I’ve been catching up on my Inside PR listening, given recent events, and was listening to episode #102 – dealing with the idea of going “off the record” with a reporter.  They used the recent Samantha Power incident where the former Barack Obama foreign policy advisor was quoted in The Scotsman newspaper calling Hillary Clinton “a monster” who would do anything to win.  

Ouch.  (And then she said “that’s off the record.”) 

The exact quote is:

“We fucked up in Ohio. In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio’s the only place they can win. She is a monster, too — that is off the record — she is stooping to anything”

She quickly tried to take back her statement by saying “oopsie, that’s off the record.” Off the record is one of those things that people are bandying about far too easily.  Reportees think that they can say what they want  and if something slips out just slyly wink at the reporter and say “that’s off the record, you know” and actually expect the reporter to honor that.

One of the Inside PR hosts, I can’t remember if it was Terry or Dave, asked if the reporter, Gerri Peev, should have resigned from The Scotsman instead of Samantha Power. 

Absolutely not.  

Power said “off the record” after stating her opinion.  Trying to hide behind that “I didn’t mean it, really – honest even!”   Clinton’s campaign demanded that Obama repudiate, or disagree with or deny, whatever the new terminology is these days, Power’s statement and Obama’s camp learned a hard lesson in media relations that day. (not that it matters much, because the wing of the electorate who are Obama-stars probably loved the quote, and cheered it on)  

They sent Power out to speak on behalf of the candidate, and apparently didn’t bother telling her (and she’s a former reporter, so she should know better) to presume that everything that is said in front of the reporter is fair game.  

It’s the first thing they need to teach people in political PR, or any kind of media relations – if a reporter hasn’t agreed to “off the record” before you sit down (not three minutes before either, I mean before they even show up) then you need to carefully measure your words. Because there’s no guarantee that once you meet the reporter they won’t say “sure it’s off the record” and then run the story again. 

Especially before and after the “interview,” these are two times that a lot of people think is safe – because the reporter has put his notebook up or is packing to leave.  Here’s a tidbit for you to think about – my best friend (my fiancee calls him my “bestest friend” since that sounds so third grade 😉 But I digress) worked as a reporter for five years, and he would keep a digital recorder in his pocket with his reporters notebook.  And before he met with someone he would turn it on, and keep it hidden under his notebook, out of view.  And he’d put it back in his pocket after the “interview” was over – problem was, it was still running.

“You didn’t say ‘X’ or ‘Y’? That’s funny, because I have it right here, and I’d swear that is your voice. Did you say that before, or after, this statement…”

Samantha Power got what she deserved, she made a statement off the cuff and expected the reporter to protect her. Even in the best of times, it’s the reporter’s discretion whether or not to allow you to go off the record.  In this case, as in most cases when I have helped media train people or worked with the press, it’s best to follow your mom’s advice.

“If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” (or at least stand behind what you say)

And for the statement that people will know to think twice before “trusting” the reporter with “off the record” information – good!  They should, they should always be thinking that.

Sorry Terry and Dave, I have to disagree with your sentiments on this one – “off the record” is not a shield.  It’s a gun you can shoot yourself in the foot with.

 

This was just in from the ABQ Tribune today. Albuquerque Journal Associate Sports Editor Mike Hall died from pneumonia today. Mike was 61 years old. Update: The Albuquerque Journal did a great article in Saturday’s paper as well.

Mike was a friend of mine. He hired me to work on the Journal sports desk over 10 years ago. Well, he didn’t as much “hire” me as let me work there part time (I was already working for the City Desk as a runner) during the week when they needed someone to answer phones.

Mike was still the sports editor at the time, before moving over and letting someone else take the helm of the sports desk. Mike then went on to cover Lobo Women’s Basketball. Mike was very dedicated to the women’s team. He worked hard to find the latest recruits that UNM was interested in and then would write features about them. This in turn helped the women’s program to recruit better players.

Mike was a great guy. I remember one time, when I was still playing rugby, I walked into the office one afternoon and Mike called me over to his desk. “I’m kinda concerned about you playing rugby,” he told me. He showed me an article about a New Zealand rugby player who was accused of sticking his hands up players… well you get the idea. “Is this what rugby is like?” he asked with a grin before we moved on to getting ready for that day’s work.

