TJ Walker answers a question from Jared Breaux about whether it is ever appropriate to speak to the media "off the record." He defines "off the record" (requires reporter agreement and should not be attributed or used even indirectly) and contrasts it with "on background"/not-for-attribution. Walker argues blanket bans on off‑the‑record conversations are overly rigid: while generally a safe corporate policy, there are legitimate exceptions (e.g., to stop a clearly frivolous story). He gives a detailed hypothetical involving a baseless $25M sexual‑harassment suit and explains when and how a PR officer might use off‑the‑record/background briefings, along with caveats about trust, imperfect guarantees, and risks of notes leaking. The piece emphasizes judgment, relationships with reporters, and situational nuance in crisis communications.
Chapters
Is it ever appropriate to speak to the media off the record?
Speaking the show about effective speaking in public, to the media, at work and in Life. Speaking with T.J. walker.
This question comes from Jared Breaux, one of our professional colleagues in the business of high esteem. And you can check him out over at Jared Breaux Communications. And his brocast is excellent. Video segments on YouTube. Check that out. This is the question he put to his audience. I wanted to weigh in as well. Is it ever appropriate to, to speak to the media off the record? First, let's have some definitions. If you're speaking to a reporter off the record, you can't just say, this is off the record, I killed my mother. That doesn't make it off the record. You have to first ask a reporter, may I speak off the record? And get verbal agreement. Then according to the norms of the journalism, what you say should not be attributed to you in the story. And the information you're saying shouldn't work its way in even on a not for attribution basis. That is the traditional standard of speaking off the record. Now let's go one step over. There is something known as speaking on background. When you're speaking on background, the understanding is, is with a reporter that, hey, you can use what I'm saying, but don't identify me, don't quote me. So you often see this in politics and government where sources say this was set up as a trial balloon, but when all the voters hated it, they decided to shelve plans of that policy. That's quite often done on a not for attribution basis where they want to sort of float something, gauge some reaction. But no one wants to be 100% accountable. And there is perfectly legitimate reasons for doing that, even though it has a bad name. Now, the assumption you always need to have with any reporter, whether they have a video camera out, a microphone out, a pen and pad, or any kind of notepad out, is anything you say is on the record. And they have every right, legal right, moral right, ethical right, to use what you say in most situations. Now, if it's your best friend and you're having a family dinner, I think there's usually an assumption that it's not going to be used. And they would ask you, but I'm talking about normal business, political situations. You're talking to reporter. This reporter is not your best friend and you're saying something interesting, you have to assume it's on the record and it can be used whether or not it makes you look good. So the question that Jared Breaux brings up is it ever okay to speak off the record? There is certainly a school of thought that says, no, no, no, no, absolutely. You must never, ever speak off the record. And some corporations have official policies, Thou shalt never speak off the record to any reporter. Well, I'm here to tell you that is complete, utter nonsense. As a blanket rule, it makes sense most of the time for most people. But to hold it out as some law of nature that should never be violated, absolutely incorrect. I'll tell you why in a moment.
For a free, no obligation online public speaking or media training course, go to mediatrainingworldwide.com and start learning today.
