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There’s no doubt about it. When David Boies or Johnnie Cochran or Dan Webb goes on television to advocate a client’s cause, their vast audiences know exactly what role they’re playing. They’re lawyers representing their clients, period.
Not so with in-house counsel. When you speak for your client, you are perceived—quite understandably —as a member of the corporate management team. What you say, how you act, and the impression you create directly communicate the corporate character, no less so than if you were the CEO.
As such, media relations during a crisis is proportionately more burdensome for in-house counsel. And when the media in question is the all-seeing lens of a television camera, the stakes are higher, the game is tougher, and the skill requirements are more stringent.
Unfortunately, your chances of controlling the results are also much slimmer. Worse yet, there’s not all that much likelihood that you’ll be tapped by CNN or NBC or PBS to comment on a big win in court. There’s a much greater chance the networks will park outside your door when the story is bad.
Sometimes it’s best to hide, especially when anything more than “no comment” may undermine your litigation strategy or extend the life of the story and negatively affect the corporate reputation or undermine a product line. But you should also know the concomitant risk of a “no comment”: you risk at minimum a five-minute news segment featuring plaintiffs’ counsel and nobody else. More urgently, market studies show that you are almost certain to engender widespread —nearly universal—conclusions of guilt by viewers of the news (including stockholders and other journalists) than if you had made any statement.
Once television has decided something is newsworthy, it won’t go away. The key is to learn on-air tactics that minimize the damage and maximize your strategy.
1. Less is more. The first difference between electronic and print media interviews is the amount of information the reporter is willing to listen to and the amount of information that will get into the story. In most cases, print reporters have more time to put stories together, listen to interview subjects, and incorporate what they learn. With the electronic media, you may only have an opportunity to get three or four sentences out before you are cut off. Or, you may be mercilessly edited. So get your primary message point out first and quickly, then move to point two if you can.
2. Be prepared. An adaptable media crisis plan, including internal staff members and outside experts ready to swing into action, is a necessary prophylaxis if you hope to respond coherently and calmly as the cameras roll through your reception area. And no one is better prepared than you to insist on such prophylaxis. You have the CEO’s ear, and you should emphasize the legal as well as business risks the company incurs absent a policy that controls who speaks to the media and how core messages are to be developed.
There is a crucial window of opportunity at the beginning of most crises when reporters are still sorting out the good guys from the bad. The bad guys are usually perceived to be the ones taking longer to call the reporter back. Ongoing crises plans provide an invaluable head start on being the good guy, or at least a not-so-onerous bad guy.
3. Actively participate. If, as inhouse counsel, you are not the spokesperson (and most often, you should not be), you should still be an integral part of the media team. Your advice on the potential perils of any “message point” or strategy is absolutely necessary. But understand that sometimes the PR value of a particular strategy may outweigh the legal risk.
4. Say something. In those first few hectic moments, have someone return the producer’s phone call or meet the reporter or cameraperson. Tell them, “We want to respond to your request for an interview, but we want to make sure we get you the right answers from the right people. Please be patient, let me know your questions, give me a number where I can reach you, and we will call you back as soon as possible. What is your deadline?”
Politely ask them to leave the property unless you think there is a chance that you will very soon have something prepared to say. Request that, if they do stay on the property, they don’t talk to anyone until you come back out. Make it a win-win negotiation by promising more access to key people if they are cooperative.
5. You can negotiate. When negotiating for more time or to modify the story angle, understand that the vast majority of reporters want to report accurate facts. Even cynical journalists chose their profession in part because they believe that the truth is sacred. You can generally argue your side by urging that the story needs your input in order for it to be truthful and fair.
6. Speak in pictures. Al Gore lost the presidency the moment television news focused on pictures of hanging chads. If, in fact, the Gore team was right and African-American voters were prevented from voting, they needed a picture of this injustice. Instead, they lost in the first few days by letting television run absurd images of allegedly defective ballots. If you are going to go on television, you must have a better picture than the other guy.
7. Knowledge is power. Be aware of what kind of reporter you are dealing with. Learn when the reporter’s deadlines are, what newscast he or she is trying to make, and what other news might upstage your story angle. Find out whether you are dealing with a general assignment reporter or an investigative reporter who may be tougher and more knowledgeable.
8. Call the boss. If you feel you are not being treated fairly, or if you are being harassed, you can call an assignment editor or someone else further up the network’s food chain. But this is a last resort. Use all the negotiating techniques listed above before going over the reporter’s head and possibly making an enemy for life. Be frank with the newsperson looming in front of you: politely inform him or her—so that there are no surprises —that you are going to call the reporter’s office.
But make sure the warning is off the record, or you’ll hear yourself making it on the 6 o’clock news.
Richard S. Levick is president of Levick Strategic Communications. E-mail him at rlevick@levick.com. Larry Smith is Levick’s director of strategy.
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