The nearly-famous (will they soon become infamous?) Michaele and Tareq Salahi, the Virginia reality-TV aspiring couple who crashed the White House state dinner last week, present crisis communications challenges for a number of parties (sic).
Start with, but we can’t end with, the Secret Service. They have been candid and forthright saying that they were at fault: “Bottom-line: We’re responsible. It could have been very easy to make a phone call or get on a radio and verify if someone was on a list. This is still our responsibility as we’ve said from the beginning,” said Secret Service spokesperson Edwin Donavan.
If you made a mistake, direct and rapid acceptance of blame, works. According to media reports, the security breach occurred when Secret Service personnel at a first check point thought that the Salahi names would be checked at a second check point. Playing the game of “Alphonse and Gaston” with security — even with a crush of well dressed party goers — is not acceptable.
Crisis response is also about what did you learn? