Of all people he should have known better

Part of ensuring good media relations practice is being able to identify what issues or events the media may consider to be newsworthy. One would imagine that the global CEO of Burston-Marsteller, and president of the polling firm Penn, Schoen and Burland Associates, who also happened to be a chief advisor for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign, would have understood that meeting with an ambassador from Columbia to discuss promoting a free-trade agreement Sen. Clinton has openly opposed would be a bad idea. Not only a bad idea, but a story for the media to have a field day with. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/05/us/politics/05penn.html?ref=us

While the ethics of Penn representing two clients with competing interests could be a story in itself, when people are in leadership positions within a company or a campaign, or both as in this case, a practitioner has to recognize that if any of his or her personal mistakes are picked up by the media, the stories are going to reflect poorly on the company or candidate.

While addressing the media after the story first broke, Penn proceeded to explain that meeting with the Columbian ambassador was a poor choice, a statement that offended the Columbian government when that story was printed.

The result of Penn’s actions was more work was created for the media relations experts on Sen. Clinton’s campaign who needed to spend time on damage control, and the Government of Columbia fired Burston-Marsteller for government relations consulting.

Another crucial part of media relations is for practitioners to understand that a story only dies when no new information emerges. But it has been alleged that although Penn has resigned from the campaign he still plays an active role sans a fancy title. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/04/08/2008-04-08_mark_penn_still_in_clinton_loop_source_.html

It is always good practice as a public relations practitioner to keep in mind how your individual actions may affect media coverage of your organization or client, and how distancing oneself from an issue can offend one of your target publics and/or client. Offend too many people, and you'll be out of business.

-Brian