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.
