Talking Back to the Media
Hannaford, Peter
a book that may steady the nerves. A public relations executive, long associated with Ronald Reagan, Hannaford offers a heartening message to those who must deal with the unwelcome scrutiny of the...
...Even the brashest conser- even the most dauntless politicians, vatives today acknowledge this: Newt businessmen, and other people in the Gingrich, who spawns new ideas like a public eye dread...
...B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING CO...
...Careful preparation, including practice with likely interview questions, was part of the reason...
...I endose full payment plus $1.50 for shipping and handling...
...Valuable as these tips are, Hannaford on strategy is more interesting—and more significant...
...The "muckrakers" knew some-It will also take prudence...
...In addition, the increased possibility of public exposure has made business and government executives more sensitive—perhaps overly so—to avoiding questionable activities...
...This is must reading...
...Not least important, at a time when television reporters such as Mike Wallace seem most likely to provoke sleepless nights, Hannaford provides a reminder that newspapers, magazines, and especially radio still reach sizable audiences and afford numerous opportunities for getting one's own story across...
...Six years later, it did months brought enormous obloquy on threaten war over the missile crisis...
...For a public figure, success increasingly means not so much achieving fame as avoiding being defamed...
...Sometimes, the tainment remains...
...Politics, ideology, deep-seated resentments, and much more enter into the coverage of every story, but especially those concerning public figures...
...Drawing on examples from both business and politics, he provides a series of recommendations that anyone who is in public life today should heed—and I wish I had...
...ple itself...
...First comes the untrout fishery, told me two years ago wonted inquiry from a renowned news-in Dallas that our policy must aim man, followed by an insistent demand to contain the Soviets so that they for an explanation of some alleged would go the way of the Ottoman misdeed...
...Soviet power...
...During an interview with James J. Kilpatrick when I was at USIA, I breezily characterized those responsible for a so-called blacklist of speakers as "mindless gnomes...
...In short, fight back...
...A. a model of sorts, Hannaford offers the treatment of the Adolph Coors Company by "60 Minutes...
...Name Address City State Zip — Harold O. J. Brown, Author, Professor of Ethics As . 42 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR OCTOBER 1986...
...Contain- the best of a bad situation...
...Should all else fail, consider taking counter-actions ranging from letters of protest to libel suits...
...Anyone who knew of William Safire's special fixation on tape recording by government officials would have expected him to give USIA's director a good going-over...
...Nonetheless, even under those circumstances, Hannaford is surely right that being overly defensive will give too much credence to a reporter's allegations...
...haps even a legislative committee or With this difference—that conser- two...
...Finally, the frantic, uphill efforts vatives, unlike their liberal forbears, to prevent harm to one's career, corn-entertain no illusions about sudden pany, or reputation, or at least to make Communist changes of heart...
...Significant as they are, journalists are not the only ones able to shape the public agenda...
...Others, most notably Mobil, have honed their images through corporate contributions, advertising, and other means, thereby obtaining a cushion of favorable opinion for the day when a critical news story appears...
...Hannaford also shows how other companies and office-holders likewise softened the impact ofbad news by engaging, rather than trying to evade, the media...
...Where many public relations men would advise hiding or pleading "no contest" when the investigative reporter calls, as though avoidance and appeasement could ward off a media onslaught, he recommends a more aggressive response...
...But to USIA's employee union, my comment was a sign of disrespect and led the union to oppose my nomination as deputy director...
...But in addition, the Coors management decided to meet squarely the key accusation—that its labor relations were poor—by giving "60 Minutes" the run of its plant and access to its employees...
...America, thing about investigative reporting too...
...Although Hannaford does not dwell much upon such tactics, they add up to the idea that effective media relations should not wait until Mike Wallace calls...
...The Real and Alarming Facts About AIDS Gene Antonio This critically important book provides the most recent and well documented scientific and medical facts about the AIDS epidemic...
...Most often, however, it simply keeps a press-inspired predicament from becoming worse...
...tle more for Lech Walesa than Johnson Rather, he claimed to have information did for Dubcek—or Eisenhower for that Wick had been secretly tape re-Nagy...
...Chances are, you will deliver yourself a wound you will regret...
...groups...
...far as the Soviets' Eurorussian empire This is the sort of encounter that is concerned...
...As a result, the following six war over Hungary...
...Similarly, in the wake of the Tylenol poisonings, the drug's manufacturer, Johnson & Johnson, lowered the political temperature by being open with the press and candid about the financial losses it had suffered...
