158: How to Respond Publicly to a Tragic Event of Your Own Doing: Ten Steps to Control the Narrative During a Crisis

Last Thursday it was reported that actor Alec Baldwin had discharged a prop gun that had killed the cinematographer on the film he was working on. Also injured was the director. This feature film titled Rust was on location in New Mexico for the producers of this film and one of those producers being Alec Baldwin, this was a crisis this morning. A search warrant in the urgent investigation into that horrifying movie set shooting, revealing how that loade firearm ended up in Alec Baldwin's hands. Police say Baldwin fired a prop gun accidentally killing a cinematographer and injuring the director. During the production of the western film Rust. We have learned today the prop gun on the set may have been loaded with a live round instead of a blank. All these little things that are coming out now, the crew talking about it being unsafe, not only talking about the gun situation, but there's all these other elements during COVID Making a movie like it just makes you really angry that people haven't learned how to make everyone safe. Welcome to a podcast that helps communicators create the right message at the right time and deliver it in the right place. The accident on the Rust film set is a story that really took hold in my world, my world of crisis communication. My first thought was, well, I had to put on the crisis hat. What does this do for Alec Baldwin's reputation? An already strained reputation, a reputation of being a hothead. If you remember, Baldwin had allegedly assaulted a photographer for videotaping him and his wife at the time, Kim Basinger and their three day old daughter. That was in 1995. That same daughter, Ireland, many years later was recorded her father, Alec Baldwin on a voicemail where he had called her a thoughtless pig. Another story about Alec Baldwin. Remember the time he was booted from an American Airlines flight for refusing to turn off his phone where he was playing the game Words with Friends? And then there was another accusation of an assault and battery on a New York city street in 2018. This guy has history, but this guy is also one of my favorite actors. Love him from 30 Rock. Love him from the Hunt for the Red October 11 ping only. But now Alec Baldwin has a new problem and one that will likely stay on his Wikipedia page forever. Now, curiously, when I had heard about the shooting on the set of the film, it was last Thursday evening. I started writing the outline for this podcast on Friday. So that's when I started doing the research in earnest. So I went to the Wikipedia page for Alec Baldwin. That was my first port of call for researching this podcast. And I was surprised, not surprised, that many of Alec Baldwin's incidents were missing from his Wikipedia page and it made me wish I had gone there the night before to see if it was scrubbed overnight or if it was scrubbed previously. Missing from the Wikipedia page was the incident with his daughter about the voicemail. Also the words with friends booed off the airplane. Also missing was his wife Hilaria's issue with her non Spanish roots. I'll include a link into the show notes with all the podcasts that I had discussed this before, but the Wikipedia page a total scrub. That maneuver is a way to reframe someone's reputation. It is possible, but I'm only speculating here, that Alec Baldwin's team did that around the time of Hilaria's PR problem when she was finally found out that she had been peddling the story of her being originally from Spain, Mallorca, Spain, when in fact she was a girl from Boston and her family only vacationed there. Or it could have been scrubbed, you know, last Thursday, we don't know. But on the podcast this week, let's talk about what can turn into a very costly mistake if you don't plan properly for an unforeseen tragedy and a tragedy of your own doing, either you personally or your organization or something close to you. Can you plan for an unforeseen tragedy? Well, not the specifics, certainly you can't do that, but you can plan for the unexpected. I've done a number of interviews lately about reputation management and one of the things that I mention is this idea of the black swan theory. That's an often told theory that that these events are quote unquote, black swan events. They're unexpected events that you can't plan for. An example would be 9 11. Who would ever plan for 9 11? But now I think we live in a world of black swan events. People in my business, I can plan for the black swan events because they're everywhere. These swans now are swimming in a pond where we have to find the white swan, the common crisis that happens, we don't see those anymore. And the reason why is because so many people are prepared for those. But these unexpected events, even though we can't plan the details, we can plan for the unexpected. Now, for me, having worked in crisis response myself in a time before the early stages of social media, I know, and my experience is rooted in traditional response tactics, but I have watched closely for how to effectively respond in the digital age. When I started working for myself, you know, again, social media was new. So my corporate career, my government career, that career was at a time where I was just dealing in the traditional media stock and trade. I was faxing press releases, I was picking up the phone, I was trying to get stories in newspapers and television news. But now it's all about social. So since I've worked with my clients, since I've hung a shingle, I've been wheeling and dealing in this