Pfc Bradley Manning

Recent reports from the military have confirmed that 22-year old, Private First Class Bradley Manning was charged in June with 8 violations of the US Criminal Code for leaking military information to the WikiLeaks website.  

Tens of thousands of Afghan war documents were uploaded to the WikiLeaks site. WikiLeaks is a multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public. Time Magazine and other news sources have raved about this sites ability to be an unbiased tool for journalists.  

Julian Assange, Founder of WikieLeaks

Admiral Mike Mullen, Joint Chiefs Chairman

Admiral Mike Mullen, Joint Chiefs ChairmanAdmiral Mike Mullen, Joint Chiefs Chairman, states that, “Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family”. 

This information being international public knowledge could allow for panic within the US for its citizens and military personal in regards it their safety and security. Could this be the start of an international war rumor crisis?

Chad Ochocinco - On the Sidelines

Chad Ochocinco is a current wide receiver on the Bengals football team.  For those of you who don’t know, his name used to be Chad Johnson.  He officially changed his last name to Ochocinco, after his football jersey number, #85.  He likes being in the spotlight, being the one everyone tunes in to see. 

Terrell Owens - This says it all...

“Ocho Uno is coming 2 town!! Hey Robin, Batman will b there soon!”

 So, here is the interesting point…..who really is Batman, and who is Robin?  To me, they are both Batman…….neither one of them wants to be second fiddle to the other.  In fact, here is a quote from Chad Ochocinco on the addition of Terrell Owens on the field:

“We’re gonna have a great offense. In a way I don’t think people really understand the impact that Terrell will have on us as an offense. Having his presence out there. Since the game of football has been played has there ever been two receivers of this caliber on the field at the same time? There’s always a number one, there’s always a number two, and there’s somewhat of a drop-off at number two, but I think its sorta evened out as far as level of play and level of consistency that we’ve had over the years…”

So, in this scenario, who is #1, and who is#2?? 

I am not sure they will be able to exist on the same field at the same time.  I guess time will tell.  If they do end up learning how to play together, figuring out how to share the spotlight, and managing their images, we may just end up seeing them play together in the Super Bowl.  If not, it will be just another version of Batman and Robin.

Citibank Mobile Banking App

“During a recent review, we discovered that our U.S. Citi Mobile iPhone banking app was accidentally saving information related to customer accounts in a hidden file on their iPhones,” said Citibank spokeswoman Natalie Riper. “This information may also have been saved on their computer if they had been synchronizing their iPhone with their computer via iTunes.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, Citi performed security tests before and after release of the app, but failed to detect the problem. The bank is looking into why they didn’t find the vulnerability sooner.

“We have no reason to believe that our customers’ personal information has been accessed or used inappropriately by anyone, i.e., there has been no data breach,”

While it is unclear how long Citi knew of the app’s problem, they clearly had time to address the issue and have new security measures coded into the newest version of the app before news of the issue hit the media or before a data breach. Crisis averted, for now.

With an estimated 10 million users of mobile banking services, this incident should serve as a warning signal of potential crises to other financial institutions that offer mobile banking apps.

John Hering, CEO of Lookout, a mobile security provider said, “Most consumers and app developers don’t know what is happening in their apps, because it’s moving so fast. Apps are proliferating so quickly. We will see more and more of this.”

 It has been a little more than 100 days since the BP oil rig exploded in the Gulf killing 11 and creating the biggest oil disaster in history. During the first 100 days, Hayward managed to stick his foot in his mouth at least a half dozen times, he frustrated numerous lawmakers and made countless people create a dart board sporting his face. Although Hayward’s last 100 days on the job have been trying and he recently lost his job, he is walking away with an $18 million compensation package and a new job. Not too shabby for being a public relations nightmare of a CEO.

 In lieu of reviewing these cringe-worthy statements, let’s investigate how BP and Mr. Hayward could have handled this tragedy with a bit more grace.

 Step 1: Arm Hayward, a geologist by trade, with statements that leverage mortification and corrective action. Communicate to the media that BP is gathering data to try and determine the cause of the explosion. Most importantly, communicate BP will do everything it can to stop the spill and try and repair the Gulf.

