“Sometimes a PAO can be judged more by what is not in the newspaper than what is.” – German Public Affairs Officer
We’re all about proactive communication and strongly believe offense is the best defense.
But we’re realistic. There will come times where your organization truly needs a Public Affairs crew to help it stay out of the news.
We’ve had the OPSEC talk, maybe this is one of the occasions where operational security requires strict silence for a limited time. Maybe your organization needs to allow time and space for internal or diplomatic conversations. Maybe the senior leaders who give you resources, authorities, approvals and operational support don’t need your troubles aired out like dirty laundry in public. Maybe you know the media is going to politicize or unfairly report your organization’s interests anyway, and you don’t need to make it easy for them.
When these times comes, your job is not to convince the commander why you need to continue covering salsa competitions and training events. It’s your job to do what your organization needs: keep it out of the news.
Tips? We’ve got tips.
Shut it down. When it’s serious, get the commander’s buy-in: nothing goes out until the issue has passed. This doesn’t mean “don’t-make-news-but-release-photos-from-this-one-guy’s-promotion-ceremony” or “don’t-make-news-but-send-out-the-family-readiness-group-newsletter.” Tell all subordinate unit PAOs, and their commanders. Minimizing your footprint and control the flow of public communication.
Become a broken record. Reporters can still come to you with questions, and you can’t pretend you aren’t home. Nail down your forever lines and repeat them with gusto.
Be boring. Don’t want to make news? Don’t have anything new to say. These can be uncomfortable phone conversations with journalists because they’ll know you are often not boring.
Hone your shutdown lines. We love us some forever lines when we want to be proactive and double down on the mission we’re trying to achieve. When you don’t want to make news, prepare shutdown lines instead. Which questions will reporters ask, and what can you say to end the conversation and make it clear there will be no follow-up answers.
Get crises out of the news cycle. You knew this was coming, after all we are Maximum Disclosure. If your organization is facing some bad news in the media, it’s too late to get it off the news … today. However, you may be able to get out of tomorrow’s news. Lean into today’s news cycle; get it all out now. When tomorrow rolls around, the crisis may no longer be news, it will be olds.
Keep in mind, you can’t keep this going indefinitely. If your organization is always staying out of the news you’ll face long-term damage to understanding and credibility. Your resources, authorities, approvals and operational support will suffer. Use these tips to support short bursts of operational significance.
(Photo by 1st Lt. Benjamin Haulenbeek, DVIDS)
