The Hole(s) In The Truth and Nothing But The Untruth (And Some PR Lessons To Remember And Some To Discard)
Arthur Solomon, Public Relations ConsultantWhat is it with President Trump and his spokespeople? Are they, as is the president, incapable of telling the truth, or is Trump a carrier of the “lying virus” and has infected his staff?First. Sean Spicer, the initial White House press spokesperson, “exaggerated” facts, despite everyone seeing that he was fibbing. Then, his successor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, began trying to out lie the president when answering press questions. And Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director, admitted to a House investigating committee that she told” white lies” for the president. But the most creative liar is probably Kellyanne Conway, the invent0r of alternative facts. To paraphrase William Shakespeare from “Romeo and Juliet,” — “A lie is a lie by any other name.”Some people in our business are known to exaggerate when dealing with the media, believing, as does the Trump White House that it’s not a lie unless you get caught, as Ms. Sanders did on November 7, even though a national TV audience could see that she was doing what seemingly comes naturally to her – lying.Sanders said that CNN’s Jim Acosta had his White House credentials taken away because “he placed his hands” on an intern, when she tried to take a microphone from him during a heated exchange with the president. The incident received major coverage, not only because Acosta’s credentials were revoked but because it was obvious that Ms. Sanders was once again being untruthful.Later that night, the Washington Post reported that “White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, on Wednesday night, shared a video of CNN reporter Jim Acosta that appeared to have been altered to make his actions at a news conference look more aggressive toward a White House intern.”Then, the November 8 New York Times ran a story quoting other reporters at the briefing saying that Acosta never placed his hands on the intern. Included in the story was a statement from CNN that said Sanders lied and provided fraudulent accusations and cited an incident that never happened. (I saw what happened live. Acosta never placed his hands on the intern when she attempted to retrieve the mike.)Later in the day, numerous major news organizations, including Trump-supporting Fox News, reported that Sanders had used a doctored video to portray the Acosta-intern incident. Side stepping whether the video was doctored, Sanders said, reported the Washington Post, that "The question is: did the reporter make contact or not? The video is clear, he did. We stand by our statement.”Of course, Trump supporters claim, and will continue to claim, that the video was not doctored and saying so is a leftist lie. However, the November 9 Wall Street Journal reported that Storyful, a social media intelligence agency, said, “These frames do not appear in the original C-Span footage, and appear to exaggerate the actions of Acosta.” A November 8 story about the incident on MarketWatch was headlined, “Video of Acosta incident posted by White House press secretary Sarah Sanders contains extra frames.” Both Stotryful and MarketWatch are owned by News Corp, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, certainly not a liberal bastion. Also, Hany Farid, a
A few lessons to remember:
- Always research facts provided by clients to the best extent possible before disseminating it to the media. (Like Ms. Sanders, maybe, didn’t before distributing a doctored tape.)
- Never be pressured to pitch a story you know is false.(Ours is a small business, and you never know when the reporter you misled today might not only blacklist you but tell his colleagues that you are not a trustworthy source.)
- Even if you’re flacking for a top Fortune 500 company, the media will not be impressed by your CEO (in this case Trump, or his spokespersons, Mses Sanders and Conway), when they are after a story).
- Your PR title at a company might impress your mother, but not members of the extended media family. (So don’t take yourself too seriously because your business card reads “Senior Executive” or some other title that is meaningless to journalists. Remember, the media considers you a propaganda merchant, regardless of the square footage of your office, which you certainly are.)
- Remember, the larger the company, the closer it comes under media scrutiny.
- Always be honest when dealing with the media. (It will benefit you when you need help. Being dishonest with information, will not be forgotten by the reporter you attempted to hood wink and his extended media family.)
- Spend some time paying attention to the political scene, and watch the too infrequent White House press briefings, (but take what political spokespersons and politicians say with a grain of salt, especially if they work for Trump).The media relations lessons you’ll learn are not available anywhere else. The syllabus will include a master’s class in how to lose credibility with the media, taught by Trump and Sanders, with Kellyanne Conway as a frequent lecturer. Missing from the syllabus will be a class in ethics.
If you studied English lit and philosophy in college, you might remember Niccolò Machiavelli’s quote from “The Prince” — “The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present,” (especially relevant when a supervisor promises you a future salary increase and promotion to keep you from leaving for another agency). And also what Sir Walter Scott wrote in his poem “Marmion.” — "Oh! What A Tangled Web We Weave When First We Practice To Deceive.”And if you’re ever asked to fudge the facts when disseminating information to the media, remember Shakespeare’s line from “Hamlet.” — “To thine own self be true.”It’s obvious to those who pay attention to the political scene, that Trump and his high-paid flacks don’t agree with the Scott and Shakespeare quotes, but think highly of the Machiavelli citation.But President Trump, who denies saying things despite their being caught on TV news tapes, seems to favor Chico Marx’s line from the 1933 Marx Brother’s film “Duck soup” — “Who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?”
About the Author: Arthur Solomon, a former journalist, was a senior VP/senior counselor at Burson-Marsteller, and was responsible for restructuring, managing and playing key roles in some of the most significant national and international sports and non-sports programs. He also traveled internationally as a media adviser to high-ranking government officials. He now is a frequent contributor to public relations publications, consults on public relations projects and is on the
