In the private business world, PR professionals aren't always permitted by senior-level executives to be as open as they may want when a press query comes in. Yet PR execs in the government, legal and healthcare arenas face even tighter communication constraints.
For PR execs who fit into that latter category, being exacting with the news media about what you will discuss with them and being able to explain your media guidelines are two of the often-neglected yet dire challenges of a sound media relations program. It's often the case that reporters will go around the PR or public affairs department to find what they need to write a story. Take, for example, the hostage situation at the American Embassy in Iran in 1979.
"We never gave the media their names even though we discussed the case on a daily basis," recalled U.S. State Department Press Officer Phyllis Young. "The press found out who these people were through other avenues but we never formally released a list with the names."
Though far from the media spotlight today, the hostage crisis and the PR response to it still offer a convincing glimpse at just how much spokespeople who work for the federal agencies are bound by a litany of policies, including the Federal Privacy Act. That act provides clear boundaries for what the seven current State Department press officers can and can't tell the media.
"For instance, if an American citizen has been arrested overseas and a journalist calls us about that, we can't confirm or discuss it," Young said.
Why? Because the privacy act precludes State Dept. spokespeople from identifying an alleged offender by name without that person's permission. But there is, however, one important loophole that changes that PR terrain: When a diplomat or State Dept. employee dies in a plane crash, for instance, the privacy act doesn't apply since it is meant to protect living U.S. dignitaries.
"I believe virtually all journalists understand this and generally most don't come back to us and make demands," Young mused. "We don't have the opportunity to second-guess whether we want to turn over that information. We simply can't do it."
The communication restrictions placed on these State Dept. spokespeople are so much a part of their daily professional lives that the policy has become rote and part of the protocol journalists expect. "We don't have strict media guidelines in writing," Young added. "But we know what policies we're bound by because we're always answering questions and our press officers all have considerable experience in other areas of the State Department and aren't novices."
Between the press releases they issue and the media calls they field, State Dept. press officers handle about 150 media issues a week. Most of the issues about which these spokespeople can speak are akin to what cops turn over to journalists on a regular basis: the particulars, such as the location and time, of an incident or tragedy.
Stay Away From 'No Comment'
"A 'no comment' always has the connotation that we know something we're not going to tell you," Young said.
Likewise, Jennifer Farina, a press secretary with the New York State Attorney General's Office (with branches in Albany and New York City) avoids "no-comment" statements but also is limited by how much she can reveal to a reporter.
For Farina, what she can discuss is set out in Freedom of Information laws which define what constitutes public information.
For example, Farina can discuss official charges that have been levied against an adult by the attorney general but she can't, for instance, discuss what transpires during grand jury proceedings; provide insight into a pending criminal investigation; or turn over a sealed indictment.
"We have fairly cooperative relationships with most of the journalists we work with and we realize that there is information the public has a right to have access to and we respect that," Farina said.
Playing by Hospital Rules
The phrase, "patient confidentiality," is tossed around so much by hospital communicators that it's become an intrinsic part of how they treat the press on a daily basis.
At Sutter General Hospital in Sacramento, newshounds are permitted to remain outside (in the parking lot and on hospital property) but far stricter rules apply when journalists are in the building, according to communications assistant Linda Pinkham.
Once a reporter, broadcaster or TV reporter enters any of the Sutter facilities without a scheduled appointment or some kind of notification, they are stopped by hospital personnel at the front desk. Then a hospital PR/marketing representative is asked to intervene - and, in some cases, called upon to ask the journalist to leave the premises.
But Pinkham said that even though journalists aren't allowed to wander through the hospital and its related facilities (the Sutter Center for Psychiatry and Sutter Memorial Hospital), hospital administrators and communicators have tried to be judicious about accommodating press requests.
Knowing that they often are legally bound about what they can discuss about patients, they have found other ways to strengthen their relationships with reporters.
"In 9.9 out of the 10 calls we receive on a daily basis, we're able to meet their requests and help them with their stories," Pinkham pointed out. In a recent case, Sutter had journalists calling about the [Heaven's Gate] cult deaths requesting the psychiatric profile of someone who would join a cult. Pinkham said while she was willing to give out that information she couldn't meet the reporters' deadlines.
"[But] when it involves a patient, then that changes the dynamics completely," said Pinkham. "And if that patient has signed a 'no information' sheet, then you can't even say if they're in the hospital...We have had situations where we have had so many reporters on site, we've had to recruit security officers for traffic control."
One of those, Pinkham recalled, was the case of a "John Doe" - who lingered in a coma due to an accident for two years before dying - that was covered by media outlets nationwide and even stirred up a story on "Unsolved Mysteries."
But TV reports, hospital communicators have learned, can strain as many press relationships as they can strengthen. Just consider these two following scenarios:
On March 26, a CBS crew spent the day at Columbia Trident Surgery Center in Charleston, S.C., filming a spot on Errol McPherson, a guard on Charleston Southern University's basketball team who was undergoing reconstructive knee surgery. The TV story was put together so the network would have a filler for the Final Four basketball championships.
On analysis, the McPherson piece reveals how important strong PR is for hospitals and how it can be awfully taxing trying to uncover the right routes to strong media relations. That's because the task at hand becomes exceedingly difficult when other issues - such as patient confidentiality - are factored in.
Just ask Linda Berlinghoff, manager of marketing services at Trident. She was the hospital contact charged with issuing the media alert on McPherson's surgery. But she was also the one fielding an onslaught of press inquiries and enduring some jarring coverage after a dead infant's body disappeared, albeit only temporarily, from the hospital morgue in September 1996.
State Dept. Media RulesThere are standard rules governing how State Dept. spokespeople conduct themselves on a daily basis. They include these two requirements: 1. Relaying facts and avoiding speculation and comments about hypothetical situations; and 2. Granting press interviews and avoiding "no comments" so that their media relationships remain stable. |
"Our media guidelines are very stringent," said Berlinghoff, who added that Trident's press parameters have changed significantly in the past several years. In part, that's due to the media's take on controversies such as the one involving the deceased baby and its now slightly tense relationship with local TV station WCSC. The hospital ended up pulling its advertising from the station because of what the hospital considered "sensationalized" news reporting.
"If any media vehicle drives onto our site, we're called by security and within two or three minutes, I'll go outside to speak with them. It's not rare for us to ask them to leave our property. And that's different than it was before - they might have been there for 20 minutes" said Berlinghoff.
But despite its strained relationship with WCSC, Berlinghoff said the hospital still sends press releases to the station and alerts them of news and feature topics.
Still, WCSC news director Don Feldmann isn't giving Trident any kudos for its media relations strategies.
"The problem comes [for businesses] when they operate under a veil of secrecy," he said. "I don't think the PR was handled well when it came to this incident (the missing baby). I speak at regional seminars and they broke every cardinal rule - especially the ones about being as open as you can and not relying on 'no comments.' Let's not forget what the hell they did - they lost a baby for a week. Now, what does that have to do with patient confidentiality?" (Phyllis Young, 202/647-2492; Jennifer Farina, 212/416-8060; Linda Pinkham, 916/454-2222; Linda Berlinghoff, 803/797-7000; Don Feldman,, 803/723-8371)