digital world. How do you manage a crisis in a digital space? And that's where I now have my expertise. Because I watch it. I watch it, I plot it, I see. I try to predict what's going to happen. And then I take that learning and I pass it on to my clients. I'm constantly, constantly upgrading my work, trying to figure out what's the next thing that I can do to help prepare my clients for the next crisis. What can I say on Twitter, on Instagram, on this podcast. So this podcast right now, this is how to plan for that tragedy, that tragedy that comes from your own hands. Now, overall, here's how I do it. Okay, I have a plan. I create a plan. My clients have a roadmap to help them navigate through any critical event or crisis. So if you are dealing with a tragic event at your own hands, like Alec Baldwin, his crisis is literally from his own hands. If you have a plan, you can get through it. So overall, what we want to talk about today is one, following a plan. Two, filling in the blanks of that plan. The details of those plans, like what you're going to fill it in with, it's going to be based on your relevancy and your proximity to the event. Step three is going to be the plan for renewal. There is a reputation threat for every crisis. The key is to get through it. And bonus, rebuild a better reputation in the process based on your rapid response. So those are the three elements that you need in some type of a plan where you have a problem, which is the crisis, and the solution is getting through that crisis. So here's a checklist template for you to start thinking about what you would do if a tragic event happened within your organization. And this is from a communications perspective, not operation. That's an incident management plan. That's a different hat I wore at a different time. This is a crisis communication checklist. And again, you're dealing with a tragedy that is from the inside. Something that you have to deal with from the inside and communicate it externally. All right, number one, you need to kick into high gear. So this is not a time to coast. You need to engage the plan, not a plan. The Plan that you already have in place. That's the reason why you need one. I create a fill in the blank version for my clients so at least they have this roadmap that they know that they need to follow. Hopefully you already have a plan that has some type of a decision tree involved in it that you know where to go, when to say what and when. A crisis communication plan. So if you do, kick it into high gear immediately. Next, number two, decide on your angle. Okay, what's your end game here? How are you looking at this tragedy? Or how are you coming at this tragedy? Where is your place? Where's your proximity? Are you an employee? Are you a relative? Are you the boss? Are you Alec Baldwin? Was the tragedy caused by your hands? If you're Alec Baldwin, it was actually by your hands. What is the context of this incident? The tragic story of Alec Baldwin? You could replay that in so many different ways. What if an employee accidentally killed someone? What if there was human error from your business, from your employee that caused the death? It's the same type of plan. What happened to Alec Baldwin, that's a human resource crisis. That's something that happened within a company that was putting on a movie that was, that was operational. What had happened there? Number three, from the framing, you know how you're, how you are looking at this tragedy, you need to start writing your response. So you know the drill. If you listen to this podcast, if you know me, you know the drill. You are going to fill in the blank of a formula and the name of that formula. The indestructible. It's the indestructible response formula. Step one, you're going to own it. Step two, you're going to explain it. Step three, you're going to promise it. Now, at the time of this recording, there hasn't been an official statement from Alec Baldwin. But I had just tweeted an article that I saw fly by my notifications from the New York Post and the headline said Alex Anguish. So that is the framing right there. That is not the New York Post, like, guessing. That is Alec Baldwin saying that he is absolutely sick about this accident. And that is an appropriate response. So what it was linked to was a story in showbiz411 and I'm going to read from this article. Immediately after the incident, an eyewitness told Hollywood gossip site Showbiz411 that Baldwin started asking how he could have been given a hot gun, meaning a firearm loaded with real ammunition. You've heard me talk about that tactic before. What did that sound like? Can you just picture Alec Baldwin in your head right now? He's asking, how could someone give me a hot gun? What is he doing? He's shifting the blame. In all my years, I've never been handed a hot gun. The actor allegedly kept saying, this is all framing, folks. So the witness said Baldwin was in a shock after the ordeal and he had no idea how badly they were hurt. Or Helena. Is that how I'm going to guess? That's how you pronounce her name? Or Helena was dead. He was seen in tears outside of the hospital. Okay, so this quote unquote witness is likely a part of Baldwin's team. Okay, this is the machine at work for Alec Baldwin. The reason why I assume it's the same firm working with them because it's the same playbook. Hilaria Baldwin did the same thing when she was accused of misappropriating her culture. They also planted stories about how. Of how Hilaria was feeling and how people didn't understand her. It's this. It's the exact same playbook. So at this point, it's Friday morning