What Were They Thinking?
Crisis Communication: the Good, the Bad, and the Totally Clueless
Steve Adubato (Author)
9780813543611
Hardback, published 27 August 2008
192 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.3 cm, 0.454 kg
Steve is a media expert, a street-smart guy with powerful insight that makes this book so relevant for our time.
- Ernie Anastos (anchor, FOX 5 New York) Heaven forbid you should find yourself or your company with a public relations crisis on your hands. But if you do, Steve Adubato has a wealth of common sense for how to weather the storm with a minimum of damage.
- Jim Willse (editor, The Star-Ledger) Steve Adubato is one of my favorites. He has a clear point of view and isn't afraid to share it, particularly when it comes to media issues and media coverage of important stories.
- Joe Scarborough (host, "Morning Joe," MSNBC)
Some corporations spend millions of dollars on so-called "crisis communication plans." Others offer lip service, avoiding the subject like the plague. They simply hope for the best, praying that they never face a crisis. Either way, as Steve Adubato says, "Wishful thinking is no substitute for a strategic plan."
Nationally recognized communication coach and four-time Emmy AwardÛwinning broadcaster Steve Adubato has been teaching, writing, and thinking about comm¡unication, leadership, and crisis communication for nearly two decades. In What Were They Thinking? Adubato examines twenty-two controversial and complex public relations and media mishaps, many of which were played out in public. Among cases and people discussed are:
- The Johnson & Johnson Tylenol scare: Perhaps the best crisis management ever
- Don Imus: Sometimes saying "sorry" is too little too late
- Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: Authority does not put you above questioning
- Bill O'Reilly: Know when to stop defending yourself and save face
- Former EPA Administrator Christie Whitman: Proof that your written words can come back to haunt you
- Hurricane Katrina: A natural disaster that led to a larger governmental disaster
- The Catholic Church's pedophilia scandal: Denial won't get rid of the skeletons in your closet
Arranged in short chapters detailing each case individually, the book provides a brief history of the topics and answers the questions: Who got it right? Who got it wrong? What can the rest of us learn from them?
