What To Do When The Sharks Are Circling
Summer along the North Carolina coast brings many soothing experiences. The calming roar of the waves. Warm sand scrunched between your toes. And a cool libation sipped at sunset.
But there’s a danger lurking just out of sight. It’s big enough to swallow an entire government manager and maybe a few chubby council members. And only the prepared will survive the attack.
You might think I’m talking about shark attacks in the ocean. You’d be wrong. Sharks much prefer South Carolina swimmers. You can look it up somewhere, I’m sure.
In North Carolina, and everywhere that government managers toil doing the people’s business, the real danger is from sharks in the news media. They don’t swim but they do attack. They don’t injure your flesh but they can injure your organization’s reputation. And, like sharks, some of those in the media are rather toothy. The TV reporters, in particular, have great teeth. Quite toothy.
Lifeguards and marine scientists teach us how to survive a shark attack. As an attorney and crisis communications expert who’s taught in School of Government programs for more than a decade, I can help you survive a media attack.
Pull up a beach chair. Let’s compare and learn.
Sharks don’t want to eat humans. But they do need to eat and they sometimes confuse us with their normal dinner.If you act like prey (splashing and barking like a seal) you’re more likely to get munched.
Reporters aren’t looking to write a story that makes you and your agency look bad. They want to report the facts and present both sides to their audience. If you act like a public official with something to hide (saying “no comment” or — oddly enough — barking like a seal) you’re more likely to get munched. Media munched.
Sharks typically attack under certain conditions. Dawn and dusk and when fishermen are casting nearby. Careful swimmers recognize these elements and act accordingly.
Reporters are more likely to cover stories that have certain conditions. When there’s conflict, a local angle, or (in the case of TV) good video, you can expect a story. Careful managers recognize the elements of newsworthiness (there are others) and help prepare their elected officials to act accordingly.
Now, none of this is to demean reporters. While I don’t have many friends that are sharks (insert your favorite lawyer joke here) I do have many friends who are reporters. They are good people trying to do a hard job in a fast-changing industry. They are interested in the work of you and your colleagues in government. There’s nothing scary about that.
Help reporters get what the information they need, present your side of the story in a credible and convincing way, and understand that their job is not to be your PR agent, and you’ll survive your next swim in the great ocean of news media relations.
Good luck! Oh, and go buy another swim suit. No one wants to see you in that one.
Faculty Coordinator
Mr. Weaver is a communications advisor with decades of national and Ohio-based communications experience. In addition, Mr. Weaver has extensive experience working with public and private sector clients on crisis communications, executive speech coaching, and media relations. He’s counseled clients in 18 states. NBC News in Charlotte, North Carolina called Mr. Weaver “one of the nation's foremost experts in crisis communications.”
Prior to founding Communications Counsel, Mr. Weaver was the Deputy Attorney General of Ohio, where he was responsible for crisis management, strategic counseling, and all communications for an agency with 1,400 employees and 50,000 cases. He also served on the Attorney General's four-member Executive Staff and acted as a senior policy advisor and chief spokesman. While there, he co-authored a National Association of Attorneys General Management Study on communications management in five different state attorney general offices.
His past professional assignments include serving as the Assistant Director of Public Affairs for the U.S Department of Justice, Public Information Director for a large Pennsylvania municipality, and Vice President of a national communications firm in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Weaver has lectured around the country on the use of social media for improved media relations, for better marketing, and in the context of courts and legal ethics. He is an Adjunct Professor at The Ohio State University College of Law, the School of Government at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron.
Mr. Weaver has provided media advice to thousands of government officials. He's written hundreds of PR plans, conducted media coaching, and supervised countless polls and focus groups. His media production skills have earned him more than a dozen national awards. In 1993, as a young media professional, he wrote, produced, and directed the TV special "An American Story," hosted by former President Ronald Reagan.
Mr. Weaver regularly lectures for national clients such as the Jo Ann Davidson Leadership Institute, the Ann Anstine Excellence in Public Service Series, the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University, the National Association of State Retirement Administrators, the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police, the American Bar Association, the National Fraternal Order of Police, the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association, and the Michigan Supreme Court.
Early in his career, Mr. Weaver was a Communications Director with the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He also ran a Philadelphia-area communications consulting firm serving more than 100 clients.
Mr. Weaver earned Bachelors and Masters degrees in Public Administration from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, where he has received more alumni awards than any other graduate of that institution.
He earned his Juris Doctorate from the Delaware Law School of Widener University, where he graduated in the top 15% of his class. In 2004, the University of Akron awarded Mr. Weaver an honorary degree in Applied Politics. In 2012, Mr. Weaver was named Distinguished Chair of that university’s Bliss Institute of Applied Politics.
His op-ed writing has been featured in major U.S. newspapers and he has been interviewed by every major national media outlet including 60 Minutes, Nightline, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, MSNBC, CNN, FOX News, NPR, BBC, USA Today, Newsweek, Time, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and the Associated Press.
Mr. Weaver and his wife Lori are the proud parents of two children. They reside in Central Ohio.