at the time that I'm recording this, so I. What I want to hear from is I want to hear from the production company, anyone official. That's what I want to hear from. But it also turns out that Alec Baldwin is one of the writers and producers. So there may be a future liability issue for Baldwin. So that's going to be a dicey one. But right now we need to hear from someone official. Otherwise people are just going to fill in the blanks on their own. So it should sound like this. There should be an own it. Right? The producers. Now, right away, the producers did admit that Baldwin fired the gun, so they owned it right away. In the first statement that came out from the Santa Fe, I believe Sheriff's department had said that. And then explaining it is another way of framing it, is that Alec Baldwin we're seeing here in this planted story that it was an accident. So in all my years, I've never been handed a hot gun. He's saying right there, this was an accident. Now, the last part of it, the promise. Haven't heard it yet. It's too early for answers. But we do need to know more details here. More information should. Should be coming. Oh, my gosh. As soon as I say that. Oh, my gosh. I have two notifications about Alec Baldwin. Okay, so one prop gun fired by Alec Baldwin in fatal shooting contained a real. Oh, my goodness, it contained a real Bullet, the union says. Oh, wow. Okay, so now that's official. That's awful. Oh my gosh. That makes me sick even reading that so that that cinematographer was killed by a real bullet. Alec Baldwin shot a woman dead. Oh, how did a gun, how did a bullet hit two people? Okay, we have more answers. Okay. This story is so tragic. All right, so now the next thing that needs to happen. This is step four. You need to go to the light. And what this means is don't go dark. You don't want to clam up on social media or your own channels, but you want to take control of, of your exposure to the media. So both online and in the press, if your organization, your website needs to have a statement. So in episode 55, I talked about the first 48 hours of Amtrak's effective crisis response plan over the derailment and I had mentioned the company had a statement on their website immediately and it was followed quickly by a statement from the CEO. So you do want to proceed slowly because you need to be accurate, but you also need to be immediate at the same time, you need that rapid response. And remember, even if you don't have all the answers, not having, saying that you don't have the answer is an answer and that's what the public, that's what your stakeholders are expecting. Don't go dark. Number five, you want to pause all scheduled communication. So this is why using a social media dashboard like a hootsuite, which is the one that I, it contains a kill switch you can hit stop everything all at once. You press a button, it's a click of a, it's a click of a mouse. And then you don't have to worry about other communications going out. Anything that is going to create some extra noise in the conversation that you don't need. So also check your editorial calendar for any emails that are scheduled to go out, any newsletters. A non relevant email is going to look sloppy at best if your organization is in the middle of a crisis. But it could also look incredibly insensitive. So it's important that you control all of the collateral coming out of your organization. People will notice that will be a news story if some clunker of an email or tweet goes out when you're in the midst of a crisis or a tragedy and wait at least a week or two until your next communication, your non crisis related communication about the incident. Okay, number six on the checklist, you want to show compassion and empathy based on again your relevance and your proximity to this event. So back to Amtrak once again. Remember in the episode I talked about the CEO, Bill Flynn? He had started his statement about the derailment and the deaths of passengers. And we are in mourning today for the people who lost their lives due to the derailment of the Empire Builder train and so on and so forth. We have no words that can adequately express our sorrow for those who have lost a loved one. Okay. That is showing the proper amount of compassion and empathy. You want to write about, you know, who is saddened. You need to offer support. And you want to remember, never leverage a tragedy for your benefit. Don't leverage someone else's pain to make yourself look better. When I say the bonus of reputation repair, it's about a quality or a characteristic from the inside from you that makes you look better, your leadership look better. Don't leverage against someone else. All right, number seven. You want to listen? Keep your ear to the ground. That's the social term for monitoring. What are people saying? Writing, tweeting. Create a network of people who will keep you up to date on the sentiment of your communications, and then you want to adjust accordingly. That could be you, the communicator. You're the one who's always going to look at the sentiment. But also, it doesn't just have to be social media. Talk to people you know. Talk to your friends. Talk to your family. Ask them what they think of what had happened. Sometimes the best opinion is the objective opinion. It's someone who's removed. Listen to those people. Number eight. Decide on a plan for reputation renewal. What was the extent of the damage to the reputation? What did you learn? That lesson will help you decide where to go next. What do you need to repair and how to do it. 9. Start the reputational renewal plan. It includes the