When Mike was around there was always something smart-assy that would come out of his mouth. Never in a malicious way, but in a light-hearted tone that would bring out the best in you for a response.

However, Mike was a pretty serious smoker. I don’t know how much he smoked, but he was often was seen outside indulging in a smoke break. Then before I left the Journal he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He took some time off to fight it and slowly started to come back to work as he was getting better. Then after I left the Journal he got sick again and, from what I had heard he had to be placed in a coma for a few weeks to try and fight it off.

Mike, you were greatly loved and you will be missed. Now the big paper up there has someone to cover the women’s beat.

Ah, but I wrote “amigos” in the headline…

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Mom told me there would be weeks like this.

Last week went very well at the firm. One client of ours, actually we were a subcontract from another huge PR firm (one of the largest in the world) for an event going on in New Mexico. On Tuesday my job was to essentially be the navigator for ABQ for the VP of a large oil company, an economist and lobbyist from the same company and a VP for the PR firm that hired us.

In a nutshell, the event went off without many hitches (the main one being the oil people being asked if they were in VP Cheney’s “secret” energy meetings) and at the end of the day the VP from the uber-important, around the world PR firm handed me his card and said “It was great working with you. Keep in touch with me and let me know how things are going.”

That was great! I had mentioned to him my interest in eventually working for a multinational PR firm like his. So after a year or so at my current firm, I might just send my resume out his way.

More to come in next post…

It looks like my post didn’t get through earlier today.  We had a visitor at the office.  His name was Nixon, and he was an English Pointer dog without a collar that was running loose in the parking garage.  A couple of coworkers saw him in the complex when they drove up and they asked me to help wrangle him and bring him up to the office, because there was a good chance that he would get hit in the complex.

So my coworker Brie and I went down to get him.  Which turned out to be a piece of cake because he came right up to us and let us lead him into the building and up the elevator to the office.  Then the “awwwww-fest” began!

Everyone who saw him loved him and thought he was so cute!  He needed a little food and water so he got some then hung out around the office, took a nap while we tried to figure out what to do with him.  A couple of coworkers wanted to keep him, but it was decided to make some flyers and put them up during lunch.

After he took a nap Laine and I took him outside to go to the bathroom.  He didn’t do anything except trot around, but when we started taking him back to the office we suddenly heard “Oh my god that’s my dog!”

A woman came running over from the parking complex across the street from us (a different parking structure) and started hugging the dog and kinda crying and thanking us.  Apparently he’d gotten out of her house last night and she had cried and cried and tried to find him to no avail.  Plus she worked at the next building over!
We were happy to see Nixon’s owner find him and she was so happy it brought a tear to my eye, when my dog escaped a couple months back she was only gone for an hour or so and I was scared and almost crying too.  I think we got some good Karma points for helping him out and reuniting him with his owner.

Although a little later Laine asked me why, if we got Karma points, did she feel so sad?  I know what she means.

A continuing talk that has been going on sporadically at the office has been about what value we, as PR and advertising professionals, bring to a company or organization.

The crux of the discussion is that we don’t create anything “tangible”.  Working in public relations we get press for clients (but we don’t write the press), we can represent clients in a crisis, we can give our clients ideas to get their idea a target audience (whether it’s the press, or an internal audience, etc) or we can work as a campaign press secretary, among a number of other things we can do.

But in the end we don’t create anything physical.  We don’t add to a company’s bottom line, if you look at the numbers on an excel spreadsheet. How do you link a PR campaign to any additional sales for a company?  There’s just as much of a chance that the product was suddenly “loved”, or that word-of-mouth or better design is the culprit.
(at least that’s what they teach us in PR school)
My take?

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Flack – A press agent; a publicist. (www.dictionary.com) (as they are usually called around a newsroom. Actually that’s probably one of the nicer things public relations peeps are called)

Flack – Someone whose job is to represent an organization and answer questions about it, especially when something bad has happened. (www.urbandictionary.com)

Why be a flack?

Or as my father called it, “A paid bullshit artist”.

Because despite all of the digs, and the fact that people don’t know what it is I do (heck, I know what I do for a living, but I have a hard time explaining it. How much “value” do I add to a client’s business? I work hard, come up with strategic plans and put together ads and work on media relations. But what do I add to a company? I’ll have to ponder that and get back to you…)

If I get the chance to work on a political campaign, then I’ll let you know what I can add to a campaign!