A short live-stream segment in which Mike Baco (Daily National / Media Training Insider) analyzes crisis communication steps Penn State should take after major charges against former coach Jerry Sandusky and related university officials. Baco advises that legendary coach Joe Paterno should be the public face, make proactive statements, and expresses that, based on available facts, Paterno should not necessarily lose his job though he may have been insufficiently proactive. The piece focuses on reputational management and media strategy amid allegations involving children.
Questions this video answers
Mike Baco (Daily National / Media Training Insider)
Jerry Sandusky
Penn State athletic department (football program)
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Welcome to the Daily national and Media Training Insider. I'm Mike Baco. Crisis communication time for the Penn State athletic department, specifically their football program this past weekend. Really big time news breaking concerning their former coach, concerning a vice president at the school and their athletic director. And clumped in with them, their legendary football coach, Joe Paterno. Former coach Jerry Sandusky has been charged with child molestation charges, lying to authorities, sexual endangerment, a whole host of really salacious charges, and the athletic director and vice president are also being charged with lying to the authorities. So where do things fall in the lap of Joe Paterno? Right now Paterno has to come out and make some sort of statement. This is a coach, a former coach who's being charged with, with all of these things that was under his staff for 30 years. So Paterno really had an intimate relationship with this individual. Let him use some of the Penn State facilities after he was done coaching to help out with this children's charity that he's now being charged with molesting some of the children. So what does Penn State need to do? They need to have Joe Paterno be the face of this crisis. They can't have the president of the school, they can't have another person from the athletic director, athletic department come out and make comments. Joe Paterno is for all intents and purposes, the boss of Penn State, the boss of the school, the boss of the athletic department. He needs to be the one to come out and make some statements on this. It's one thing just to send out a press release. It's another thing to release a few statements from him. Certainly he's expressed his remorse, but we need to see him be the face of this controversy and he really needs to get out in front of it. There's certainly been some claims that he's known for many, many years, some of these things that were going on almost to the point of accusing him as being part of the COVID up. Certainly right now, authorities don't think that's the case, but public perception can really turn quickly in a situation like this, especially when you're dealing with children, especially when you're dealing with charges that are this graphic. So right now Penn State needs to get into crisis communication mode. They need to get Joe Paterno out in front of cameras answering questions. Do I think that Paterno should lose his job over this? No. Based on the facts and all the items that have come out so far, it looks like Paterno went up the chain of command the right way, could he have gone even higher? As we mentioned, Paterno really is the face of Penn State. One snap of the figures of Paterno and pretty much anyone at that university could get fired. He was not proactive enough in dealing with some of these charges. But right now he needs to take the proactive step of getting out in front of some cameras and really becoming the face of this, really putting his print, his fingerprints on any statement that Penn State releases. And he needs to be the one to get out and make those statements. Tune into the dailynational.com and media training Insider to find out whether Paterno takes this advice and whether Penn State can weather this crisis. Communication moment. I'm Mike Baco.
