PUTTING OUT wildfires serves to teach lessons on how to handle their metaphorical counterpart in media. Forest fires like those that break out in California are doused with thousands of gallons of water, first from fire trucks and then helicopters from above. When already too widespread, fire is fought with fire. The direction of the blaze is computed and the path it will take is intentionally put to the torch to deprive the fiery beast of its fuel, and then just burn itself out.
Damage control in the practice of “reputation management” (formerly just referred to as PR) applies to saving brands and personalities from being scorched. Here are some fire-fighting techniques usually employed.
Deprive the room of oxygen. A reputational attack requires the target to change the subject or make the issue too complicated to follow. For a scandal spreading like wildfire, one strategy then is to confuse the issue and try to put boring material in front of the hungry beast. Just the clarifications alone can turn away the firebrands — are you referring to “primus inter pares”?
Start other fires. This diversionary tactic, like the above involves reeling in more personalities rather than issues. This allows the original group to get some breathing space as the media frenzy feeds on new targets. The intended reaction to more personalities in the picture is a conclusion that the whole forest (maybe even the whole country) is on fire. The differentiation between good and evil becomes blurred as everyone on the front page is tarred with some sort of scandal — she was the go-between in the transaction.
Deny, deny, deny. Politicians, or celebrities for that matter, panic when they are in the crosshairs of a public scandal. Their first reaction is denial — you know who I am. I am not capable of this scam I’m being accused of. This denial strategy of “this will all go away” is the default option when the crisis is just starting. It seldom works.
Denial does not stay passive as it evolves into aggression. The aggressive version turns the table on the accusers and questions their motives. The scandal is thrown back to the accuser, hinting at guilt for similar anomalies being eventually tagged as an even bigger violator. This is notable in dealing with drug pushers — there are bigger syndicates out there.
Appoint a spokesperson not involved in the mess. As reputational attacks now involve legal messes, lawyers are now increasingly employed to serve as human shields. They no longer limit themselves to their clients’ protestations of innocence, they too climb the bandwagon of obfuscation whose aim is to confuse the issue, trying their best to put the accusers on trial by publicity. They are masters of delaying tactics — we are awaiting the decision of the court on the evidence presented. This is a variation of “no comment.”
While a decade ago, the preferred method of attack and counterattack was the use of privilege speeches in the legislative halls or the employment of defenders (and attackers) among traditional media (including radio), the preferred channel nowadays is social media. “Troll farms” don’t grow vegetables but turn people into them.
“Influencers” are the new opinion makers. They even consider celebrities passé. If we ask you to name the top three influencers, you would not be able to summon even a single name. This was not true for the old-style columnists, especially those with a daily pulpit in a mass-circulation broadsheet or tabloid. Not even talk shows now are utilized for firefighting. Remember those contentious debate-style formats with a moderator to reduce the saliva sprays?
The effectivity of firefighting is measured in terms of the targets getting fewer media mentions as former accusers loom larger as culprits themselves, with their holier-than-thou stance fraying as their online defenders abandon them.
Dousing fires relies on running out of fuel. The news items change with the usual foreign incursions of ships in Philippine waters and the hosing of fishermen, or the coming of a super typhoon. With all the noise generated by both accusers and accused (changing places now and then) the social media frenzy just loses momentum. The fire can just burn itself out with the absence of fuel.
Reputational risk is a major concern of fire-fighters as well as those who start fires for personal profit. This used to be called extortion. Now it’s just the stuff of social media and online tabloids.
Tony Samson is chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda