I am a firm believer in reading and absorbing research and surveys done nationally for how old and new media interact. There are lessons to be learned from this national research on how we should interact in our own communities.
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As a PR and marketing guy I have over the year been confronted, when a consumer or customer thinks that an injustice has been done to them, spew the old line “I’m going to the papers with this.”
I used to love to hear this sentence spoken when I knew someone with no case, truth or validation to their complaint assumed the “papers” would hold the presses so the masses could hear that we were out of blue logo tees or a donation receipt was not mailed to a donor within moments of the envelope being opened. The chance a journalist or reporter had in receiving a Pulitzer Prize for the irate information usually tended to have them pass on the story.
I am currently on the road trip from hell. Close to two weeks being away from home and my safe haven the firehouse. I’m attending to some business currently in Las Vegas and had the opportunity to have dinner with a well know Texas business analyst who is often quoted in the papers and appears occasionally on TV. He asked me as a PR person and fire blogger my take on the difference between a reporter and a blogger. While he is always ready to speak to traditional media to get his expertise on a business issue, financial bloggers worry him because their perceived bias could misinterpret what he is saying.
I have posted in the past about ambush type journalism and my own scales of justice for dealing with media that does not play nicely. (See Banned for Life) Over the years in both my regular PR jobs and in the fire department, I have encountered journalists who have for a better phrase “flipped the script,” in essence pitching one thing with one side of their face, while actually doing the opposite. Kind of a two faced approach.
By “flip the script,” I mean they sometimes will give you the distinct impression they are writing something that will flatter your department or otherwise serve your interests — when all along they’re planning to sucker punch you using the spiral binding on their reporter’s notebook to hit you from behind.
Nothing beats coming into work and immediately hearing “I just read the paper, it looks like you guys are in trouble again.” When I inquired into who and what was in trouble I was told that a story was in Newsday, our Long Island newspaper about the latest loser who riffled through fire department funds, betraying both his fellow brothers and sisters and the public at large.
The problem with the in your face guy who confronted me with the story before I set a foot in the door, is that he assumes all firefighters are the same and all departments are created equal. It didn’t matter to him that the ex firefighter and department in question are about 40 miles from here. For whatever reason, ours is a trade that suffers from collective guilt.
A new form of reporting local news is taking root across America. It’s called hyperlocal and is much more nimble and reactive then traditional community news sources.
Next month I am inviting the editors of Smithtown Patch to the firehouse for a media open house. I hold these events several times a year in which I invite one media outlet at a time to come and tour our department and get to know a little better about who we are and how we serve the community. This is the first time I am inviting what at this point can be called a non traditional or newly emerging form of media.
I was outraged that 9/11 turned into a three ring circus of media, yes media flamed protests. A day that will never be made into a National Holiday, least the significance be diminished by future generations, who will take it as a shopping day orgy with no understanding of its implication, was tainted by a media that puts every rumor, innuendo and kook generated story on the same plain.
As anyone knows who reads my posts on a regular basis, I’m not a big fan of speaking to the media “off the record.” I’ve been burned a number of times over the years trying to be a nice guy, covertly helping a journalist get what I feel is the essence of a story without my direct quotes.
I usually peruse the Atlantic website to see there political take on things, but yesterday came across an interesting article looking into the world of “off the record” comments.
The article was written by Chuck Todd, the White House correspondent for NBC news and Albert Oetgen, the Managing Editor for the NBC News Washington bureau.
I found the most interesting part of the story to be the Pete Williams glossary of terms that unofficially govern the flow of information to the media in Washington.
One strange phenomenon in public relations where even the most ethical and transparent practitioner is caught fudging the truth on occasion come when it’s time to give a crowd or attendance count. For some reason, when it comes to estimating the size of the crowd, at say our annual fire prevention days, we tend to become world renowned optimists.
Yesterday afternoon my department was toned out for a mutual aid on a working fire in a neighboring town. We sent a Chief and an Engine. I followed the transmissions on my scanner and it appeared our work was limited. The scene of the fire was right near a notorious, long shuttered psychiatric hospital. A number of plans are on the table of how to eventually utilize the land the facility is standing on. Everything from parks to a planned community is on the table.
Due to the interest in the site, I figured the media would be all over this one. Little did I know that the media would be all over me.
Yesterday we had our third working fire in less then two weeks. In this day and age in a suburban department that is usually a years worth of major jobs.
After photographing at the scene and rotating on a hose line I went back to the firehouse to send out my incident release to the press.
Since we all send the vast majority of our PIO press releases via e-mails these days I wondered what many of you write as your subject line copy in the e-mail.
I wrote a post awhile back where I discussed that I banned a news outlet for life for distorting a story that they did not vet properly. Now I see the US Army has also in a way sent a reporter into purgatory for his dealings with them.
At one time, especially in the suburban volunteer fire service, when an incident was newsworthy a simple formula was established for reporting. Type out a press release (yes type), mail it to the community newspaper, enclose a picture or negative from the photos you developed at the drug store and wait a week for the public to learn more about the fire. But those were kinder, gentler times. Now instantaneous PR is a 24/7/365 job, even for volunteer PIO’s. We must always be on our toes listening to what the community, bloggers and press are saying about us.