indestructible framework. Did you own it? Did you explain it? Did you make a promise to change or plan to fix it? All right, number 10. Oh, my goodness. Wait a minute. Alec Baldwin. We're hearing from Alec Baldwin, okay, on Twitter, the Alec Baldwin Foundation. So it's a. It's a. It's a profile photo of his son. So it's two. So it's not a thread, but it's two. It's two tweets. So a thread would be underneath. These are two tweets. One. There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of. Of Helena Hutchins, a wife, mother, and deeply admired colleague of ours. I'm fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred. And second tweet number two, I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family. My heart is broken for her husband, their son and all who knew and loved Helena. Oh, wow. Well, Alec Baldwin or Alec Baldwin's writer. That's a good statement. And I had tweeted that earlier about Alec Baldwin's reply. I wrote, you know, you need to say something about the woman who was killed and the injured director. Wow. Okay. Number 10 of your plan is post your statement in the most powerful place it can be posted that Alec Baldwin statement. That is what everyone was waiting for. The press, people, Twitter, social media. Everyone wanted to hear from Alec. So you noticed in that framework, one. God, it's so timely to do a podcast in real time. Did he own it? Yes, he said it was him. He owned it. He absolutely owned it. Did he explain it? He didn't explain it in those tweets because he didn't have to because he had already planted the story earlier that it was a mistake. So we already know that there. Did you make a promise or change or plan to fix it? What he did in that tweet is he did in that third step is when he had talked about, you know, my heart is broken for a husband and all who knew her and that he's offering my support to him. So is it a full plan? No, but he's. He's telling us. What Alec Baldwin is telling us is that he's cooperating. He's cooperated with authorities, he's cooperating with the family, which is very important because the biggest threat to Alec Baldwin's reputation, I mean, aside from killing someone and injuring someone and putting them in intensive care, is if the cinematographer's family, if the husband goes after him, if the husband starts putting stories out there with pictures of him and the son, oh, God, this is going to be bad. So Alec Baldwin needs to take care of that family, both families. And we hope that that director comes out of intensive care. All right, so that is our ten step checklist. It is your roadmap for how to handle and communicate in a tragedy. Now, if you're thinking, I'm driving my car, I am jogging right now, I can't write this down. And I would love to use this roadmap that Molly uses with her clients. Lucky for you, I have written it down for you in the show notes. I have a link where you can download this checklist or if you can remember to go to mollymcpherson.com/checklist and you can download this checklist to have if anything happens, there's your plan. It's a loose one, but a plan that you can use. Now. I always mention in a podcast one indestructible tip to help you get through a crisis, reframe a crisis and come out stronger on the other end. How to have an indestructible reputation. And here it is. If you are in the midst of dealing with a tragedy and you are responding to it, whether again your own hands or that of your organization, as you put together a statement, as you put together your response, you need to ask yourself, is this an appropriate response? Will this land? Will this make us look better or worse? And then ask someone else. And then ask someone else. You need diversity of opinion. Don't only ask three 50 year olds in a room, ask your intern, ask your assistant, ask a senior staffer, ask people based on privacy and you know legally who can you speak to get as many opinions as you can in your inner circle. Remember to get diversity of opinion. That also includes age, race, gender. This will give you new diversity of perspective. There is a power and indestructibility in recognizing and understanding and communicating this properly. You need to show compassion mixed with authority. This is an art. And if you do it in the face of a tragedy, your reputation again will be indestructible. Mistakes are made in the response. Do it incorrectly and then you self destruct. Okay, Overall, the solution. Prepare for the unexpected. Prepare for anything. Because so many different problems can stem from current issues that you may already have in your organization. It is highly likely that in the shooting, in this case with Alec Baldwin, they are going to find, I guarantee it, they are going to find. The union will find that there was lax safety measures. Someone is going to take the fall for this. How much Alec Baldwin is, I don't know. He's a producer and the writer on the film. But someone will take the fall and they'll find it will be a safety issue. Next, another solution. Create a checklist. Have a checklist. Follow that checklist to know what to do and what not to do. And lastly, follow up with your plan for that reputation repair. And if you need a critical communication, plan yourself or any type of response, any type of reputation repair, you know who to call. The same person who's giving you this checklist. All right, that's all for this week on the podcast. This one hurt. This is painful. So I hope you never ever have to go through any type of tragedy that you would even need a plan like this. But if you do, I hope this helps. Thanks so much for listening. Bye for now.