At the risk of beating a dead horse, or in this case a live but perhaps soon-to-be-politically dead Weiner, the latest sex scandal involving a prominent male politician is yet another textbook example of how not to handle a public relations crisis.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat, admitted sending a sexually suggestive photo to a woman online despite the fact that last week he denied that he sent it, instead suggesting that his Twitter account was hacked.
Put aside the fact that, first and foremost, a married man in his position should not be sending sexually suggestive photos to a young woman over the Internet. But he did, he got caught, and he had options for handling the crisis. He chose the wrong one — lying.
Examples of high-profile people cooking up stories after they’re caught with their hand in the cookie jar are easy to find, yet we continually see people try to use lying to the media (and thus the public) as a strategy. Think Tiger Woods, former President Bill Clinton and former Democratic vice president nominee John Edwards, to name a few.
I understand what’s at stake in these instances. From a personal standpoint, marriage and profession are certainly among the top concerns that might drive these folks to lie.
Credibility should also be at the top of the concern list. Despite what history tells us about those who publicly lie, time and time again, it’s the route often chosen. Once the photo showing Weiner in underwear from the waist down became public, his credibility and judgment were immediately called into question. But Weiner’s credibility wasn’t necessarily destroyed. It could have been salvaged.
Weiner’s strategy of meeting with multiple, top-tier media outlets was a good start. Unfortunately, the message he was delivering was way off. Weiner should have given a mea culpa. He should have admitted to sending the photo and, in light of emerging details about his penchant for this type of behavior, conceded in an appropriate way that he has an issue here.
These things aren’t easy to do or say, especially when you’re hoping to save a marriage that is less than a year old, as is the case with Weiner. But his credibility stood a much better chance of survival had he done so. As it stands now, if he does not resign and instead remains in office, the majority of people have to question what he says going forward, regardless of the topic. He has cast a shadow of doubt over himself that will taint his words for a long time, maybe forever.
As a counselor and adviser to clients who are working very hard to position themselves in a favorable way among their constituents and the general public, I would have spoken very directly and very honestly with Weiner, urging him to view me as a confidant. With a situation like this, it’s critical that all details related to the problem at hand are on the table so they can be considered. There can be none left off, though not all of them necessarily need to be brought to light.
Though Weiner needed to react immediately, a proactive plan that took into consideration all of the information related to the situation, and that addressed the crisis in a quick and truthful manner, would have been the right strategy. With such a plan, the likelihood would have been high that the crisis would have at least moved out of the media spotlight and therefore preserved some level of credibility. Instead, here we are a week later with Weiner finally admitting the truth, a move that has inflamed the controversy and subjected the congressman to another round of public flogging.
I’m very interested to know how others would have handled this issue. Are there other considerations to make in instances such as this, where a misstep has created a crisis that could quickly explode if not handled properly?
In my experience, both personal and professional, there’s one thing I’ve learned about lying. It begets lying. And sooner or later, you’ve created such a complex, damaging situation that, when the truth finally comes to light, has seriously – perhaps irreparably – damaged trust and credibility.
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Jason Snyder is a vice president for WordWrite Communications