 Step 2: Gather evidence and data points around the safety of the rig. If there were problems, acknowledge them. Don’t make excuses. Instead, communicate that all your other rigs are being looked at to ensure they don’t have the same problem.

 Step 3: Eliminate minimization or denial from any/all image management strategies. Own up to the tragedy and describe it as such using mortification and corrective action in each and every statement.

 Step 4: Immediately launch a public relations campaign that includes television commercials communicating BP will do everything to try and make it right. Tell the public how they can help. Perhaps BP could encourage individuals to donate money to wildlife organizations, etc. A “let’s all work together to fix this tragedy” strategy may help BP direct some of the attention to clean up versus BP’s downfalls.

 Step 5: Communicate what data points BP’s team has gathered about the explosion and the different tactics they are using to stop the spill. BP’s Web site offers solid information about the clean up efforts. However, BP has failed to leverage the site. Direct the public to the site as much as possible giving the company an opportunity to frame the story.

 Step 6: If Hayward proves he can’t make an intelligent statement, remove him from CEO or at least put an alternative talking head in front of the press. Give him one chance before you pull the plug on his days of being a spokesperson. After all, he is a geologist. In addition to coaching Hayward’s statements, ensure any/all public appearances featuring Hayward have something to do with dealing with the crisis. That means no yacht races or fancy dinners with the family until the spill is fixed and clean up is well on its way.

 Clearly BP’s team doesn’t have, or failed to use, a crisis management plan in response to this tragedy. Considering BP’s history has been littered with a handful of tragedies, it is clear BP leadership needs to make a crisis management plan a company priority. Perhaps a graduate from this course can right the ship.

Perhaps I should clarify the word “loser.” LeBron James, still the first and only player to have ESPN televise his high school game – and to enormous ratings – appointed himself with the nickname “King” James at the age of 18. That name that has stuck throughout his career. And in bolting his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, for the Miami Heat, James signed a lucrative 6-year, $110M deal on July 9th, 2010. With that transition comes the additional NBA superstar talents of Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade; two players who, along with James, make the Heat immediate contenders to win a NBA Championship. Not to mention the opportunity to change locales from blue-collar Cleveland, OH, to sultry and festive Miami, FL. So the list reads: royalty. Check. High-priced contract. Check. Contending team. Check. Warm weather and great nightlife. Check. Sounds like a winner to me.

Except, on his way to those riches, he burned all the image capital that he had invested in Cleveland, to the point where he’s no longer welcomed in his own hometown. He laid waste to other major cities including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, who were all left at the altar unceremoniously during his weeklong courting. Adding injury to insult, he made the questionable decision to air his intentions live on ESPN in a 60-minute special called…well, “The Decision.”

And as ESPN, the near-monopolistic television sports network, has been known to do with other programming, they over-hyped the event. Frequent radio and TV commercials, Twitter reminders, text message alerts – anything you can think of. All for the sake of ratings, and caressing the ego of the “King.”

The entire affair was seen as a fiasco…an hour-long debacle to make a proclamation that takes mere seconds to utter. Covered, cunningly, in the shroud of charity, with all proceeds from the commercial sponsorship going to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. But the ratings that ESPN drew were enormous. And that’s what they expected. The “King” delivered…again.

In the last couple of weeks, with other sports to cover, ESPN moved on. With a summer to enjoy and preparations for next season with his new team, James moved on. Until this past Saturday, July 24th, “King” James visited America’s most sinful castle, Las Vegas. ESPN sent a reporter to cover him. The story that the reporter brought back was not a positive one. It was about a child trapped in a man’s body. With all the money and power, but none of the modesty and maturity. A compelling piece, showing the egotistical side of James; the side that could spawn such a concept as “The Decision.” The reporter ran with story. Hours after posting it, ESPN brass had it removed immediately. However, numerous forums and blogs had already previewed the link and posted the content on their respective sites. The message got out anyway. And now, in the last several hours, ESPN has been trying desperately to convince its visitors that they had every intention on re-posting the story. But forgive us, if for once, ESPN does not draw high ratings with this “King” James coverage. America has already witnessed it on other web pages. And now the King’s popularity is going further into exile, everywhere but Miami, of course. So ESPN must stand by him, as they have always done. Through all the negative criticism. Through all the bad press. And ‘til death do they part.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5360533

http://www.sportsbybrooks.com/espn-lebron-story-inadvertently-posted-online-28751

How oil leaks and spills happen and can be better prevented is a matter for engineers. Executive managers and communications professionals engaged in the oil industry must concern themselves with how to respond to the crisis of a leak or spill. One critical lesson offered by past crises, such as the BP leak in the Gulf and the Exxon spill off of Alaska: act fast. (Or, at least appear to act quickly.)

