Keeping the Media out of the Trash

I was, formerly, a "snooping journalist," an investigative reporter. In that past life, I felt that any information I could acquire without breaking the law was fair game. I even (gasp) went through trash cans and dumpsters a time or two. I became fairly adept at reading lips, reading body language, and reading papers on your desk upside-down. In other words, I had skills of which most of my "targets" were never aware. Deliberate cultivation of that illusion was part and parcel of what I did, so I feel qualified to give some tips on how to minimize the media's attempts to be intrusive.

So there's your first tip -- assume, until proven otherwise, that every reporter is "60 Minutes" slick. Here are some others:

    * Know your loose cannons -- most organizations have staff members who tend to say the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time, even if they're well-intentioned and loyal. Many media leads originate with second-hand sources who have heard a loose cannon flapping his/her gums. Make sure such individuals are regularly briefed on and understand your policies on discussing confidential matters with those who have no "need to know."

    * Trash is not trash unless it's shredded. When you create draft documents of anything you do not want to see in the media, they should be shredded.

    * Have a written AND rehearsed policy for every office location about how to handle the media if they just show up, with or without cameras.

    * "Off the record," "on background" and "not for attribution" are caveats which can be abused or misunderstood by the media and require a very educated judgement call to use safely -- hence most organizations are better off having a policy that everything said to the media is "on the record" or else you simply don't say it. As a journalist, I would try to get lower-level employees to speak to me and tell them "I won't use your name" when senior management wouldn't give me as much information as I suspected was there.

    * Host a formal media training session for all management-level personnel -- even ones who won't often be spokespersons. Media training teaches many more tricks of the trade for staying out of the media limelight and optimizing the results of necessary media contact -- after all, sometimes you DO want the publicity, even during a crisis.

This is not an all-encompassing list, but it should put you on the right track to defend yourself and your organization against journalists seeking negative coverage.