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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Archives for media-outreach
Suppose we were asked as PIO’s to meet with the media directly after a structural fire where much more went wrong than right. Instead of confronting the situation and transparently addressing where we succeeded, where we failed, and what we should have done to make things run better we took a different tact. We decide to ignore the present, forget about the fire and tell the press that things would have been much worse under the leadership of the past Chief and things are going in the future to get much better. The press would look at us like we were raving lunatics.
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.
When I brief a Chief or department official on what to expect if a media interview appears that it will have negative connotations two of the simplest techniques I offer are:
1. never repeat a reporter’s negative language in your response, and
2. try to frame all your answers using positive language.
Sounds simple enough. Yet the news is filled with examples of people who disregard these tips.
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.
After my appearance last night on Firefighter Netcast, which I thoroughly enjoyed I sat down to recap exactly what my responsibilities are as a PIO. We touched on a number of the areas last night.
I’m sitting in the airport setting sail for some business in south Texas. Two areas to cover while I wait for the flight.
First, I’m honored that my Brothers at Firefighter Netcast have asked me to be a guest on their program this Thursday, June 17th. John and Rhett will be interviewing me at 9:00pm EST.
To get the link to the broadcast visit http://www.firefighternetcast.com/ Call in and say hi!
Banned for Life
Used with permission of Susan Tiffen - www.susantiffenphotography.com
My department, the Smithtown Fire Department has part of our district run next to the picturesque Nissequogue River. The river is a haven for naturalists, canoe enthusiasts and kayakers. Each year we get a call or two to the river for rescues, mostly folks who have found themselves in the middle of the river during low tide and cannot get their boat out of the cement like mud.
The video that accompanies this story has been making the rounds and is real. It was not intended to be viral and it’s not a training film. The event actually did occur a few weeks back as surrealistic as it is!
Our job as Public Information Officers is to be both the go to guy and the bridge builder; we are supposed to protect our Departments from any fallout and make sure that the right message gets out. At the same time, we are supposed to help the media, and the public get information and get access to our Chiefs if needed. But the main thing is that PIO’s are conduits of information.
SnapStream Media is hosting a free live webinar on Thursday, June 3 at 12:30 pacific time. The main presenter will be SGT Tim Schmidt the PIO for the Anaheim Police Department.
Schmidt and spokespeople from SnapStream will discuss -
The traditional vs. progressive TV monitoring approach
*Digitally recording and archiving TV coverage of your city
*Allowing cross-departmental access to clips and recordings
*Pinpointing mentions of interest & creating clips
*Being notified of issues/events via automatic e-mail alerts
*Creating daily media reports
Like in the movie Groundhog Day I have a situation that happens over and over again, in the same manner each June. My department hands out a number of scholarships to deserving students at the high school, I take pictures, submit them to the local paper and they never get printed.
Everything I normally send to this newspaper gets printed, I have a great relationship with the paper, its employees and editor but each year for some unknown reason the scholarship story and photos never makes it to print.
We all know the feeling of getting the page in the wee hours to respond to an incident that requires the attention of the public information office.
The attempted car bombing that took place in Times Square in NYC on Saturday evening is one such type of incident where the split second coordination of internal and external information to and from many departments is required.
We held our 102nd Installation of Officers this past Saturday night. I wrote a post on public perception of installations a few days ago. Contrary to popular belief we did not have to tap the nuclear arsenal to quell any disturbances in the community from rampaging firefighters.
In addition to the installation of officers, Firefighter of the Year Awards, (I was shocked to get the 2009 Firefighter of the Year) service pins (two 50 year members) and speeches, two legislative awards were presented. Congressman Timothy Bishop and Suffolk County Legislator Lynn Nowick were given Special Achievement Awards. Both help our department in many ways. Bishop helped us obtain a new ambulance through a grant and Nowick works the Legislature for us to make sure we get our just due when it comes to extra County funding.
As Public Information Officer I think it is important that we publicize these types of legislative awards as much as possibly. This is a kinder and gentler form of political payback for a job well done.
