Nothing is off the record
This is probably old news to most of you (because, well, it’s old news) but I just came across the Consumerist / Edelman scandal, and I couldn’t not draw attention to it once more.
Long story short, Mike Krempasksy, one of Edelman’s consultants working on the Walmart blogging team met with Ben Popken, the editor of consumer blog The Consumerist and asked him how he could get Ben to stop writing about his clients. He had also asked for the discussion to be off the record.
When I worked at a PR firm, we taught a media spokesperson skills program to CEOs, Members of Parliament and the like, and in one of the bright red slides in the PowerPoint deck for the course were the words:
NOTHING IS OFF THE RECORD!
We have to remember as PR people that journalists are not our friends. This was the title of one of the first articles I read on the fine art of media relations. Journalists have a job – and that’s to get a story – bonus points if it embarrasses someone. As PR people, we can never expect that a journalist’s promise to you is going to outweigh their desire to get a nice, bloody lead.
I’ve said “off the record” a number of times, but only about something minor that I or my clients didn’t really want public but was so insignificant, nobody would care enough to write about it. My rule is to never say anything to a reporter or blogger that I wouldn’t want to read on the front page the next day.
Don’t get me wrong – breaking your word is a dick move, but it happens. PR people are lawyers in the court of public opinion. PR pros need to acknowledge that fact and ensure that privileged information does not get leaked because of loose lips and that we don’t say the wrong thing and publicly embarrass our clients (and ourselves) in the process.