Folks, here's the thing about dealing with the media is there's subtlety involved and facts change. Circumstances change. And that's why you need judgment. You need to have judgment. That's why if you're working with a PR firm or PR council or someone like me, you need to find someone whose judgment you trust. The law might be in black and white, but if you're arrested for murder or insider trading, you still want a lawyer who actually has judgment to figure out. Which laws do you cite in your favor to keep you out of prison or keep you from getting the death penalty? You need judgment. And the media can be as complex as the law. And that's why I get very nervous and skeptical of anyone who comes down with these pronouncements of this always this or never this. Crisis communications. For example, in most situations, crisis counselors like me and others would say there's something positive. You could say, tell people what you're doing to make the situation better come out, answer questions. In most cases, that makes it. But there are exceptions. Bill Cosby I don't think can say anything in a press conference or an interview these days that's going to salvage his reputation. I agree with some others in the industry who've said that, and this isn't an original idea of mine, that Bill Cosby should just go off to his own island and luxuriate in his own playthings and just never be heard from again. That's the only thing he should do. Don't talk to the media. He's an exception to the general crisis communications playbook that myself and others often use. Now, when it comes to speaking off the record, let me give you a perfectly good example. Let's say you work for a company. You're head of public relations. You're a big publicly traded company. You have a female CEO who's traveling all over the world constantly you have a brand new employee who's been there for two days who then announces that he is filing a lawsuit claiming that your female CEO sexually harassed him. And it's a 25 million dollar lawsuit. It's just been filed. And now a reporter is calling and saying, hey, I just saw this lawsuit. I got to do a big story. What's your statement? What's. I want to give equal time to your CEO. Now, let's go a little deeper. Let me give you some facts. In this particular scenario. Let's say that in this particular case, the parents of the employee who's filed a lawsuit has just called you and said, we're very sorry, our little Charlie, or our little TJ has mental problems. He's done this three other places. We know there's nothing to this. He went off his meds and we're putting him back into a mental institution. We are very sorry. This lawsuit is absolutely not proceeding. We don't know how he talked the family lawyer into doing this, but the suit is being withdrawn. And we understand there's absolutely no merit to this whatsoever. We apologize. We would prefer for the sake of the family that you keep this quiet, not attack our son for the lunatic he is. That could happen. Folks, here's what I would do. If I were the head of pr, I would say to the report, and let's further, let's state the facts that it can be proven that this employee has never, ever, ever met the female CEO. So it's not even, it's not a close call. It's not like they were traveling together. There was some misunderstand. There's nothing. It is absolutely black and white. So here's what I would do if I were the head of PR in that situation. The reporter called. I would say to the reporter, I'm more than happy to speak with you on the record and I will talk to you and grant you a full interview on the record. Before we do that, may I speak to you off the record? And in my situation, if you are polite with a reporter and you talk to them about that, they will say yes. Then what I would do is fill in the reporter on the basic facts of what happened as I just described it to you. In my experience, the vast, vast majority of reporters, unless it's just a clearly partisan outfit and there's some political angle, the CEO is about to run for the Senate or something. But absent that, in my experience, the vast majority of reporters, if you talk to them on background and filled them in on all those details, they Would then say, ah, okay, this doesn't sound like a story. They put their pen down and they would say, thanks a lot for calling me back. And this way, there is no story. There's no quotes from you saying, this is outrageous. There's no merit to this. Because the problem is if you treat that story like a regular story, you go on record, you know, these attacks are frivolous. There's no merit to this. We expect to win in the court of law. You still get the headline that your CEO is being sued for $25 million for sexual harassment. And people hear sexual harassment. You're accused of sexual harassment. I didn't do the sexual harassment. It just pounds in. Sexual harassment, sexual harassment, sexual harassment. In this particular case, the goal is not to get your message out. The goal is to try to stop the story. Now, again, in my scenario, it's not a legitimate story. So the fact that you can stop it is a good thing. It would be seen as fair in any situation. So that's not the only scenario of when it's appropriate to use or to speak off the record to a reporter. If you're going to do it, there are a couple of caveats. Number one, you should have some relationship with the reporter, and there needs to be some level of trust. Number two, there's still a chance what you say could get into the final story. In the case of the example I just gave you about the frivolous man filing the sexual harassment charge against the female CEO, when I state the facts on background to the reporter, I'm still not saying anything that is factually wrong that would get me sued, that it would be horrible if I were quoted. But I'm saying it off the record because I don't want it in the story. There's always the danger that when you speak off the record, the reporter is writing it down anyway and forgets what part of the interview was off the record, what parts was on, and puts it in. There's also the danger that if it's in the notes, the reporter's editor or publisher could take it, give it to another reporter, and force them to put it in. So it's not 100%, but nothing is 100%. Refusing to talk off the record also has risks. So anyone who tells you categorically never speak off the record, in my opinion, doesn't know what in the world he or she is talking about most of the time. It's good advice as a general policy for most employees at most organizations, it's good advice, but there are exceptions. And it's these exceptions that often really can decide our identities and our brands in the minds of the public. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. If you have other questions, please send them to me. You can post them right here. Wherever you're watching or listening to this program, we'd love to hear from you. I hope all of your presentations in life are a huge success on the record. See you next time.
Speaking with TJ Walker is the number one rated daily streaming TV and radio show devoted to all aspects of speaking and communication. If you received value from this show, then please subscribe to it@mediatrainingworldwide.com Please review the show, leave comments, and share it with your friends and colleagues. Today.
