Tony Jaques is an experienced and expert issue and crisis manager. Today Tony sent me a link to a discussion piece on the above topic, written by Steven Spenser (Principal, Praxis Communication, Seattle). [You may have to join Linked In to view it.]
After killing the ‘no comment’ option (we all know it doesn’t work), Spenser raised several possibilities, including two or three along the lines of ‘call my office and make an appointment’ and ‘send me a list of questions.’
In the past six months or so I’ve conducted emergency interview request simulations relating to personal, political and corporate scenarios with hundreds of actual and potential media interviewees. The working radio and TV news reporters and presenters who assist me in training are always ready to offer their advice about what works and why.
While precise contexts vary, we consistently find:
- The media often arrive at a possible news event before emergency services.
- Unless you are in the role of ‘person on the street’ (i.e. disinterested bystander), an off the cuff remark will almost always be less effective and helpful than a statement informed by even brief preparation.
- Whether you gain only five minutes, an hour or a day to prep your response, or whether you eventually decide not to comment at all, the safest and most professional thing to say, is: “I can’t speak with you right now. When do you need one of us [or someone] to get back to you?”
- Such a response requires only polite confidence, promises nothing accept that ‘someone’ will respond in a timely way (of course you have to honour this)–and it gives you necessary information: the media deadline.
- Journalists almost always recognise this action as reasonable in the circumstances. It respects everybody’s professionalism, even when the media have to get something in the can and get out of there.
Nearly every week someone in a corporation, a political party, a social organisation, a sporting club falls victim to misplaced confidence and lack of media knowledge leading them to poorly handle ambush and emergency interview requests. So often, such failure is unnecessary.
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