Crisis Communications - Why Murdoch and others fail

To recap for the folks who haven't heard (which I assume is no one), Rupert Murdoch, media mogul (CEO of News Corp and properties such as Fox News), is under fire for phone hacking that his UK-tabloid property News of the World engaged in.

If you want to know more google any of the 3.2 billion stories on this.

On the PR front, Murdoch has hired Edelman to help manage the crisis.  Murdoch has released an apology in many of his newspaper outlets, apologized to some of the victims face-to-face and today appeared in front of a parliamentary committee.  To top it off, apparently Murdoch got attacked from someone at the hearing who threw a plate of some sort at him (paper or tin, I don't know, but Murdoch wasn't hurt)

Here are six highlight videos of Murdoch's meeting with parliament (curteousy of the Daily Beast):

















So the interesting question in all this is why do these guys always miss the boat on crisis PR? Whether it's Murdoch, or BP, or Anthony Weiner, or Bill Clinton, or dozens of other examples - these folks always seem to be three steps behind what any crisis communications plan would dictate.

The reason, if you ask me, is four-fold and quite simple.

The first is: no one has a serious crisis communications (CC) plan. Ok PR folks, turn away from that statement in disgust, but it's true. At very best there's some document that someone wrote when they had some downtime five years ago that outlines response procedures to typical crisis events (of which 99.99 per cent of them will never happen).

I'm pretty sure Weiner's PR person didn't have a sub-section to their crisis communications plan that included 'Procedures to follow if congressman is caught sending pictures of his ding dong over Twitter'.

So let's not fool ourselves that good CC plans are common, because they aren't.

The second is: Lawyers. It's very difficult to create a CC plan that has relevance in the real world because 99 per cent of the time the moment a crisis breaks the lawyers jump in and run the show. So unless you've created your CC plan in conjunction with your legal team (many of whom likely don't believe in CC planning - after all, they ARE the CC plan in their mind - and the #1 rule of their plan is 'say nothing!' to cover your butt legally), odds are you have some plan that says a lot but has little real-world value.

You'll notice that until Edelman stepped in Murdoch and company were dead silent about this crisis. Why? Because the legal team was running the show (I'm guessing). It was only when it became apparent this was a fire that was going to keep burning that PR took over.

The third is: You can't plan for secrets. Here's the thing, everyone knows the J&J Tylonel crisis as the model for good CC response (read the following good article about it if you are interested). The thing with quick product recalls is that the decision is fairly binary - either you do it or you don't. The problem with a non-product crisis, or a product crisis that you can't recall (like the BP oil spill for instance), is that they often are the result of at best incompetent, often immoral, and at worst criminal, behavior.

As such, there's no way for those involved to come off as looking 'responsible' even if they do the responsible thing! With the Tylonel crisis, J&J actually came off as heroes, putting the safety of their customers over profits - they became identified as a company with a moral compass.

But how do you manage immoral or criminal behavior - how do you plan for that? Do you think any PR person out there would have the balls to go up to Murdoch and say "Mr. M, I'd just like to go through a list of immoral and/or criminal behaviors which IF you or your executives were ever caught engaging in, we could discuss crisis response options for."

So the point is CC is limited in its effectiveness in the sense that the REAL potential crisis issues are almost always the very same issues that no one wants to talk about and which everyone shuns as being utterly unrealistic and a waste of time addressing given they will never occur. Not to mention if they are occurring, then people REALLY don't want to have a 'think tank' discussion about all the bad things that could happen.

So PR teams are often taken totally off-guard and completely unprepared for a crisis because there is usually very little buy-in for discussion of CC planning prior to. Even BP's crisis plan was a total joke (and that's a situation where one has to ask how could you NOT plan for a crisis when you are deep-sea drilling? The odds of a crisis are higher than in any other industry).

Point is, no one wants to discuss REAL doomsday scenarios in any serious way.And the companies who are open to such discussions, are likely companies that will never find themselves in a crisis (because if they are doing due diligence down to the CC planning level, odds are they have built their business around safeguards to avoid crisis scenarios).

The fourth is: Human nature is to say 'It wasn't me!". Or put differently, the natural tendency for people during a crisis is to jump instantly in to the blame game. Even Murdoch, appearing before parliament, was adamant that he is not responsible. Even with Edelman advising him, the one thing he will not do is say he is responsible.

By the way, he should have said that he IS responsible (that's what being a CEO/Chairman/Owner means) and then clarified afterwards that while he is responsible (because it happened on his watch) he was not aware of what was going on.

Saying he isn't responsible is like a parent saying "It's not my fault my kid was doing drugs when I wasn't home." Yes, technically it's not your fault in that you didn't tell them to do the drugs, but you are the parent, and they are your responsibility.

We saw the same thing happen with BP. Even

Anthony Weiner, ultimately, even when taking responsibility also, at the same time, shrugged off responsibility by saying he was going to therapy to figure out why he did this (implying, it's not his fault, but give him some time with a shrink and he'll figure out whose fault it is - maybe his over-religious family upbringing caused it).

Point is, the type of people who would handle a crisis well (which we'll discuss in a second) are often times people who never find themselves in a crisis. So no matter what CC plan you come up with, if your spokesperson is someone that wants to play the blame game, there's not a lot you can do.

So those four reasons are why you constantly see people reacting to crisis scenarios in a very poor manner.And why, despite all we know about how to handle a crisis, people rarely do the right thing until they are so covered in mud that they finally decide - heck, why not, may as well try what my PR folks are suggesting now.

So how should you respond? 

The irony to CC is that all the real work is more on the logistics side. Who will take incoming media calls. What tactics will be implemented (ie. press conferences, web videos, etc.). Outlining all the tasks everyone will be responsible for should a crisis hit.

The actual 'strategy' to a crisis is about as simple as can be - HONESTY and ACCOUNTABILITY.

That's it. It's not complicated.

You step up and tell the truth immediately. If you've caused damages and you know the price tag, you get the money flowing immediately. If you've hurt people, you pay for them to get the best care, immediately.

It's simple (which ironically is why it's so hard to plan for and execute) and it works. And you know why it works? Because there are hundreds of examples of companies and people who act like idiots when a crisis hits. The public is shocked when someone comes out and actually takes responsibility and is honest. It's such a shock that unless you did some truly horrendous thing, they begin to appreciate you for your honesty and begin to feel the beginnings of forgiveness towards you.

Saying 'sorry' doesn't mean anything. Saying sorry and proving you actually are - through honesty and accountability - is everything. 

On a lighter note...

The best scene in a movie ever, when it comes to CC, is Jim Carey in the movie Fun with Dick and Jane. While it's funny, it is not that far off from the reality when it comes to CC planning.