Study: Trump Benefited From ‘Overwhelmingly Negative’ Tone Of Election News Coverage
From Forbes.com: Depending on who you believe, Donald Trump won the election because of Russian hackers, last-minute FBI announcements, fake news, or because Hillary Clinton was a bad candidate. A new study from the Harvard Kennedy School pins the blame on the news media—specifically the “overwhelmingly negative” tone of news coverage and the “extremely light” coverage […]
Do You Have a Crisis Communications Plan?
[By Bruce Hennes, Managing Partner, Hennes Communications, and Keynote Speaker, American Public Power Association Legal & Regulatory Conference, 2016] It’s not just terrorist attacks, explosions, active shooters, and environmental disasters. More often than not, it’s going to be sexual misconduct, data theft, unfair labor practices, OSHA complaints, mergers & acquisitions, layoffs, accusations, or employee fraud […]
Lies, Propaganda, Fake News and You: The Next Crisis Management Challenge
[by Scott Juba and Howard Fencl] First, it was simply called “lying.” Then, it evolved into “propaganda.” Then “disinformation.” For whatever reason, the term has been further sanitized as “fake news.” Whatever you call it, it’s all bad news for organizations whose reputation is under attack. Right now, Facebook is at the vertiginous epicenter of […]
Snapchat, Lies and Photoshop: Is Social Media A Threat to Our Judicial System?
[By Stephanie York, Hennes Communications] Legal cases in the court of law take a long time to develop, file and litigate – years in many instances. Cases often move at an agonizingly slow pace … through written discovery, motions, depositions and court appearances. The Court of Law is intentionally methodical, governed by strict rules, and overseen […]
Cats Sleeping With Dogs: How Lawyers and Crisis Communicators Can Work Together
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] At Hennes Communications, we often tell clients that they have an attorney for the Court of Law. But they have us for the Court of Public Opinion. And those two courts often require different – and at times conflicting – strategies. Attorneys have persuasive arguments for tailoring a strategy completely around […]
Reputation Management, Fake News and How to Deal With the Constantly Changing Rules
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] Remember the good old days – like, oh a few months ago – when one of the major threats to reputation was getting caught up in critical news coverage or disparaging social media chatter? That was then. This is now: Try fighting to save that reputation when you’re under attack from […]
Volkswagen: It Just Keeps Getting Worse
We’ve said it time and time again: Volkswagen doesn’t have a communications problem. They have a performance problem. The latest news from Germany compounds that. http://www.nytimes.com/…/inquiry-in-emissions-scandal-widen…
Twitter: How a Little Blue Bird Became a Communications Juggernaut
[By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications] Among the many distinctions for which the election of 2016 will go down in history, the sustained use of Twitter to mobilize voters will no doubt be among the most notable. Indeed, perhaps not since the pamphleting campaign of the American Revolution, of which Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” is the […]
Mother Tongue of Global Crisis Management: Social Media
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] Recently, Thom Fladung and I had the honor of meeting with a group of Russian public relations professionals from Volgograd to answer their questions about crisis management and media relations in the U.S. The group, sponsored by the Council of International Programs USA, spent a week in Cleveland meeting with […]
A Very Brief Primer on Repentance and Apologies, Genuine and Not
In the last issue of Crisis Management Today, we offered “The Basics of Saying ‘I’m Sorry’” with reference to Peter Sandman. You can find those basics below. But in this issue, we introduce another way of looking at apology, this time from Rabbi Richard Block, who writes: Genuine repentance has 3 basic components: recognizing and […]