I had the opportunity a few years back to visit Microsoft’s Home of the Future at their headquarters in Seattle. The “house” features what technology could possibly look like in the year 2019. It as very cool and I was privileged to be invited.
The most striking part of the tour for me was how our guide kept on emphasizing that the majority of technology will eventually emanate from a cell phone sized device that would in essence control our day. The device would open the door to our homes, start our cars, work as a computer, make video calls, scan products on shelves for nutritional information etc., etc, etc.
Towards the top of my “to do” list is a push to increase the number of generic photos in my files. Generic shots would include all of our apparatus, photos of Chiefs, training and fireground shots etc.
As any editor will tell you, a release with a photo has a much higher chance of being used and could elevate your story from a few column centimeters on an inside page to a more prominent position and possibly the front page. This just happened to a story about a member in my department.
Talk about timing. Just yesterday morning I posted about the three quick decisions I have to make as a firefighter/PIO when I arrive at a scene. They were, perform the duties of a firefighter if manpower is lacking, perform my normal duties as the PIO, or watch to see the scene unfold to determine where I can best serve. I also mentioned that I occasionally go behind the lines to interact with bystanders. Little did I know that just a few hours later I would have to use all three options when we were toned out to a fully involved house fire.
I was on the phone yesterday with a college president I know who asked me if I or anyone in my Fire Department ever encountered an “Ambush” journalist at the firehouse front door. She had been confronted by a TV consumer complaint investigative reporter who does a segment a few times a week about viewer problems. The reporter and camera crew were waiting for the president to arrive at work.
When most of us write incident report press releases for consumption by the public they are fact based with very little latitude for creative license. One way I “spice” up a release for the media is by offering quotes. I do this in a number of ways – by adding quotes into the body of the release, offering a number of quotes separate from the release at the bottom of the page or prepare a separate page to go along with the release that just contains lead-ins with the relevant quotes.
One of the areas on my Department website that I am not satisfied with is the Media Pressroom tab. I had information in the Pressroom, but was never really satisfied with the way it was presented. So, on this Monday, I present you with some of the items I will place on my retooled media area and look in return for your suggestions on administering a Pressroom on your website.
The FDNY is currently trying to unravel the details concerning an allegedly drunk individual in uniform, sleeping at the entrance to an apartment building following St. Patrick’s Day festivities in New York.
A few years back my department was confronted with a similar situation. The proper crisis management of inebriated firefighters in uniform can be a difficult one to call for a PIO and department leadership.
A difficult situation unfolding for the Jacksonville Beach Police as the department PIO and detectives released a photo to the media of a suspect in a crime that they were looking to bring in for questioning. The problem? The suspect being sought was innocent and misidentified.
The Department, from a crisis standpoint, admitted to their mistake promptly, but damage has still been done.
I wrote a post a few weeks’ backs about whether we, as PIO’s, are carrying the heavy load for the media in regard to supplying them with information from incident scenes. Is the Media taking a Free Ride?
It appears with newsroom financial resources dwindling the media is relying on us more and more to provide more in depth stories, site photo’s and video.
Now, via Ragan Communications, comes a new statistic that reports according to an Australian study, 55 percent of news stories are driven by public relations.
I have nothing against the late actor Cory Haim. I guess he was a soul tormented by substance abuses that lead to his premature death last week at age 38. Haim was Canadian, from Toronto, and his remains were brought back to the city of his birth for burial.
News circulated over the last few days that Haim’s funeral would be paid for by the City of Toronto. His mother Judy made this statement. Hundreds of outlets, mostly of the Hollywood gossip variety, reported on the story without much additional detail.
I just got off a conference call with a few of my fellow PIO’s who represent a number of volunteer fire departments. We were discussing SOP’s when PIO’s from different departments are working the same scene via mutual aid needs.
The discussion diverted to the responsibilities that PIO’s have in their own departments. The responsibilities that we had in common were –