Americans consume 20 million barrels each day. Is disaster inevitable? If you are an oil company, perhaps you should plan as if it is a when-not-if scenario. First on the to-do list is mobilize quickly to address the problem. It is important to not only attack the cause but visibly attempt to remedy the situation.

The media reports what is sees and hears, and it will eventually set the tone of public opinion on the oil company’s behaviors. But so far the media is reporting in the favor of the culprit, a Houston company called Enbridge. The Associated Press’ headline reads “Oil company ramps up effort to clean Mich. oil spill.”  The writer waits until the twenty-second paragraph to mention the numerous other spills attributed to the company in just the last decade. So, if you work for Enbridge, planning for a spill crisis is more like a not-when-but-how-often scenario. More importantly, the media coverage so far leads with how great of an effort both Enbridge and the EPA are making to contain or correct the spill.

But Enbridge can be doing much more to avoid a full-blown crisis. It ought to be throwing the kitchen sink at the issue…and make sure everyone sees them do it. It ought to not cancel press conferences as it did today due to “scheduling conflicts.” It has failed to schedule a new briefing.

This summer BP and the US government were heavily criticized for not acting urgently enough (even if they actually did). After the Exxon Valdez ran a ground and began leaking thousands of gallons of oil in 1989, critics claim Exxon failed to act quickly and with enough resources.

Message to oil companies: when a spill occurs, put every available resource on the case immediately and discuss your efforts openly with and through the media. Being seen as taking responsibility to solve the problem is far better than playing defense in response to accusations causing it and not making amends. You can minimize the impact of the crisis.

Source: Andre Jackson, Detroit Free Press

On May 7th, David M. Kinchen, Huntingtonnews.net Editor, interviewed Rene Henry regarding the handling of crisis management by BP.  Henry wrote a book on crisis management, “Communicating in a Crisis: A Guide for Management” and gave his opinion of how BP has handled the situation so far.  “… BP, in my opinion, has done everything by the book. They accepted responsibility and said it was their fault. BP said they would make full restitution and were responsible for all costs, whatever the cost. The company apologized. And the executives showed remorse for the victims. “  While this may have been true to a degree at the time of this interview, I believe the situation got worse as time passed by.

In early June, ,Kent Jarrell, senior vice president and director of litigation communications for Washington consulting firm APCO Worldwide was asked how BP was handling their crisis management.  He said there are two phases companies should go through when there is a crisis this big.  The first, is “getting your communications in order in the midst of an unfolding crisis where you don’t know what’s going to happen next.”  He said that BP did a bad job of this, as they would report one thing, and yet the media found out something entirely different was happening.  I agree with his assessment.  Media reports were all over the place.

The second phase, according to Jarrell, is to have “a second communications group that is not working on the day-to-day crisis.”  This would allow another set of people to be working on the crisis management.  Since the media is always looking for the next big break, the second group can be focusing on the bigger picture and can prepare better communications to the media.  This would have helped BP during their crisis management.  (For more on the interview with Jarrell, click this link:  http://www.thestreet.com/story/10773867/bps-crisis-management-terrible-expert-says.html.)

A lot can happen in a month.  I believe the crisis management and communication by BP changed several times even over the course of a month.  Since we live in a society where we want everything now, and when the media is there hanging on every last word spoken and action taken, it is imperative that companies make sure they have a solid communication plan in place. 

BP could have handled things much better.  Let’s hope they have learned lessons now and have taken notes!