...Elizabeth Longford, from the Foreword Malcolm Muggeridge, like Dr...
...In that case, a more sophisticated public relations strategy would not have made much difference...
...long time (much longer than George To be sure, trial-by-press is nothing Kennan expected), and a lot of money...
...Then, an embarrassing front--Dirks: a backward, decadent, declining page news story or prime-time televipower, fated to repose on history's sion report, leading to an invasion by dustheap...
...Talking Back to the Media contains numerous illustrations, from both business and politics, in support of this advice...
...This Book Raises Issues That Must Be Addressed: / Why the AIDS virus is much more hardy than has been reported / How the AIDS virus kills directly apart from breaking down the immune system / Why AIDS is being treated in a radically different manner from other sexually transmitted diseases / How the AIDS epidemic is being used to promote the same type of behaviors which have been instrumental in its spread "Gene Antonio has written an alarming warning about a potential, perhaps impending, worldwide health disaster worse than the Black Plague" IGNATIUS PRESS 15 Oakland Ave., Harrison NY 10528 Please rush me copies of The AIDS Cover-Up...
...All of the material is extensively documented from primary medical sources...
...Reagan did lit- to bring tidings of comfort and joy...
...For younger jour-own...
...Sacred cows rarely are slaughtered...
...Nor is it necessary to answer obviously biased questions or sit down with interviewers who have their minds made up already...
...Hechuckled, as did the other panelists on "Agronsky and Company" when he repeated my remark on the air...
...Rarely does ment, in other words, for real...
...The AIDS Cover-Up...
...lames Curran, C cntrr,, for l)t,,ciNc Control THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK OF THE YEAR...
...In meetings in his office, supposedly in 1948, America had, in theory, the violation of government regulations, power to relieve West Berlin with an ar- and wanted to know what Wick had to mored column (as General Lucius Clay, say in his defense...
...The upshot of most of these examples is that skillful public relations can frequently turn a full-scale assault into a minor mugging...
...Yet it would have made some, and in other cases, it could help a great deal...
...Washington, D.0 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR OCTOBER 1986heard about) some poor soul who has been put through the treatment, usually coming out much the worse for the experience...
...For those who are particularly anxious about being the object of such attention, Peter Hannaford has written "This collection...
...Sometimes, as in the case of Coors, a well-designed response can be used to reverse public perceptions...
...The Wick and eventually cost me—I was option is no longer realistic, at least as then his deputy—my job...
...Nowadays, hardly anyone at America could have played its hand the higher reaches of government or differently than Truman played it...
...That is why Peter Hannaford's advice on how to talk back to the media should be essential reading for all public officials and many people in the private sector as well...
...Hence, the trepidation with which all but the most thick-skinned greet that first call...
...Among his holiday visitors was the Only the edges, though...
...examines the underlying ethical and legislative rationale which has impeded any practical measures being taken to prevent further transmission of AIDS into society...
...It's going to take a damage is irreparable...
...If an interview is going well, he writes, "you may be tempted to use humor, even flippancy...
...For me, the most painful point Hannaford makes concerns the use of humor...
...Not everyone will be as successful (or lucky) as the Coors Company, but in today's media climate, suggests Hannaford, following the path of least resistance is often the best way to be run over...
...Forget it...
...said Secretary of State John Quincy However, scandal-mongering seems to Adams, was the friend of liberty have grown more widespread and con-everywhere, the guarantor only of its sequential of late...
...It will bring Malcolm vividly before those who have heard him speak and who want to cheer and fortify themselves by reading him at will...
...9.95 ea...
...Of course, not all businessmen or government officials will be able to muster such an open-and-shut case...
...Even if, as Hannaford argues, it has grown less influential of late, the media will always possess one of the most important at-tributes of power: the ability to define what the issue is...
...More typically, they face accusations which either contain a grain of truth, puffed up beyond recognition, or else are impossible to disprove, like the unverifiable testimony of someone who claims to be in a "position to know...
...Admit to error when wrong, but strongly deny charges that are untrue...
...To do better than that requires a more ambitious strategy...
...Johnson — who is celebrated in one of the essays in this book — has always sought the widest and deepest experience that life offers...
...His wit and outspoken style are displayed at their peak in this collection of vintage Muggeridge, which offers a panoramic view of the issues of the twentieth century Paper, $7.95 At your bookstore, or writs 81 WM...
...Dr...
...He also ex-plains the arcana of the mass media: what a "sound bite" is, how to prepare an "actuality," and what the difference is between speaking "on background" and "on deep background...
...The Reagan Administration 1 was the day after Christmas, shows a cautious willingness—in 1983, and in the office of the Director Grenada, Nicaragua, Angola, and of the United States Information Afghanistan—to roll back the edges of Agency, Charles Z. Wick, all was astir...
...As a result, "talking back" is inevitably a reactive strategy...
...For example, he notes the importance of proper dress for television appearances (blue shirts, not stripes for men, no glittery jewelry or large earrings for women), of looking a questioner in the eye when answering, of sitting up straight and not gesticulating or smiling nervously, and of having a single, simple message that 41 can be repeated in various ways in the course of the interview...
...GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN 49505 Some of Hannaford's advice is already part of the folk wisdom of the media age...
...255 JEFFERSON AVE...
...The critics seemed out-of-touch by comparison...
...Some corporations, as well as government agencies and public officials, have done an effective job of building the kind of support that stifles most efforts to make them objects of a media onslaught...
...Ironically, a carefully crafted effort to rebut a story may stand a better chance of avoiding a public flap over it...
...Under the guidance of its stout-hearted public affairs director, the late John McCarty, the company turned what could have been a devastating account of an at-tempted boycott of its beer into virtually an advertisement for itself...
...In an encounter with an investigative reporter, not all (and sometimes rather little) will depend upon how it is handled...
...Indeed, if he is not careful about providing such sensible suggestions, Hannaford might even give public relations a good name...
...America remains in the U.N., though at a much lower emotional temperature...
...Vernon Walters, and Jeane Kirkpatrick before him, knew that most of their colleagues at Turtle Bay were neutral or hostile, and that it was necessary to bend ears and twist 'T arms...
...Third World aid continues in pretty much the same spirit (though there has been a disposition, thanks to the pressure of domestic groups, to ease up on international birth control pro-grams...
...It spirit of the season, Wick showed him could, at greater risk, have threatened the door...
...The world has changed since the nalists, it is possibly the quickest route 1820s, and hence the application of to a successful career and for older Adams's principle, but not the princi- ones, the easiest way to stay on top...
...Thus, although Ronald Reagan opposed the Equal Rights Amendment, he avoided a major controversy, says Hannaford, by emphasizing his commitment to attaining "women's rights" through other means...
...The base of redoubtable New York Times colum-Soviet Communism—one half of William Sartre, who had not come Eurasia—is sacrosanct...
...That is not the worst of outcomes, but it is hardly one to feel too triumphant about...
...The result was that the television crew saw for itself (and more importantly, recorded on camera) what employees really thought about the company...
...Be can-did and direct, emphasize the positive side of the matter under scrutiny, and never give credibility to a criticism by repeating it...
...Oblivious to the the commander on the spot, urged...
...The AIDS Cover-Up...
...other reporters, cameramen, and perSo we are back with containment...
...If we're steadier Leslie Lenkowsky is president of the In-than he and his successors were, his stitute for Educational Affairs in strategy may serve...
...If Israel invades Lebanon, or Politicians (and their aides) have apartheid crumbles, these are matters learned to use it to their advantage, of interest to America: they do not re- as have self-styled "public interest" quire our on-the-spot stewardship...
...This book gives us the whole truth about AIDS and the specter of an accelerating national disaster...
...A public relations executive, long associated with Ronald Reagan, Hannaford offers a heartening message to those who must deal with the unwelcome scrutiny of the media: With proper preparation, technique, and resolve, one can not only talk back but also be heard...
...It presents a wealth of information and evidence regarding the true nature of AIDS and its means of transmission that is not readily available from the media or medical establishments...
...In many areas, the number of persons infected with AIDS is at least 100 times greater than the reported cases of AIDS...
...TALKING BACK TO THE MEDIA Peter Hannaford/Facts on File Publications/$17.95 Leslie Lenkowsky both resembles, and diverges from, Truman's...
...This is a posture enforced by the cording telephone conversations and straitjacket of nuclear weapons...
...But business does not know (or has not the deal has gone around the table a few times since then...
...one escape unscathed from this by now James Burnham's problem with con- well-established ritual...
...is a boon to us all...
...If unscrupulous tactics are employed(such as the outrageous "stakeout" of television news crews on his front lawn that former national security adviser Richard V. Allen endured), answer in kind, for example, by coming home late at night...
Vol. 19 • October 1986 • No. 10
