[By Bruce Hennes, Managing Partner, Hennes Communications, and Keynote Speaker, American Public Power Association Legal & Regulatory Conference, 2016] It’s not just terrorist attacks, explosions, active shooters, and environmental disasters. More often than not, it’s going to be sexual misconduct, data theft, unfair labor practices, OSHA complaints, mergers & acquisitions, layoffs, accusations, or employee fraud […]
We’ve said it time and time again: Volkswagen doesn’t have a communications problem. They have a performance problem. The latest news from Germany compounds that. http://www.nytimes.com/…/inquiry-in-emissions-scandal-widen…
In the last issue of Crisis Management Today, we offered “The Basics of Saying ‘I’m Sorry’” with reference to Peter Sandman. You can find those basics below. But in this issue, we introduce another way of looking at apology, this time from Rabbi Richard Block, who writes: Genuine repentance has 3 basic components: recognizing and […]
From Poynter: Open microphones have often left politicians and other powerful people red-faced and apologetic. But The Washington Post’s decision Friday to publish a video of Donald Trump explaining how he kissed and groped women pushed some newsrooms to dance around the graphic language while others took it public unedited. Because Trump’s attitude toward women […]
Why are organizations punished in the Court of Public Opinion for violating ethical principles when they have not broken any law? Dr. Peter Sandman, a preeminent risk communications expert, says when an issue sparks outrage (and we see plenty of organizations pilloried in social media by outraged trolls every day), society becomes desperate to blame […]
From our friend and colleague, David Wolowitz… Recently, the responses of independent schools to reports of past abuse of students by faculty have received intense scrutiny by the news media, social media, survivors, victim’s lawyers and alumni. Why is this happening now? I believe we are in a period of cultural change in which there […]
On Monday morning, activist Wagatwe Wanjuki lit a Tufts University sweatshirt on fire, and broadcast it on Facebook Live. She did so in protest, calling on schools like Tufts to apologize for mishandling sexual assault cases. “If they care about ending rape on campus, if they care about justice, then they should be able to do […]
[By Scott Juba] Facebook is rolling out a test in Brazil and Canada of having an open camera window atop the News Feed in the Facebook app. When people in those countries open the Facebook app on their mobile device, they will see a prompt to use this new feature. Upon accepting it, their camera […]
The way an organization reacts in the first hours of a crisis will probably determine whether it succeeds or fails in regaining public trust. The way brand managers at Kellogg Co. recently esponded to the release of a video depicting a disgruntled employee should serve as a model for handling a PR crisis. When crisis […]
A colleague of ours, Don Etling, said it best: You can’t spin your way out of bad behavior. The Penn State situation exemplifies that. Joe Paterno & Co. knew that Jerry Sandusky was abusing children – and they looked the other way. They didn’t have a communications problem – they had a performance problem. Volkswagen is […]