Tea Party leaders are being criticized for not doing enough to renounce the claims made by the NAACP.  There has been a lot of back and forth in the media between the two organizations.  Party leaders on both sides have been up in arms and have been involved in name-calling, mudslinging, making false accusations, etc.  This is definitely a topic that has people fired up.

CNN recently invited Mark Skoda, leader of the Tea Party movement in Memphis, and Hilary Shelton, Washingon Bureau NAACP Director, to have an open dialogue on the issue on air.  Unlike previous on-air conversations between organization leaders, this dialogue actually went very well and ended on a positive note.  It seems that Mr. Skoda and Mr. Shelton have been well-trained in how to be a good spokesperson.  Unfortunately, the idea of speaking with “one voice” seems to be lost on both of these organizations and the dialogue seen here is more the exception than the rule.

Is security lax at LAX?

Claim – The airport police force is spread too thin because of cutbacks.

Response – The Los Angeles World Airport (LAWA) executive director, Gina Marie Lindsey, denied the claim in a Los Angeles Times article saying the number of police officers grew from 263 to 447 today. To be clear, she also denied the allegation that the budget was reduced stating that it has increased annually since 9/11 and went up 3.5 percent for fiscal year 2010-2011. Lindsey went on to bolster the organization’s commitment to security saying it is one of the safest airports in the world due and that LAX has met or exceeded the Transportation Security Administration’s police deployment requirements.

Claim – The number of random vehicle checks has been reduced leaving the airport in greater danger of large-truck, car and luggage bomb attacks.

Response – LAWA officials also denied this claim stating there has been no reduction in the number of random vehicle checks — about 22,000 monthly.

Claim – LAX has failed to implement permanent checkpoints at six entrances as recommended by the Rand Corporation, a think tank that studied the airport’s security in 2004 and 2006.

Response – Nancy Castles, a spokesperson for LAX, told CNN that Rand’s recommendations “weren’t implementable” due to traffic issues and the airport opted for a randomized checkpoint system developed in conjunction with engineering students at the University of Southern California. To transcend the allegation of failure and bolster the airports alternative, she underscored the advantage of randomization as it “keeps terrorists unbalanced, so they can’t size you up and attack you.” In addition, she noted that airports across the U.S. are adopting this method.

Despite LAWA’s strategic response, the matter isn’t going away. It’s no surprise that the accusations have gained the attention of lawmakers – the risks are evident and the airport has a crisis history. According to the L.A. times article, LAX:

• Is the country’s third-busiest airport and one of California’s top terrorist targets.
• Has also been the site of two bombings, two attempted bombings and a gunman attack in the last four decades.

The police union may have detected prodromes of a larger issue and by bringing them to light, officials and lawmakers have a chance to examine and potentially reduce risk factors. Before they can do that, the groups must first reconcile their differing interpretations of the potential crisis dimensions.

Susan F.

Nestlé’s ‘hush’ tactic of forcing the removal of video was their first mistake in handling their social media crisis, says Mario Sgambelluri, i-Media Connection Blog Reporter.  This strategy was unsuccessful in silencing Greenpeace from making its claims known to the world.  Greenpeace chose other online platforms to spread its accusations. They reposted the video on Vimeao.  Greenpeace used Facebook and Twitter to alert their supporters that their video was removed from YouTube and to keep the discussion going regarding their concerns with Nestlé’s practices in Asia. Greenpeace created a micro website that housed all of these reports, claims, research, a tweaked Kit Kat logo, and of course the controversial video.

As a result of Greenpeace changing its homepage to reflect the altered Kit Kat logo, postings on Facebook and Twitter urging its supporters to stop Nestle from destroying rainforests for palm oil, some Facebook users took it upon themselves to change their profile pictures to the mock-up logo which reads, “Nestle Killer” instead of Kit Kat. Greenpeace supporters also posted comments on Nestle’s Facebook page encouraging them to stop killing the rainforests and endagered animals.

The Nestle palm oil scandal is an example of an organization trying to resolve a crisis.  And in this case, Nestle was facing a severe social media crisis.  In my opinion, one can only handle crisis or image management when a crisis arises.  But I do feel that crisis management is a small function of image management, because how an organization handles a problem will determine how the public and consumers view the organization.