Don't Say Dumb Things - Know When to Stop Talking and Leave the Room
The Mayor of East Haven, Connecticut, recently gave a media interview responding to allegations that his police force regularly used excessive force against the city's Latino residents. The story already had a national profile as the FBI had been called in to investigate. When asked by a reporter what he was doing for the Latino population of his city, Mayor Joseph Maturo said that he "might have tacos." You can watch the full interview here. Warning: It's a very uncomfortable four minutes of watching someone dig himself into an ever-deepening hole. You can see the mayor twist and weave trying to get back on message, but he was never able to recover.
This entire interview violated several of the major precepts for giving media interviews:
- Be prepared – Know your message, don't stray from that message and practice Q&As.
- Don't say dumb things to reporters, even in jest, on or off camera (assume the camera/microphone is always on).
- Recognize that you have said something dumb and immediately apologize.
- Stop talking after you have said dumb things.
- Never give a media interview alone. Have a press officer with you; someone who can (and should) physically drag you out of the room if you insist on digging yourself deeper.
If you're in need of media training, please email toleary@obriensrm.com, and we can discuss your training requirements.
M/V Costa Concordia
The Costa Concordia grounding continues to rivet the attention of a global audience. I won't comment on the cause of the tragedy, but suffice to say that this incident serves to illustrate just how quickly things can go very wrong at sea. There are many more questions than answers regarding the grounding at this time, but two things come to mind as salvage efforts begin.
The first is a point that many commentators and the media have seemed to gloss over and needs to be recognized: the fact that 4,200 crew and passengers were safely evacuated. As of this writing, 17 passengers are confirmed dead with another 16 still missing. 4,200 people safely getting ashore from a sinking ship in the dark is a testimony to the training and professionalism of the crew and the organization, regardless of the alleged actions of the ship's master.
The second point is that business and government leaders should recognize that many disasters and crisis events by their very nature offer little or no warning that they are about to happen. Of course, an examination of the facts post-incident often makes the cause self-evident and something that people should have seen coming. However, in the immediate aftermath of an incident, things are not so clear except for the need to react to the crisis. One thing organizations can do to help mitigate the impact of a crisis is to develop a crisis management plan and then exercise that plan. Without a plan, you're in danger of floundering about and will delay your return to normal business operations.
O'Brien's has crisis management experts who can help you achieve maximum resilience in the event a disaster unexpectedly strikes your organization. We can help you prepare a plan if you don't have one, or conduct a "gap analysis" of your current plan. Interested to learn more on how to prepare? Send an email to media@orbriensrm.com.
Are You Ready for the Drones and Satellites?
The technology for sending surveillance cameras aloft used to be restricted to nations. Now, as we have seen in a recent example from Canada, school children have sent a video camera aloft 24 km to the edge of space and recovered the camera! Their recent Lego Man in Space video has gone viral globally. This old technology of using a weather balloon to carry a camera aloft is rather quaint compared to the recent profusion of inexpensive sophisticated Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and even access to satellites now available to military and police forces, scientists, students, media outlets and wildlife and environmental activists.
The ability of news organizations, environmental non-governmental organizations (E-NGOs) and private citizens to gather aerial images is unprecedented. This new capability calls for businesses and governments that previously considered their crime scenes/incident sites/hot zones/inside their fence lines “off limits,” to now take this capability into their planning. In addition, organizations must consider how this data may be used. A recent trend has been observed where NGOs have used satellite images to estimate and report the size of an oil spill (albeit not very accurately).
This brings to mind several questions.
- Can you request the authorities to restrict air space to deny access over your property or an incident?
- Does a UAV flying at 10,000 feet over your installation trespass on your property? How about flying at 5,000 feet or 500 feet?
- Can you stop UAVs from taking air samples over your property?
- Can you stop an organization from streaming live video or posting photos of an incident or your property onto a website?
- Do you have your own source of reliable data with which to refute misinformation, such as oil spill quantity calculation and sampling?
- Are you prepared for questions related to this topic?
If you would like to share with other readers how you may have faced similar issues and how you addressed them, please contact me at toleary@obriensrm.com.
Links of Interest
Costa Concordia dilemma: salvage, cut, or sink? - chicagotribune.com
Thwarted on US oil pipeline, Canada looks to China
Hostages freed from pirates face debriefing
Navy wants commando 'mothership' in Middle East
Brazil Oil Spills: Beach Slick Cleaned Up As Another River Leak Is Detected
Oil spill contained on Sumas Mtn.
How the cruise ship industry sails under the radar
Workers urge need for safety in refinery industry
Cruise disaster could have larger lessons
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