Minding Your Own Business

Practicing what you preach is good advice. But even those who are accustomed to helping others can themselves mishandle the media. Edelman Public Relations, the largest independent public relations firm in the world by revenue, specializes in crisis control. However, Edelman has run into a few media predicaments of their own lately.

The Guardian recently reported on a survey by the Climate Investigations Center (C.I.C.) regarding those clients who do not believe in climate change. Edelman made the statement that they “do not explicitly rule out taking on climate change deniers as clients.”

The first mistake came when their initial response to the C.I.C. inadvertently included an internal email from Edelman’s U.S. president and chief executive, Mark Hass. It read, “I don’t believe we are obligated in any way to respond. There are only wrong answers for this guy.”

Oooops!

Mr. Hass has since stepped down from his position, and while this mistake was damaging, the real media mishap came next.

Edelman Logo

In an article for Vice Magazine’s Motherboard, reporter Brian Merchant recapped a follow-up phone call with Edelman president and chief executive, Richard Edelman. Presumably intending to do damage control, Mr. Edelman merely added fuel to the controversy. According to Motherboard, Mr. Edelman stated that the company has “fired” Mr. Hass, “the ham-head who filled out the questionnaire, in part because of that stupid note he wrote.”

The editor-in-chief of PR Weekly, Steve Barrett, said of Mr. Edelman’s comments, “It certainly wouldn’t be in line with the media training they give their clients.”

In light of this controversy, most recently escalated to the New York TIMES, Edelman has implemented a global-wide strategy for dealing with internal issues. Hopefully, their global-wide strategy will include what we teach at READY FOR MEDIA. Every issue needs its own 1/2 day  to day-long media coaching session, complete with messaging and soundbites that work for, not against, the company.