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Media Relations Handbook
for Agencies, Associations, Nonprofits and Congress
§ 3.9 How to Do Everything Right and Still
Fail--or, Getting "O.J.'ed"
| § 3.9 How to Do Everything Right and Still
Fail--or, Getting "O.J.'ed" |
One of the unusual things about public
relations is that you get blamed for things that aren't your fault and
credit for things you didn't do. Such are the vagaries of the
industry. This rule means that you can do everything perfectly right,
and still not get any coverage.
On June 17, 1994, I was working for a U.S. senator from Wisconsin, and
was having difficulty getting television coverage in Green Bay. The
rule in Green Bay was, if the story didn't have something to do with
the Packers, you were out of luck.
Somehow we managed to get all three network affiliates and both
newspapers to cover a juvenile crime event with the senator at 11:00
a.m. This was our first success with the Green Bay media in a while,
and we were all set to watch the evening newscasts and reap the
rewards of our labors.
All this work was smashed to bits at 4:00 p.m., when the world stopped
and began watching a live television feed from Los Angeles. A national
story was unfolding before us, involving hovering television
helicopters, about a hundred police cars traveling down a highway, and
a slow-moving white Ford Bronco containing an ex-superstar football
player accused of killing his wife. Every story on every newscast in
America that night was ALL about O.J. Simpson. Green Bay televisions
devoted their entire newscasts to this story (with a quick sidebar on
a potential trade for the Packers), and, as far as my senator was
concerned, he was the tree that fell in the forest while everyone was
watching a murder mystery, not hearing a sound.
The moral of this story is: In public relations, you can do everything
right--make every phone call, prepare every backgrounder perfectly, get
the best location--but if major news happens someplace else that
captures the audience's and media's attention, there's not a thing you
can do about it. You have been "O-J'ed."
Media Relations
Handbook
By Brad Fitch
Foreword by Mike McCurry
Contributing Author: Beth Gaston
$45
Plus shipping and handling (6% of order, $7.95 minimum).
Ships within 1 business
day
Hardbound: 368 pages
ISBN 10: 1587330032
ISBN 13: 978-1-58733-003-2
LCCN: 2003113070
OCLC: 54982382
Published 2004
Dimensions: 7.2 x 10.25 x
1.1
Weight: 2.1 pounds
Discount for bookstores and classroom use.
VA sales tax added when shipped to VA address.
Publication descriptions and Order form (10-page pdf)
URLs:
www.TheCapitol.Net/Publications/mediarelationsSampSec3_9.html
www.MediaRelationsHandbook.com
Last updated:
January 01, 2008
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