eChaser: August 2012 / p3

How to Recover When the Media Get It Wrong

by Dave Simon

Before Sean Leonard left the Rangers-Yankees game April 25, he had become a celebrity. And not the good kind.

Leonard snagged a foul ball in front of a young boy, and as Leonard turned to hand it to his fiance, the boy began to cry. Cameras were rolling, and the video ignited social media fireworks. Leonard went home thinking nothing of the incident, but by early the next morning, national media were calling based on thousands of nasty tweets, shares and blog posts.

Announcers and others were trash-talking Leonard and his fiance for taunting the boy, whom they both say they never saw. Leonard went into damage control with Pilar Schank, who heads public relations for Southlake. She obtained the details, prepared talking points and had Leonard practice them. Then she responded to key reporters to distribute Leonard’s side of the story.

Leonard told the IABC Fort Worth meeting in June that he salvaged his reputation by responding quickly and honestly and by sharing his message, which was not the message flying about. Information moves faster every day, which affects storylines. Reporters grab quick angles and go with what they have. Sometimes incomplete and inaccurate information makes it into the public arena.

Takeaways from the meeting: Be prepared to share your story quickly and in full. Know what you want to say. Choose your words wisely.

— Dave Simon, author of “Bad Golf,” blogs at justwrite15.com.

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PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Allyson Cross, Greater Fort Worth PRSA

I hope you all enjoyed your PRSA vacation in July. Exciting events are planned for August. Don’t miss the early deadline for our on-the-road program at JPS Hospital on Wednesday, Aug. 8, at 11:30 a.m. Note that the program is FREE, so I hope to see many of you there. We will gather later this month — 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 23 — for a mixer at Winslow’s Wine Café. Watch for additional information in your e-mail.

Before we know it, year-end budgeting will be upon us. Perusing the PRSA national website, a few statistics stand out as you start to plan your 2013 projects. Let me share a few.

According to the University of Southern California Strategic Public Relations Center’s generally accepted practices study (dated fourth-quarter 2011), public corporations on average reported higher public relations/communications budgets than respondents did two years ago. And there’s this from private-equity firm Veronhis Suhler Stevenson:

• Total communications spending, including advertising and marketing, increased 4.2 percent in 2011 and is expected to grow 5.6 percent this year, outpacing GDP growth of 4.4 percent. The company predicted that total communications spending will grow 31 percent, or by $343 billion, to $1.4 trillion by 2015.

• Spending on traditional public relations services grew by 4.9 percent from 2005-10, to $3.7 billion.

• The average annual public relations budget in a publicly owned company is $9.9 million, and for a government agency $16.4 million.

Long story, short: Tthe economic outlook for public relations practitioners is generally positive. This is a great testament to the value placed in us by our organizations.

Remember to use the national website as a resource. If you have questions about other member benefits, please contact our membership VP, Chris Smith, at csmithcommunications@gmail.com.

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OVER & OUT

John Dycus, Fort Worth SPJ

This month’s updates to the Journalist’s Toolbox are online. There are new resources for those covering the ongoing drought in the U.S., and everyone can use some additional tips for dealing with coming events like the Democrat and Republican national conventions. The Toolbox is maintained by DePaul University professor Mike Reilley on behalf of SPJ. Keep up with his Twitter updates @journtoolbox/. ...

SPJ national has changed its election process to one member, one vote. In the past, chapter delegates elected officers and board members. Now all members can cast their own votes via an online system. The national board of directors will be elected during the Excellence in Journalism 2012 conference Sept. 20-22 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and candidate profiles are online for review. Check out SPJ’s Election Central for everything you need to know about the new process. ...

Thank recent BYU j-grad Whitney Evans, SPJ’s Pulliam/Kilgore freedom of information summer intern, for updating SPJ’s FOI blog, FOI FYI, on such topics as Illinois city council text messages ruled public; exemption caught in Connecticut; help for Ugandan media; Mexico and Norway, government transparency through technology; changing the FOI story through peer pressure; mayor fined in Arkansas; and FOI advocates object to proposed Department of Labor policy restricting press access. Visit spj.org/foi.asp for step-by-step instructions on a variety of FOI tasks, from understanding FOI laws to dealing with request rejections.

Caught my eye. Romney: Let’s cut teachers, firefighters, police. ... Commonwealth Fund report: Affordable Care Act now serving 6.6 million young Americans. ... Epic drought covers widest area since 1956. ... 15 military leaders call climate change national security threat. ... Scientists report greenhouse gas emissions reach ‘troubling milestone.’ ... Gallup: 57 percent of Chinese believe environmental protection should be their country’s top priority. ... U.S. immigration law drives entrepreneurs offshore. ... Why tar sands oil is the dirtiest oil on earth [video]. ... Rapidly growing arctic forests are releasing more CO2 than they absorb. ... Air Canada jet flies from Toronto to Mexico City using 50 percent cooking oil-derived biofuel. ... Special solar cells produce electricity from underwater sunlight. ... Sharp breaks solar record with 43.5 percent efficient photovoltaic cell. ... Two-faced solar cells boost yields up to 50 percent. ... Thousands of lives would have been saved if Obama had backed stronger smog standards. ... UCLA produces transparent solar cells that harness infrared light. ... Water supplement for bees is claimed to prevent colony collapse disorder.

Closing words: “There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” — Mahatma Gandhi, who also said, “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” ... “A real hangover is nothing to try out family remedies on. The only cure for a real hangover is death.” — Algonquin Round Table writer Robert Benchley ... “I spent the morning putting in a comma and the afternoon removing it.” — perfectionist Gustave Flaubert ... “Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.” — James Thurber ... “Any idiot can face a crisis. It’s day-to-day living that wears you out.” — Anton Chekhov ... “War is the unfolding of miscalculations.” — historian Barbara Tuchman

Closing words II, ”a choice, not an echo” division: “Today’s so-called ‘conservatives’ don’t even know what the word means. They think I’ve turned liberal because I believe a woman has a right to an abortion. That’s a decision that’s up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the religious right. It’s not a conservative issue at all.” (1994 Los Angeles Times interview) — Barry Goldwater, who also said that year, “Mark my word. If and when these preachers get control of the (Republican) party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me.”