Home Library Translate
A A A
Share »
Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Follow us on LinkedIn
Connect »

Blog: Crisis Management

Menu

  • This Blog's Home
  • Guest Writer Submissions
  • Policies
  • To Subscribe to a Blog
  • About
  • Feedback

Paterno Family’s Reputation Management no Touchdown

By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on July 23, 2012

Hasty announcement will lead to trouble down the line

The Freeh Report contains seriously damning reports of Joe Paterno’s help in covering up allegations against Jerry Sandusky, and even as Paterno’s statue is removed from the Penn State campus, his family is continuing to rail against the idea that he played any part in the matter. Most recently, they have announced that they believe the Freeh Report has missed “critical information,” and stated that additional information clearing Paterno’s name “will emerge.”

While it is their right to disagree with the Freeh Report, and to seek their own answers, the way the Paterno family has handled the announcement has backed them into a corner. In the following quote, from an AP article, published by Sports Illustrated, Jonathan Bernstein explains what advice he would have given the family:

Public relations expert Jonathan Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management Inc. and the author of texts on crisis communications, said he would have advised the Paterno family to issue a “short message of compassion” for Sandusky’s victims and then conduct its own investigation quietly if it disagreed with the conclusions of the Freeh report.

Announcing the probe now could wind up backfiring on the family, he said, because there will be pressure to release the findings publicly and “the results of the investigation could end up corroborating what was said in the Freeh report.”

In any crisis management situation, you want to have the facts in front of you before guaranteeing any specific information. Things would have gone much better for the Paterno family if they had simply run a quiet investigation of their own and shared their findings, if they did indeed contradict the Freeh Report, that is. If not, then they’d simply need not announce the investigation, and let the issue rest.

——————————-
For more resources, see the Free Management Library topic: Crisis Management
——————————-

[Jonathan Bernstein is president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc., an international crisis management consultancy, author of Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management and Keeping the Wolves at Bay – Media Training, and co-host of The Crisis Show. Erik Bernstein is Social Media Manager for the firm, and also editor of its newsletter, Crisis Manager]

« Previous Next »

Search Our Site

Meet this Blog’s Co-Hosts

Jonathan L. Bernstein, president of Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. has more than 25 years of experience in all aspects of crisis management – crisis response, vulnerability assessment, planning, training and simulations.[Read more ...]


Erik Bernstein is vice president of Bernstein Crisis Management. Erik started with BCM in 2009 as a writer and subsequently became social media manager for the consultancy itself as well as for a number of BCM clients before moving to the VP position. [Read more ...]

Recent Blog Posts

  • Responding to Unpreventable Crises, a(nother) Starbucks Story
  • 3 Reasons You NEED To Know Crisis Management Best Practices
  • Importance of Security Within Reputation Management
  • Preventing An Avoidable Workplace Crisis
  • 4 Quick Tips For Responding To Reporters
  • When A Sudden Event Threatens Your Company, Step Up Like Wag
  • Making Sense Of Varied Reactions To Crisis Communications
  • When Over-Lawyering Makes Bad News Worse
  • The Common Threats Hindering a Company’s Cyber Security
  • Avoiding Project Failure: Have You Premeditated Any Evil Lately?

Categories of Posts

  • Avoid the Apology
  • college crises
  • communications
  • conflict resolution
  • Crisis Assessment
  • Crisis Avoidance
  • crisis communications
  • crisis management
  • Crisis Management Quotables
  • crisis planning
  • crisis preparedness
  • Crisis Prevention
  • crisis public relations
  • Crisis Response
  • crisis training
  • customer service
  • cyber attacks
  • cyber bullying
  • cybersecurity
  • data breach
  • Dealing With Media
  • Digital Media Law Project
  • disaster crisis management
  • disaster prevention
  • Disaster Response
  • disease crisis management
  • emergency management
  • Erik Bernstein
  • ethics
  • Facebook
  • food industry crisis management
  • hackers
  • hacking
  • Higher Education
  • hospitality
  • HR
  • information security
  • Internal Communications
  • internet crisis management
  • internet security
  • Jonathan Bernstein
  • Journalistic ethics
  • Law
  • Litigation PR
  • litigation-related crisis management
  • Media Relations
  • media training
  • online crisis management
  • Online Reputation Management
  • political crisis management
  • PR
  • preventable crises
  • privacy breach
  • privacy violation
  • Public Relations
  • recall crisis management
  • Reputation Management
  • Risk Management
  • SEO
  • social media
  • social media crisis management
  • social media policy
  • social media reputation management
  • sports crisis management
  • violence prevention
  • vulnerability audit
  • Weiner Awards
  • workplace violence

Blogroll

  • Bernstein Crisis Management Blog
  • Jonathan Bernstein's HuffPost Blog
  • The Crisis Show

Related Library Topics

  • Assessments
  • Business Insurance
  • Computer Security
  • Coordinating Activities
  • Crisis Management
  • Employment Laws
  • Ethical Analysis
  • Lawyers (Using)
  • Managing Change
  • Marketing
  • Media Relations
  • Organizational Communications
  • Planning
  • Public Relations
  • Risk Management
  • Safety in Workplace
  • Bernstein Crisis Management Blog

Library's Blogs

  • Boards of Directors
  • Building a Business
  • Business Communications
  • Business Ethics, Culture and Performance
  • Business Planning
  • Career Management
  • Coaching and Action Learning
  • Consulting and Organizational Development
  • Crisis Management
  • Customer Service
  • Facilitation
  • Free Management Library Blogs
  • Fundraising for Nonprofits
  • Human Resources
  • Leadership
  • Marketing and Social Media
  • Nonprofit Capacity Building
  • Project Management
  • Quality Management
  • Social Enterprise
  • Spirituality
  • Strategic Planning
  • Supervision
  • Team Building and Performance
  • Training and Development
About Feedback Legal Privacy Policy Contact Us
Free Management Library, © Copyright Authenticity Consulting, LLC ®; All rights reserved.
  • Graphics by Wylde Hare LLC
  • Website maintained by Caitlin Cahill

By continuing to use this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy.X