The horrific Boston Marathon bombing was a very unhappy déjà vu for all of us involved with the Olympic Park Bombing in 1996. Not only was I conducting a photo shoot in the sound tower where the bomb was placed that night, but as the chief publicist and site coordinator for the Global Olympic Village venue, I was on the crisis team that had to manage the aftermath of the explosion.
For better or worse, our country has been through this before, and I think one reason we have been able to bounce back from these senseless, insane events is because of the professionalism and reserve of event managers, law enforcement and civic leaders who were smart enough to have a plan, execute it and keep their mouths shut until the evidence was in.
When mass tragedies transpire, a million questions emanate from a million different vested interests, not the least of which are the victims and their families. The most important thing any crisis team can do is to control the message -- not to spin it or to withhold vital information. Rather, it's to give the victims and all of society the respect that their questions are heard, valued and provide them with the confidence that answers will be provided as soon as answers are available.
The year 1996 provided the best and worst examples of crisis communications. The worst, was the media lynching of Richard Jewell, the security guard originally accused of perpetrating the Olympic Park Bombing. The best was Valu-Jet President Lewis Jordan's measured, adroit communications after Flight 592 crashed in the Everglades.
Embarrassed and caught short with the world watching, law enforcement officials, civic and political interests were determined to prove the swift hand of justice would serve to restore the honor lost after the bomb blast interrupted the Atlanta Olympic Games. Profilers leaked a lone wolf theory that fed an already frenzied media who found the perfect patsy for the glare of the spotlight. His name was Richard Jewell, and he looked like he was born by central casting. He was Wonderbread white, spoke with a rural Georgia twang and he was big-cop-wannabe.
He was also innocent.
The rush to find a perp resulted in something far worse than a public scapegoating. It was a media lynching, and the only result was justice delayed that allowed the real terrorist, Eric Robert Rudolph, to explode three more bombs in two cities and go on the lam in the Appalachian mountains for several years. In their rush to fill a perceived communications vacuum, civic and law enforcement leaders allowed the media to run wild with thinnest conjecture composed as facts.
Ironically, as the Olympic Park Bombing investigation was starting, the very best example of crisis communications was in full swing. Weeks before the torch was lit in Atlanta, 110 passengers and crew were killed when a Valu-Jet airliner crashed in the Florida swamps. Company president Lewis Jordan was out in front with statements that neither prevaricated nor pointed accusing fingers. When statements by witnesses on the ground suggested the flight had exploded in midair, questions about terrorism were understandably raised by the media. Unlike too many CEOs, Mr. Jordan was unafraid of not having all of the answers. He unabashedly admitted he did not have any answers because not all of the questions were yet known and that the most important questions he was answering at the time were those of the family members of the victims. Later, as the investigation unfolded and his company was found at fault, Mr. Jordan forthrightly addressed the deficiencies with an earnest "the buck stops here" tone. From a PR perspective, Mr. Jordan's crisis response was pitch perfect.
So, this week, when I observed Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis respond to reporter questions with, "You can draw your own conclusions based on what happened," I had to shake my head. That is the kind of statement that begets irresponsible punditry which begets irresponsible journalism. We witnessed examples of that 48 hours after the marathon bomb when CNN tripped all over itself and the truth by erroneously trumpeting that an arrest had been made in Boston only to rescind the "breaking news" with much egg on the talking heads' faces within hours. Even worse, the New York Post declared two unidentified males on its cover as "Bag Mem" being sought by law enforcement without a shred of credible law enforcement sourcing that those people were suspects.
When will they learn that viewers and readers value facts they can trust more than an ersatz scoop?
Please understand. I know full well that Commissioner Davis was challenged by his own personal sense of tragedy. Professionals, no matter how esteemed, are people first. But, in my opinion, he made a misstep that first day, and I hope his team helps him avoid them moving forward.
My advice to all, including the media: stick to the facts. The facts are dramatic enough to keep the audiences in rapt attention. Limit the editorializing to realm of emotional sympathy. There are plenty of riveting stories to tell without making stuff up. If you try to wing it, you might "Richard-Jewell" someone and end up crashing in your own swamp.