How PR Can Help Penn State Now

People would be surprised to know how often PR counselors act as management consultants.

Often, those within a complex organization are too close to a situation or too insulated to see what needs to be done, what could been done, and how internal and external stakeholders might react. The blinders can be even thicker when the organization is in crisis. So, smart executives seek the advice of outside communications professionals -- not just for research, ideas and words, but for common sense and perspective.

As the trustees at Penn State prepare to meet today, let's hope hiring great PR counselors is on the agenda.

Penn State’s ability to do the right thing at this moment is suspect and will be for the foreseeable future. It lost its credibility on that score when it failed to act against Jerry Sandusky for more than a decade. It even failed to act seven months ago when a Pennsylvania sports columnist predicted what has now engulfed the University.

Penn State’s need for PR is not just a matter of credibility; it’s a demand of logistics.

Herman Cain's Hard Lesson in Issues Management

After I had covered the Gennifer Flowers news conference in New York in January 1992, the Boston Herald sent me and Andrea Estes to Little Rock, Arkansas, for a week to see what we could else we could dig up on then-presidential candidate, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton.

I came back with a story about Clinton’s honorary membership in what appeared to be a whites-only country club. The Clinton campaign did not seem surprised when I called them for comment, and brushed off Clinton’s role as nothing more than “playing privileges.”

The story ran on page one of the Herald and the Associated Press picked it up. Within two weeks, it had found its way into The New York Times. (There was no worldwide Internet in those days. The only things that spread virally were illnesses, gossip and bad jokes.)

By then, however, Clinton’s famous "War Room" had acted. The candidate apologized succinctly and his campaign defused the issue by rallying prominent African-American friends and supporters.

Nineteen years later, watching presidential candidate Herman Cain flounder under the weight of sexual harassment allegations, you begin to wonder how many scandals it will take for anyone to heed the basic rules of engagement in issues management and crisis communications.