Not Telling It Like It Is (With An Important Lesson For PR People)

Students of history know that during World War 2 there was a famous slogan on posters saying, “Loose Lips Might Sink Ships,” meaning that people with knowledge of information that may help the enemy should be careful about what they say. 

While it’s more than 75 years old, that idiom, in a current context, is still relevant today, as revelations of Fox News commentators proved when they became public after a filing by Dominion Voting Systems as part of its $1.6 billion defamation suit against Fox News. 

For the past week or so, the big news in the communications business has been the release of email and text messages between Fox News prime time hosts, and others, which revealed that they were not telling their audiences the truth about the 2020 presidential election.

Among the supposedly only “inside the house” messages that are now public are those of Fox prime times hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, among others, including Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch. 

The disclosures emphasize what I have written about and told PR people reporting to me for years – do not discuss any confidential information in an office setting and never by email, texting or office telephone.

 Here’s what I tell PR people so that they don’t spill the beans and maybe end their careers:

Discussing confidential information should never be done in a setting with other people nearby, even members of your agency, unless they are on your team. 

Never email or text anything that is confidential to others in your agency. Walk it over to other members of your team on a need-to-know basis and relay the information in a secure area.  If you have to transmit the information to other offices, don’t do it via office phones or smartphones. Overnight the information. 

Telephone discussions regarding sensitive information should be done only when you and the person you are speaking to are talking on a land line from your residences. Never by cell phones.

It’s dangerous to carry confidential information in a briefcase filled with other documents. When looking through your briefcase it’s easy for the confidential information to fall out.

If you receive confidential information by mistake, don’t mention it to others in your organization. Instead, inform the individual who sent the information to you and let that person indicate what should be done. Also, as soon as you see that the information wasn’t meant for you, stop reading it.

I once received by mistake a transcript of a telephone call between an executive of a client’s company and the governor of his state. I called the client and was told not to send it back by messenger; we arranged to meet and I personally returned it. Then he took me to lunch. In all the years I worked with that client the matter was never again discussed.

Another time, I was traveling by airplane to a client meeting to unveil a new program. When we were done with the presentation, our client said he was instructed by a top marketing executive not to let us leave until we were questioned by the exec. What happened was that we were on the same airplane with the marketing exec and an advertising team that was presenting their plans for a new product rollout. The ad team was discussing their plans on the plane, just one row ahead of the marketing exec. We were told that three different agencies were presenting that afternoon and the exec didn’t know which team was from the ad agency. When it was our turn to be questioned, we were told what happened, received an apology for detaining us and were told the penalty for discussing client information in public was to lose the account, which the ad agency did, I was told.

So while that World War 2 slogan about loose lips sinking ships is still relevant, it has to be updated to include email and texting.

The Important Lesson  for P.R. People.

Misgivings about working on an account whose mission disturbs you or being asked to do something you disapprove of should not be shared with anyone. Never put your feelings in writing. Keep them to yourself. Over the years, I refused to work on a few accounts because of my beliefs and also, at times, told top management I wouldn’t do what they wanted me to do. Doing so didn’t prevent management from assigning me to flag ship accounts.