For the umpteenth time in their glorious history, “shock jocks” Opie & Anthony made news of a negative kind in the last week. SiriusXM dismissed co-host Anthony Cumia after he launched a racially-offensive screed on
What offends is an age-old conundrum with no objective standard in sight. Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, when asked what speech is “obscene” (and thus not protected by the Constitution) famously replied that “I’ll know it when I see it.” Don Rickles has built a legendary stand-up comedy career on almost nothing but offending people – not everybody’s cup of tea, but pretty clearly a comedy routine. Yet work now seen as genuinely artistic, from “The Last Tango in Paris” (released by MGM) to the comedy of Richard Pryor (saying the n-word on Warner Records), to the rapping of recent Broadway-show inspiration Tupac Shakur, may be seen as deeply offensive to some. And there is a whole brand called “FCUK” – that’s not offensive?
Of course, beyond the offensiveness of the content or even the brand itself, you have the Alec Baldwin syndrome. That is, talented people that just can’t avoid doing incredibly stupid things that wear out what would otherwise be not just acceptance but celebration for their artistic talents. As long as we have humans, we’ll be stuck with this.
In the days of broadcasting dominance, the networks would employ an army in their “standards and practices” departments. This group held powerful sway over what content aired – from investigative reporting to SNL to ads. Not only has this been cut back significantly in the more competitive environment we live in today, but it simply can’t be replicated in an age of instantaneous Internet communications. We may have a 7-second delay for broadcasting, but in most cases, as Sally said to Harry: “You can’t take it back….it’s already out there!”
So, when your brand, your content, your star or others in your employ offend, what do you do?
1. Call your lawyer
Your first requirement is to avoid legal jeopardy. Radio and television broadcasters remain subject to stricter legal rules on the “indecency” of their content than cable, satellite or Internet publishers. And your particular business niche will require careful attention to specific rules. For example, when I was General Counsel at CNBC, we had to address concerns from the Securities and Exchange Commission about some “ill-advised” (to be polite) comments from a regular on-air contributor. And in the event that your company may have made unauthorized use of someone else’s copyrighted material, you need to immediately assess both your potential liability (were we right or wrong here?) and any monetary exposure.
Of course it’s not just the content itself. I remember discussing joining a National Football League team a number of years ago as their General Counsel, and much of the discussion was about how to deal with law enforcement officials when one of your players got into legal hot water (no, it wasn't the New England Patriots and it was way before Aaron Hernandez came around).
And speaking of the NFL, the Washington Redskins are of course immersed in a high-profile battle on many fronts (including with 50 U.S. Senators) over their very name. Yet before you even get to the broader reputation implications for the league and the team over this moniker, the Redskins are fending off a major legal challenge to the brand itself. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office canceled the Redskins’ trademark due to its “disparaging” nature and the Redskins will have to spend significant dollars and time to win it back.
2. Call your lobbyist
In our deeply specialist-based world, this category also includes calling your “crisis management” expert. You need to assess any damage to your brand and reputation everywhere from federal agencies (like the Federal Communications Commission) to Capitol Hill to City Hall (if you’re a cable company you still have to deal with franchise authorities). And if repairs are needed, you must craft an affirmative strategy for communicating (after your lawyers have weighed in of course) to get out your side of the story and reaction (even if you are only stalling for time).
3. Call your sales leader
At the end of the day, reputation decisions are still business decisions and you have to get your arms around the numbers. What is the immediate reaction and potential fallout, if any, from advertisers, monthly subscribers, customers, fans, and viewers, all of whom ultimately pay the bills? Although long-term impact is unlikely to be measurable quickly, almost any problem can be handled better in that long-term if you've dealt aggressively with it in the short-term. This could range from a CEO’s personal reach out to the CEO of a major advertising client to a commitment to a worthy cause. No matter how much “Big Data” comes to dominate the sales environment, the human touch is still huge.
4. Call your mother
Of course, this is good advice at any time. But in this particular instance, what I mean is that you need to have someone on the outside, without a specifically direct stake in how this event happened, or wasn’t prevented, or even in the revenue fallout. In other words, you need a “civilian” to keep you honest about how this is perceived outside of the CEO corporate cocoon. The isolation at the top (in politics as much or more than business) is often the post-hoc explanation for any number of PR disasters.
5. Exercise some judgment
If you’re the big cheese, chances are it’s more than book smarts that got you there, and that’s why you get the big bucks. Ask yourself a few basic questions: Is this a first offense? Is what just happened so flat out offensive that the relationship with the offender is irredeemable no matter what? And finally - Is Mel Gibson involved in any fashion? In the end, it is all about judgment.
You can be reach me at www.homonoffmedia.com, and follow me on Twitter (@howardbh1), Facebook, or LinkedIn.
