Handle crises carefully or Colbert (and others) will call you out

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This week’s newsletter is longer than most. I felt the topic deserved multi-source thoughts about ways a crisis that could have been tempered early, but wasn’t, has been handled. I hope you enjoy and learn from it.

My friend Amy asks one question when it comes to rumblings about firing a coach in-season. “And do what?”

Amy knows football — and as it turns out, crisis communications — better than nine of 10 businesses gpublicity.com surveyed the week of January 27.

In case you missed it

The CBS network affiliate in Milwaukee, Wis., is swimming upstream with PR piranhas because it didn’t activate a crisis communications plan before firing a popular meteorologist who criticized Elon Musk’s viral Nazi salute. Note — Sam = popular, Nazis = not.

Sam Kuffel, a weather scientist in the United States’ 35^th -ranked market, was fired after posting personal thoughts on her private Instagram page about Musk’s viral video. Her firing outraged people in her own market, and WDJT’s apparent quick trigger drew worldwide attention. American media, including CBS’s own Late Show with Stephen Colbert (last monologue item in that link), made sure the world knew the call letters of the station that appeared to support hateful interests rather than one of its own.

⚡️Remember the word appear because it’s related to perception.⚡️ As I’ve written, and experienced PR agents will tell you, perception equals reality when you don’t own your narrative.

Devil’s advocate

Let’s say Sam was fired for another reason. The public wouldn’t know because as of this writing, a Google search only shows that Kuffel is no longer employed by the station. What brought WDJT-TV to full crisis mode wasn’t multiple articles in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, international coverage or Colbert, because by the time those were produced, sh** had pretty much hit the fan. The kicker was a follow-up email journalist Dave Zirin noted asking him not to use Sam’s name in his piece for The Nation.

Zirin has been around the block more than a few times, so he was stunned that an affiliate’s PR person didn’t know how to keep information off the record. (I wish she would have contacted her station manager because as a former reporter, she’d know.)

It should be noted that Zirin won’t let this story die “This is not just a Milwaukee issue,” he told me. Nor will the business that erected a billboard near her former place of work. ⚡️Remember, to the public, perception is reality.⚡️Stories like this and strong visuals allow negative news to perpetually drip and stay in the public eye. Once it’s online, it lives forever.

More communicators’ views

Tom Jones, senior media writer for The Poynter Institute for Media Studies and a veteran journalist, was measured when he explained his feelings about the WDJT-Kuffel crisis.

“I’m a little old school on this. While I certainly understand her outrage at Musk's gesture (I was outraged, too), she probably shouldn't have tweeted what she did. Look, I get it.

“We feel like we need to speak out sometimes. Sometimes, staying silent is being complicit. I cannot tell you how many times I've started to write an email or tweet something angry that felt good while I was writing it.”

Tom’s take is valid. I’ve advised groups, from athletes to broadcasters to small business owners, to consider the value or possible repercussions of what they say, send or post. I’ve deleted plenty of words myself. In this case, I engage with this topic because I coach crisis communications preparation and response and feel strongly about the subject.

I realize I put myself in a precarious position even writing about this because I’ve enjoyed respectful and productive relationships with reporters at WDJT. When Holocaust-era propaganda, gestures or ideologies rear their deadly, ugly faces, I will speak up, however, just as I have regarding the value of diverse communities and workspaces.

Guilt by association?

One more thought about social media platforms in the work world per USA Today reporter Nancy Armour:

“Social media is supposed to be fun and informative, a way to reach people you otherwise wouldn’t,” Armour wrote when sharing why sports leagues and athletes risk their reputations by staying on Twitter, er, X.  (Musk owns that site.) “When it becomes a haven for white supremacists, neo-Nazis and others who don’t value democracy or diversity, it’s time to leave.”

Your Homework📝

ACT — don’t delay, deflect or disconnect during a crisis

I created and have coached the crisis communications acronym ACT for the last 10 years. I plan to expand on this in 2025, but until then, its basics remain for every business and individual.

Anticipate

Communicate

Truth

Anticipate crisis. Build a plan and update it quarterly. If you want to do anything that will create angst or anger in or outside your organization, first ask, “And do what?”

Communicate First, inform your organization. Then address media and influencers. Expand as needed.

Truth Be transparent. As a public relations peer said to me, “I always say the more transparency and explanation the better. I think it’s a bad look for the news outlet right now, but it all comes down to the policies of organizations,” she said of the affiliate whose policies aren’t public. She added, “It’s good to see more media/journalists putting themselves out there when it comes to standing up to these things,” noting that we’re in unprecedented times.

ACT Fast — prepared but FAST

The sooner you own your organization’s faults — whether you think they’re “minor” or not —stay in front of the issue and tell your story before someone else does. The perception thing again — silence is complicity. It’s also ignorant to think even though our attention spans continue to shrink, your crisis will evaporate. An explanation more than a few hours later is too late in an always-on media cycle. A week or more later, people will remember and repeat what they learned at the outset when someone else told your story.

Advice — Have a seasoned professional speak on your behalf or quickly bring in an outside expert to advise your crisis response before you act. Most everything in the case above has gone against basic crisis communications principles.

As of this writing, WDJT’s story is from others’ points of view. The result means embers stay warm and may flare when they least expect it.

© 2025 Gail Sideman, gpublicity 

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