Media Training Tip #28: Don’t Speculate
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For years, we’ve used Exxon Valdez media clips in our Media Training Summit and Crisis Communications Summit programs. Now it looks like BP will replace Exxon in the “what not to do” segment, as BP CEO Tony Hayward has provided all kinds of examples. Where do we start?
How about one of the basics of media training: Don’t speculate. In this clip, watch how he confidently assures us that, while it’s impossible to see at the moment, the disaster is likely to be “very, very modest.”
I think the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to be very, very modest. It is impossible to say and we will mount, as part of the aftermath, a very detailed environmental assessment as we go forward. We’re going to do that with some of the science institutions in the U.S. But everything we can see at the moment suggests that the overall environmental impact of this will be very, very modest. – BP CEO Tony Hayward
