Every political scandal, it seems, has a lesson or two on how to act—or not—during a crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The latest is courtesy of Rep. Anthony Weiner, a textbook example of how to completely botch a bad news situation. Here are the five lessons he teaches us about bad PR. None of them is new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. This one is at the top of the list because it’s the most important. Never, ever lie. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n At one news conference after another, Weiner kept altering his story, making it obvious that he way lying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Don’t criticize the media for simply doing their jobs. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n At a May 31 news conferences, he snapped and became downright combative with reporters. He called a TV producer a \u201cjackass.\u201d He told a woman reporter who kept asking him questions “the guy in the back of the room who’s throwing the pie.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Prepare talking points and stay on message<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oddly, Weiner conducted several media interviews but wasn’t prepared for any of them. Several times, he said he wouldn’t talk about the issue, but he kept on talking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. If you’re coming clean, dump all the bad news at the same time. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The rule goes like this: Tell it all, tell it first and tell it fast. Weiner let bad news drip out day by day, making the story gain momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. Take responsibility and show humility.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Weiner claimed “responsibility for my actions” but said—repeatedly and adamantly—that he would not resign because he didn’t do anything illegal. News shows are featuring angry Democrats and gleeful Republicans who are weighing in on whether they think Weiner should resign or whether New York’s congressional districts should be redrawn so that his district disappears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. Don’t make light of a serious situation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n At a June 1 press conference, Weiner said: “”I’m not sure I want to put national, federal resources into trying to figure out who posted a picture on Weiner’s website, uh, whatever. I’m not really sure it rises, no pun intended, to that level.” Later, he said that perhaps the alleged hacking of his Twitter account was just “the point of al-Qaida’s sword.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Learn more about how to respond in a crisis. Crisis counselor Jonathan Bernstein was my guest during a teleseminar on “How to Keep the Media Wolves at Bay” and explained how to deal with a variety of issues, from tape-recorded interviews to hostile reporters. Read more about what you’ll learn at https:\/\/www.publicityhound.com\/publicity-products\/marketing-tapes\/media_wolves_atbay.htm<\/p>\n\n\n\n 7. Don’t share lewd or stupid content online that you wouldn’t want your name attached to.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Almost everything online can be traced back to its origin. It’s amazing how many otherwise smart people don’t understand that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What other PR lessons did I miss?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every political scandal, it seems, has a lesson or two on how to act—or not—during a crisis. The latest is courtesy of Rep. Anthony Weiner, a textbook example of how to completely botch a bad news situation. Here are the five lessons he teaches us about bad PR. None of them is new. 1. This\u2026 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":1,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[168],"class_list":{"0":"post-8614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-public-relations","7":"tag-crisis-communications","8":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8614"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43185,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8614\/revisions\/43185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}