Hands Off the Press

An Object Lesson in Media Relations…

In San Francisco, ABC7’s Dan Noyes had an interesting (and for PR pros, instructive) run-in with Laguna Honda Hospital PR chief Marc Slavin.

Noyes was probing allegations that Laguna Honda administrators inappropriately used money from the Patient Gift Fund.

On the YouTube page for this video (below) it says

According to Noyes, “Hospital Director Mivic Hirose ignored our phone calls for an interview. So, we showed up at her town hall meeting at the hospital.” That’s when the chief of community relations Marc Slavin stepped in and repeatedly patted Noyes with a hand. Each time, Noyes warned, “Do not touch me,” and one point Noyes threatened to call the cops. But like a brother bugging his little sister, Slavin continued his touchy-feely ways with Noyes and the camerawoman.

Check it out:

I worked for a few years as a public relations staffer in two major metro hospitals. I had to deal with the best and worst of the journalistic profession on events as catastrophic as the Murrah Terrorist Attack to stories about overweight kids to (sadly) routine updates on shooting victims. Almost always, reporters were professional and respectful of the operations of the hospital, understanding that it was my job to protect the privacy of our patients as well as provide an environment where our staff could do their work without distraction.

Most reporters would call ahead to schedule an interview or ask for a statement when a story was brewing. We would do our very best to accommodate them while meeting our legal, patient privacy and ethical obligations.

I do recall, however, being infuriated by certain tactics used by a tiny minority of journalists. This included the “gotcha” where they showed up unannounced with what I believed to be a clear agenda to cause trouble for the cameras.

Besides all other reasonable motives (professionalism, maturity, civility, etc.) that is one reason why I would never, ever, touch a journalist in any way–no matter how infuriating their tactics. Nor would I raise my voice or do anything provocative. My job in those situations was to get the journalist out of the building and reschedule the interview–not to make the journalist angry or put on a show for the cameras. My job was to minimize damage, not escalate it.

True, Slavin rattled Noyes, effectively taking the focus off the investigative reporting and putting it on the reporter himself, but at what price?

It’s a fairly textbook case of winning the battle but losing the war. Slavin made an ass of himself. He made the hospital–already on the hook for some pretty nasty allegations–look like it’s staffed by idiots. As I write this, the YouTube page for this video has nearly 17,000 hits, and that doesn’t begin to cover the blogs, news sites and other places where this story is being discussed.

So instead of cooling the situation down and seeking a way to get the reporter an interview (nevermind planning ahead and responding to allegations in a timely way to ensure his boss was not vulnerable to an unannounced impromptu visit), Slavin has guaranteed that the allegations have been repeated thousands of times, across the globe.

Ideally, the relationship between PR and the news media should be  a balance based on mutual respect (even if it’s a grudging respect), professionalism and ethical behavior. If one side of this balance fails to meet those standards, it’s still incumbent upon the other to remain professional and keep cool. In this case, the PR “pro” reacted in an unprofessional way to a reporter’s provocative tactic.

He should have known better. Guys like Marc Slavin make the entire profession look bad. In future I hope he keeps his hands to himself.