Valley PR Blog

How to host a ‘real’ fake press conference

By Len Gutman on October 29th, 2007 In Hype!

Many have played the blame game in the past week over the fake FEMA press conference, but regardless of the inanity of the phony media event it has managed to put a spotlight on the practice of media relations — good or bad.

I think we can all agree this was a stupid idea, but as Amanda Ripley reports on Time.com the staged event was nothing new in the government space given that they “practice” without real media and therefore have no idea how to hold a real press conference in the event they actually have to.

“…in a way, FEMA had responded as it had trained to respond. Since 2000, the nation has held four full-scale exercises to simulate a major terrorist attack. Each time, the “mock media” is played by fake reporters — paid PR people, to be specific — just like in the fake FEMA press conference last week.”

She goes on to remind us that “since 2003, Ogilvy PR has been paid by the government to hold fake press conferences and broadcast live to a Virtual News Network (VNN), a closed-circuit satellite TV network modeled after CNN.”

Which makes me wonder about how well we are preparing our clients for a real crisis? When I was working at Delta Air Lines we did routine simulations in preparation for a real catastrophe, but perhaps looking back we should have included real media in our mock emergencies. This might be especially true of large organizations like airlines and government entities who more likely than not have beat reporters they very well could include in these drills.

Meantime, the latest news on the FEMA situation is that FEMA public affairs official responsible for the fiasco is not taking that national intelligence PR job. Surely that’s a coincidence!

Comments

I read the Time reporter’s comments as well, but don’t agree with them. As a former reporter, I can (and do) ask as tough or tougher questions in my media training seminars than real reporters. In many instances, I know more about the organization or the issue than most real reporters would, so I can be even nastier.

So, I don’t think it’s a mistake to hire non news reporters to ask questions in a simulation, IF those people are willing to throw all the possible “hand grenades” at spokespeople. If they’re just there to pitch softballs (Are you happy about FEMA’s response so far?), then forget the training exercise all together.

I also wrote about the phony news conference on my blog, http://www.MasterYourMessage.com/wordpress.

[...] interview with Communication Overtones’ Kami Huyse. (Our original FEMA bloviating here). [...]

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