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In her Dec. 6 column, headlined: “The Lady and the Tiger,” Maureen discussed the public relations nightmares of Tiger Woods, whose car crash exposed a trail of indiscretions, and Desiree Rogers, social secretary for President Obama, who came in for criticism for mishandling the controversy involving alleged White House party crashers, Michaele and Tareq Salahi.
Of Mr. Woods and Ms. Rogers, she said: “They presumptuously put themselves beyond authority and, despite all the public relations support on earth, broke the first rule of scandal: Don’t stonewall. Admit your mistake before others piece together the embarrassing facts.”
My sentiments exactly. This was Tiger Woods’ course of action after his personal issues came to light: He hid in his house for days, refusing to talk to the police—let alone the press. The result was wild speculation, such as an online story that his wife had chased him with a golf club and had smashed his car window before the crash.
A NoRiskZone reader, “Debbie,” commented: “I couldn't agree more with your conclusion, Caroline. It's a textbook case of crisis management. The question that is swirling around in the public relations world is, ‘Where the heck was his PR person?’ I'm guessing that Tiger probably got some good advice (mirroring your recommendation), but chose instead to deal with it his own way…Now he's thinking about going on Oprah's show?…Interesting how he lambasted the media for interfering with his ‘personal’ life and yet, he may well be choosing a medium to plead his case…”
The topic of dealing with the media during a crisis has been addressed by editors at National Underwriter speaking at several conferences, including Editor Sam Friedman at the Risk and Insurance Management Society, and yours truly at the Public Risk Management Association. The message is this: Be up-front and honest as soon as a situation is uncovered. Hiding something only leads to wild guessing games and can ruin a heard-earned reputation.
As with other sports celebrities, politicians, large and small screen-stars, and company CEOs, Tiger Woods seemed to believe he was above being caught. He even left a trail of text messages and voice mails as evidence. And now that former girlfriends are coming out of the woodwork, reports are he is writing checks to shut them up—and to keep his wife around.
He could have taken a PR lesson from David Letterman, allegedly being threatened by blackmail for indiscretions with staff members. It might have been easy to just pay the guy off, but Mr. Letterman quickly circumvented the issue by addressing it on national television. Within a few weeks the whole thing had blown over.
As risk managers know, some risks just can’t be anticipated. When a problem is discovered, however, it needs to be dealt with—not swept under the rug in hopes it will go away. It may be years down the road, as was the case with Hugh Grant, Eddie Murphy and others, but it will surface.
Obviously, Tiger Woods did not apply basic risk management precautions to his own reputational exposure. While he took care of his golf game and made sure his image was up to par, he was eroding the very foundation of his brand.
Caroline McDonald
Assistant Managing Editor