PR Principles

Hello PR Principles Classes:

Welcome to PR Doc -- the blog I created to comment about public relations. Of course, the idea of blogs isn't simply for the professor to blog. Or even for students to post responses. The idea is for students themselves to blog -- to share their thoughts about a topic.

Public relations concerns itself with reputation, issues, crises, images. PR practitioners work in all fields and industries. Just last week, the world watched as a formerly obscure U.S. senator -- Larry Craig of Idaho -- became instantly famous (that is, notorious) following the revelation of his humiliating arrest in a public bathroom in the Minneapolis airport. Arrested on June 11, he pled guilty to a misdemeanor (disorderly conduct) by mail, waiving his Miranda rights (to be represented by a lawyer).

Hoping that the arrest record would never come out, he was surprised (shouldn't have been) when a reporter for a little-known Washington DC newspaper, The Call, broke the arrest story on the basis of tracking down an anonymous tip. Very little is private any more in the Internet age.

The Idaho Statesman (google it) had been sitting on stories about Senator Craig (were the rumors about his sexuality true?). But when the Call broke the men's room story, it was Instant Crisis for Larry Craig. And in the Internet era -- and the era of constant crisis -- Craig's three decades of public service seemed to evaporate in a nanosecond. He held a press conference ("I am not gay. I have never been gay.") He denied he had done anything wrong.

And then a tape recording of his arrest was made available to the news media (I heard it on CNN). Pressure from the Republican senate leadership pushed the repuation-damaged senator to resign from the senate prior to the November election. Idaho hasn't elected a Democrat in a generation -- but there was the sense that the only Republican who could lose a race would be one who had been arrested in a men's room and pled guilty to the charge, telling no one, not the senators, apparently. Craig's committee posts in the senate were taken from him by the senate leaders.

Following the press conference, the news media -- especially cable (CNN, FOX, MSNBC, Larry King, Nancy Grace, Keith Olbermann) -- aired the tape and the humiliating story constantly, with panels of lawyers, psychologists and politicians. Senator John McCain opined on the Letterman Show that Craig should resign.

Finally, on Saturday, September 1, just two days after the arrest story had broken, the senator held a press conference to do what the news media had already announced he would do: resign from the senate. His resignation, he said, would be effective September 30. He continued to deny that he had done anything wrong, asserting he was "entrapped" by the police officer, a 29-year-old cop engaged in a sting, following complaints about sexual cruising in that particular bathroom (it's listed as a cruising place on web sites).

What are the lessons learned so far from this incident? How would a public relations expert analyze what happened? What would a public relations expert advise Senator Craig to do now? Or to do immediately following his arrest and guilt plea? What does this case suggest about the power of "public opinion?" ABout the effect of the Internet on public opinion? ABout the relationship between the law and public opinion? About "crisis communication" in the age of the Internet? ABout American culture and politics? ABout the significance of reputation? About the fragility of reputation? About waiving one's Miranda Rights?

These and other questions make this a fascinating case with political and mass-communication consequences -- and a relevant and timely case for class discussion.

REB Sept. 2, 07