A gentle reminder

A few months ago, I was at a function for one of the big businesses on the island and I couldn’t help but overhear this shrill female voice complaining about a reporter calling her up at 5:45 in the afternoon to get her comments on an issue. She conveyed in so many words that what the reporter did was inappropriate as it was already outside office hours and he shouldn’t have been disturbing her at that hour as she was already outside the office. I turned around and saw that the complainant was the public information officer of the company. I was very much tempted to point it out to her that, as the PIO of one of the biggest companies in Micronesia, it was her job to respond to the reporter’s questions, whether it was office hours or not. In fact, the company should fire her because she doesn’t know her job at all.

A PIO provides the public face and voice of a company or an agency and it is their job to be at the frontline of whatever issue or story that crops up regarding their company or agency. PIOs are the defenders of their company’s reputation, the mouthpiece of its officials, and the first responders whenever any negative news comes out about their company or agency. They should therefore have the flexibility and the intelligence to be always on their toes because, at any moment, they could be called on to present their side of a story. Reporters have different deadlines and different work schedules compared with the rest of the 9-to-5 working stiffs. In fact, reporters are 24-7 people because news could happen at any moment. PIOs therefore work around the schedules of reporters and not the other way around. Sure, you as a PIO can refuse to entertain a reporter’s questions but it will ultimately be your loss, not the reporter’s. During the next news cycle, it will be your company or agency’s ass that will be the grist of the media mill. You will then have to wait for the next news cycle to make your views or opinions known and, by then, the negative news would have already percolated throughout the community. That’s why PIOs are also expected to be in tip-top shape for damage control. And controlling damage works best when done before the news lands on the papers, not after.

Which brings me to the “No comment” comment. Maureen Maratita, the publisher for the Marianas Business Journal, spoke some months ago before the Saipan Rotary Club and outlined a few pointers on what businesses should never say to a reporter. They were solid pieces of advice that any PIO—whether for a private company or a public agency—should take to heart. One of the things that stood out in her presentation was her discussion on “No comment.” I couldn’t emphasize this enough. When you, as a PIO, responds to a question with “No comment,” what you are actually saying is, “Don’t ask me because I don’t know anything.” It conveys the appearance or perception that your company or agency doesn’t trust you enough to let you in on the stories that are important or sensitive. Either that or you’re trying to hide something. And any reporter worth his or her salt isn’t going to let such a non-answer stop him from tracking down a story or finding someone who will actually give a comment. There are several ways to skin a cat and, when an official refuses to talk about an issue or to comment on one, a reporter still has several avenues left to pursue a story and the good ones will eventually get it.

Sitting on a particularly big story won’t work either because things never happen in a vacuum. There will always be other people who know about it and, sooner or later, the story will come out. So a “No comment” will never stop a story from leaking or reaching the large ears of the media. In fact, “No comment” only makes thing worse for the people affected because it already paints a perception of deceit or cowardice, an inability to confront the issues head on because you don’t have the bullets to make an honest retort.

When a PIO actually doesn’t know anything, when you get blindsided by a question to which you don’t know the answer, don’t respond with a “No comment.” Tell the reporter that you’ll look into it, do your homework, and actually get back to the reporter with your prepared response.

And, by the way, it is not the job of a newspaper to make anybody smell good. Our job is only to tell the story and to tell it fairly and factually. Nor is it the job of the PIO to stomp down a negative story or to complain about negative publicity. PIOs are hired to make the company or agency look good but their primary responsibility, the reason why they were hired in the first place, is to defend their company or agency whenever something negative comes up in the media. Their raison d étre is bad publicity and their first job is to make sure that they get the side of the company or agency covered. They should therefore have the hide of a rhino to withstand bad press, the panache to handle awkward questions with aplomb and a smile, and the tremendous capacity to remain friendly with the press even when you’d rather take out their lungs through their nostrils.

(The views expressed are strictly that of the author. Vallejera is the editor of the Saipan Tribune.)