the collapse are more consistent with the failure of a mine than an earthquake that caused a mine collapse.
· Murray attacked the former head of the U.S. Mine Safety Administration, Davitt McAteer and another former federal mine safety official, Tony Oppegard, calling them “lackeys for the United Mine Workers” union.
· And Murray criticized the news media, singling out and the morning news on the Fox network and Seth Borenstein, a reporter for the Associated Press, for quoting the likes of McAteer and Oppegard who raised questions about mining practices at the Crandall Canyon Mine.
(more…)
Posted on July 16th, 2007
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey has built a remarkable business. My jaw still drops every time I walk in to a Whole Foods store. That’s one reason a seemingly customer-oriented, cool, together business like Whole Foods disappoints me when I hear their CEO completely lacking in common sense. Mackey’s anonymous participation in a Yahoo stock-market forum talking-up Whole Foods performance while trashing rival Wild Oats is a bit nutty. The tricky part for public relations professionals who represent Mackey and Whole Foods is how you defend this, at minimum, unethical behavior.
The SEC, FTC and a horde of lawyers will do what they have to do in determining if Mackey’s behavior was illegal. Legal or not, the result of “Rahodeb’s” postings on the Yahoo site is a loss of corporate reputation, the certain death of the proposed merger with Wild Oats and at some point it could mean Whole Foods says “bye bye” to its founder and CEO. (more…)
Posted on July 6th, 2007
If you watched Al Gore’s interview with Meredith Vieira on the Today Show the morning after his son was arrested on drug charges, you might have thought his greatest dread was the inevitable question about his son’s arrest.
I doubt it.
The former vice president had a good, dismissive response ready:
“We are dealing with this as a private family matter.”
It must have been painful to address his son’s arrest, but I suspect Mr. Gore was more concerned about keeping the interview focused on what he wanted to talk about; global climate change and the Live Earth benefit concerts scheduled for the upcoming weekend. (more…)
Posted on June 30th, 2007
The behavior of the media is being hotly debated in Colorado since the tragic death of former Denver City Attorney and one-time Denver District Court Judge Larry Manzanares. The 50-year old lawyer took his own life June 22nd just hours after appearing in court on charges of stealing a government-owned laptop computer. Some of the Judge’s family and friends say the local media “sensationalized” the events leading up to his death. And perhaps somehow media coverage contributed to his decision to take his own life. What occurred here is a classic case of a media storm gaining strength to the point that the center of that storm, Larry Manzanares lost control. Unfortunately here the final outcome was the tragic death of a respected community member.
This sad episode followed a series of events that started in February of 2007 with the first reports of the theft of the computer. Tracking software led investigators to the former judge’s home where they discovered the missing computer. Manzanares claimed the he bought the computer from a stranger in a city parking lot. He resigned as City Attorney after the allegations were brought to light. (more…)