As PIO’s most of us are constantly working to position our departments in the most positive public light possible. Much of this effort involves interaction with the media to spread the word about our professionalism and efforts. While it is great that we can create cordial working relationships with the press, it is not beneficial to either party to become “friends.” Sooner or later tough questions are going to have to be asked by the media and on the opposite side we may find a story to have erroneous facts or flawed opinions.
This past Friday we had a fully involved barn fire in Smithtown, NY where I serve as PIO. Fortunately horses stalled in the barn and other livestock where turned out in paddocks when the fire erupted so thankfully no animals were lost or injured.
In Smithtown, most property zoned for livestock has the family residence at the front of the property and the barn area set to the back.
At Friday’s fire the barn was about 100 yards set back from the access street. Incident command was also set up close to the barn. On the access street was one Engine supplying the water source from a hydrant, Fire Police and Suffolk County PD.
One of the more hotly contested Senate races taking place this fall is in Nevada where Sharon Angle is trying to unseat majority leader Harry Reid. I think it is safe to say that Angle, who was leading Harry Reid and is now trailing slightly in the polls, is starting to be looked upon as a “wingnut.” She certainly is not making any new friends in the media. Angle held a so called “press conference” recently in which she invited the media but bizarrely refused to even acknowledge their presence when they tried to ask her questions after the event ended.
To volunteer fire departments across the country local community newspapers are our bread and butter vehicle for getting news out to the community. Unfortunatly, like many other print publications, local papers are also suffering through hard times. I think it is our responsibility to tell as many members of our communities as possible that these new sources are vital to spreading the local word.
Anyone who has been in the public relations field for any length of time has used the AP Stylebook to help them at least try to look literate. For those novices a little background -
The Stylebook was first produced in 1953 as a stapled collection of rules totaling 60 pages, and has grown to a publication of more than 450 pages today. The book’s creation was prompted in part by a technical change in the way the AP transmitted news as well as a need for consistency among a worldwide editorial staff that produced stories for newspapers with a variety of style preferences. There have been major periodic revisions over the past few decades, the last in 2008, and the print edition is now updated annually.
I was driving to the airport a couple of hours ago after attending the Maryland State American Legion Convention in Ocean City.
Great place to hang out for a couple of days!
I was not going to post today but was listening to Fox on Sirius and heard a story about Apple holding a press conference tomorrow. Since this is a first time they are facing a negative situation in many moons, I thought I’d give you a heads up to closely follow how their PR strategy follows through. I call following these stories “recreational PR.” It’s a great sport to watch how the big guys handle a crisis.
What’s currently the toughest crisis communications job in the world of public relations and public information? It very well could rest in the hands of one Brian Sibley who is the hired gun from his very own Sibley PR who is currently in the uneviable position of serving as spokesman for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Incident Command post, the central information command for everyone involved in the Gulf coast oil spill clean up.
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Back in 2005 Newsday, Long Island’s major daily paper, spent eight days lambasting the volunteer fire service. Long Island, where I live, is one of the most concentrated areas in the country for volunteer departments. Close to 180 departments and districts span Nassau and Suffolk counties. In the eight part series titled “Fire Alarm” (the word alarm referred to their perception of a serious problem and not the tones we wake up in the middle of the night to answer) Newsday found fault with virtually everything the fire service does and stands for.
A couple of years ago one of the guys at the firehouse was showing me how to use Photoshop. I needed to learn some simple skills – specifically how to erase license plates from MVA photos I wanted to send to the press. As a result of boredom over the lesson the famed “sock on fire” trick photo shot was created.
It’s pretty funny when you look at some of the altered images people create with programs like Photoshop, but it is no laughing matter when the press or a news source uses these tools to create something that isn’t really there.
I was contacted a few weeks ago by a free distribution children’s magazine that was doing a story on what kids wanted to be when they grew up. Obviously, as it has been for generations, becoming a firefighter ranked right up towards the top.
The editor did not need the Departments input into the story but instead wanted me to e-mail a series of photo’s that depicted what we do both in the firehouse and at a scene without being too graphic for children to look at.
When we disseminate information resulting from an incident scene print newspapers are still responsive in reporting on the story. Currently though with print newsroom resources stretched to their limits, the human interest, safety information and feel good stories we like to float around are not in abundance as they used to be.
I have tremendous admiration for GEN Stanley McChrystal. I respect his dedication to attain victory, his strategic objectives and his pursuit to get the assets this country needs in the Afghan theater to get the job done.
Through some of my past posts, referring to President Obama’s crisis leadership, you may sense that I am less then enamored of his decision making process. Yet in the McChrystal-Obama dispute I have to lean towards the Presidents side in this one.
The lifeblood of the volunteer fire service is the adherence to the chain of command. If a Captain is badmouthing or second guessing the Chief, the chain is snapped and chaos ensues. Lack of response to direct orders or discrediting the Chief to members of the Department has never resulted in a positive outcome. It can only lead to internal firehouse strife and ineffective operations on the fireground.
