Crisis Management: when ‘no comment’ works

‘Top business writers’ recently told a crisis management conference for public relations professionals that, ‘No comment is no option’. No great insight here. Every media literate audience knows that ‘no comment’ is an admission of guilt.

It’s not press officers or public relations gurus that press for ‘no comment’. Communications professionals understand that, combined with an appropriate apology, an open and honest approach can be surprisingly disarming. After all what is there to say once it’s all out in the open and lessons have been learnt? The problem comes from other professionals, particularly lawyers, who are afraid that even an implied admission of liability, can lead to a claim.

Anyway. There are exceptions to this rule and one is the current case of David Cameron, a contender for the leadership of the Conservative Party. Despite high profile demands that he come clean on cocaine allegations, Cameron remains on course to win. His decision to claim a right to a pre-politics private life has gone down very well. Most have read this as an admission to some university dalliance and left it at that. Had Cameron gone down the ‘open and honest’ route, he’d have been obliged to disclose too much information and his campaign would have been derailed. His qualified ‘no comment’, is actually a masterstroke that’s still enabled him to avoid the intrusive newspaper investigations that a denial would have provoked.
Contact Stephen Newton

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