Crisis Communication Quotes

There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.

The media tried to destroy my parents and has taken things completely out of context, but there's not a whole lot you can do in terms of fighting back. You have to hope that it passes, which it always does. But they have to be careful. They didn't necessarily sign up for this.

I have to remind my dad, 'Journalists - no matter how many cigars they smoke with you - are not your friends, so don't talk to them.'

I'm always having to get rid of reporters.

If an artist is going through a lot of bad publicity, I don't want to ask them about that. If they want to talk about it, I'll make them comfortable enough where they can bring that up on their own. Not only do I want them to feel comfortable, I want them to come back.

Who knows controversies better than me? The controversies always chase people who are active and decision makers.

A politician must often talk and act before he has thought and read. He may be very ill-informed respecting a question; all his notions about it may be vague and inaccurate, but speak he must; and if he is a man of talents, of tact, and of intrepidity, he soon finds that, even under such circumstances, it is possible to speak successfully.

I was watching a documentary that during the Bay of Pigs crisis JFK had about two weeks before anybody reported on it. Imagine that. I think it's fair to say that if something like that happens under a current president, they've got to figure out in about an hour what their response is.

I'm not afraid of the media. I think I know how to handle them because I've been around them enough.

I've been getting some bad publicity - but you got to expect that.

People are more sophisticated in the way they go about dealing with the press.

BP wants Twitter to shut down a fake BP account that is mocking the oil company. In response, Twitter wants BP to shut down the oil leak that's ruining the ocean.

Emergency does not create power.

We've had a lot of controversy in our career, and it's never been intentional.

People's reputations are made in the bad times more than the good times.

Know when to hold 'um, know when to fold 'um and know when to walk away from cameramen.

I learned long ago on the battlefields of Vietnam that in a crisis, there is no substitute for clear-eyed leadership.

My dad doesn't give me any advice about how to handle publicity.

I basically look at PR as something you do if there's an object in mind. But my ego doesn't need it.

The closer one gets to elections or wars, the further one gets from the truth.

Speed as a drug disorganizes the personality; speed as the goal of information dissemination commits a subtler crime. People are mainlining our words. We rarely read of the rational alternatives, only of the commands that all must change or else. This is a prescription for public panic.

We've got to be judged by how we do in times of crisis.

The longer the president goes without telling his side of the story, the more unease there will be in the public.

Before becoming a college president, I helped over a dozen organizations find strategies to get through some very ugly crises.

I believe, with the media, you must answer every question in some way. And in very, very, touchy situations, we must answer every question again and again.