TIP #26 | Let it go
Don't expect the media to make corrections
Many times throughout my career I’ve had to talk someone out of requesting a correction or retraction from a news outlet.
When something challenging happens and the story results in confusion, scrutiny or reputational challenge, people instinctively want it fixed. They feel they’re owed that. I don’t blame them; it hurts.
But the problem is that others may see the issue differently than we do and the news coverage will often reflect that. Someone else may not get the story “right” because they don’t experience it the same way we do. Admit it, we’re all a bit biased.
I usually advocate to let it go and move on. We should do everything we can to get the story behind us.
Correcting or re-telling the story - even if it’s more advantageous for us - may not fix the issue entirely. And it shines a spotlight on the story (including the more negative original) and keeps it in focus longer, which is something we don’t want. We should move past it and change the conversation.
Here’s what you can do to amend or correct the record yourself.
Visit the news outlet’s website or social media pages and see how the comments are shaking out. If people are responding negatively, offer some helpful context in the comments. And, if someone is already doing that for you, reply to the comment, add extra info in a reply, or like it so it moves up the thread. Champion the comments that are defending you.
Also, if you have board members or volunteers that are willing to be influencers for you, let them do some advocacy on the news outlet’s website or social media pages. It’s always best when someone who doesn’t get their paycheck from you is willing to speak up and be helpful.
Give your audience something new to love about you instead of trying to fix a news story that isn’t flattering. Change the conversation.
But there will be times when a piece in the paper or on a broadcast outlet is so wrong that you simply cannot let it stand. It will happen only rarely, but when it does let’s follow the advice of one of my Crisis Communications gurus, Jonathan Bernstein. He says we should use the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics to argue our case with the media. Check out Bernstein’s blog post from 2010 to learn more about that. It’s a good one.
He reminds us that professional journalists commit to the following, so we should hold them to it:
—Seek Truth and Report It
—Minimize Harm
—Act Independently
—Be Accountable
I’ve been in my current role as a PR Pro for more than 20 years and I’ve requested a correction twice. Yes, twice. Recently, I emailed a reporter to request an update when the headline diverged completely and erroneously from the facts of the article. When I pointed out the discrepancy, she apologized. Reporters don’t write the headlines, so she appealed to the team who does and got it fixed.
The other time I sought help is when an op-ed by a former elected official in a daily paper in California went off the rails so badly that we suspected a brain injury or foul play. Jokingly, I suggested our local staff call 911 and get a welfare check on the writer because he’d fabricated so much detail that we should be concerned about him.
Apparently, the writer was well-liked and -connected in the community so the paper approved his piece without giving it much review. The section of the paper where it ran is for “community voices,” and the online version gets the most clicks and shares. That’s why we thought it was important to try and fix it.
At first, the Editor in Chief defended the piece and said they couldn’t remove it. He suggested we submit a rebuttal for them to publish. Once he read our rebuttal and the red-lined version of the original piece I marked up, he scrubbed it from their website. It was that bad and he knew it.
In this case, a journalist didn’t write a story that violated the code of ethics: a member of the community wrote an op-ed. That’s very different but it was a hot mess of inaccuracy and innuendo and frankly, the paper should stand for better content. It’s a trust issue. Thankfully, they realized that it didn’t meet their standard and took it down.
Most of the time, my advice is to let it go and work on telling a positive story that will capture people’s attention instead. The truth is, most people will forget an unflattering story - eventually. They’ll give us some grace too and be willing to understand that some of the details may be lost in translation.
That’s why I think it’s probably best to give them something new to love about us instead of trying to fix a story that didn’t go well.
The list of previous posts is getting too long to include in every new post, so if you’re looking for an ordered list of TIPS 1 - 25 (and the extras), click here for the archive.