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| Coronavirus, CDC |
What is public relations? The Public Relations
Society of America (PRSA) explains
that "public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics" (italics added). The
most basic insight of any public relations crisis communication strategy is
that the truth always comes out. Although most managers – including President
Donald Trump – turn futilely to denial, obfuscation, and cover-up as their major
tools, the truth is that coverups are doomed to fail. We live in an open
society, and a secret that is known by dozens or hundreds of people is no
secret at all. The only question is whether the manager will control the
release of information to serve the public, or, instead, let the damaging
information trickle out over days, weeks, months, or years, repeatedly
reminding public that the organization has fallen short. Good public relations means to tell the truth, always, without exceptions. The
best way to control a problematic story is to release all the information
quickly and accurately, thus turning one’s mistakes into a one-day story. This
frees the organization to deal with the real-world problems and make things
right. Every beginning public relations student learns this.
Nevertheless, President
Trump is inventing nothing new. It was the cover-up, not the initial crime of
burglary, that drove President Richard Nixon out of office. Bill Clinton
thought that he could deny his sleazy affair with Monica Lewinsky. He was
wrong.
By trying to deny
obvious truths, President Trump follows in the long, sad tradition of business
managers, university presidents, and politicians who destroy their credibility
and damage their organizations by misleading the public. Sora Kim, Elizabeth
Johnson Avery, and Ruthann W. Lariscy explained this when they reviewed the most
common responses to crises in an article published in the Public
Relations Review: “Despite
its ineffectiveness, organizations seem to continuously engage in denial,
regardless of their crisis circumstances.”
On February 23, 2020,
Trump
said that the coronavirus was "very much under control in this country." That
quickly turned out to be false, and
coronavirus continued to spread. The Trump administration’s promise that a
million tests would be available in early March proved to be vastly overstated. President Trump’s Oval Office speech
of March 11, 2012 contained several inaccuracies that needed to be corrected immediately: for example, he falsely promised to suspend the “tremendous
amount of trade and cargo but various other things as we get approval.” Speaking
at the CDC on March 7, he falsely said that “Anybody right now and
yesterday – anybody that needs a test gets a test. They’re there. The tests are
there. The tests are beautiful. Anyone who wants a test can get a test.”
This was not only wrong but ridiculous, and testing has still not ramped up.
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| President Trump at March 15 Coronavirus Briefing |
On
the one hand, yes, the world has gotten accustomed to Donald Trump speaking
untruthfully. And, sadly, Trump’s most loyal supporters continue to believe
even his silliest claims. On the other hand, the truth comes out almost as fast
as Donald Trump can lie about it. The predictable result is that he spreads
confusion, damages whatever credibility he has left, and complicates effective
action to deal with the crisis. So, when the Trump
administration promised yesterday, March 15, to have 1.9 million tests by
the end of the week, who is going to believe it? Even if it turns out to be
true?
Denial
is the common theme behind all of Trump’s falsehoods. He tried for weeks to
deny that the coronavirus would even be a problem for the United States. He
denied that the virus could get past his immigration restrictions. He denied
that there was a problem with testing. As usual, denial doesn’t work. Denial
doesn’t work because the problem is real. Effective public relations techniques
would require the Trump administration to confront the problem head-on, as
quickly and energetically as possible. Even now, with the government slowly
lumbering into belated action, the United States continues to fall behind what
it needs to do. And that, my friends, creates the real public relations
problem.
Unfortunately,
President Trump has never placed competent public relations or public affairs
personnel in high positions in the White House. Sean Spicer became a worldwide
joke the minute he pretended that Trump’s inauguration crowd was the largest
ever. Sarah Huckabee Sanders more subtle, but she moved out of her job as it
became obvious that few people in the press were foolish enough to believe what
she said.
Every
good public relations professional understands that, although the client pays
your salary, public relations is first and foremost a social science that serves
the public. Wise organizational leaders know that communicating honestly and forthrightly
is the best way to maintain a long-term positive image. Unfortunately, the
Trump administration’s approach to the public has been far from wise.
The Public Relations
Society of America’s code of ethics specifies that “We adhere to the highest standards of accuracy and
truth in advancing the interests of those we represent and in
communicating with the public.” In public relations, honesty is the best policy
– indeed, in the long run, the only effective policy. If Trump and his
administration want to get the crisis under control, the first thing they need
to do is to tell the truth about absolutely everything, all at once, without
making excuses, while laying out a credible plan to make things better.
Unfortunately, it remains to be seen whether anyone in the Trump administration
possesses the will to do so. Instead, President Trump suffered a case study in incompetent crisis communication.
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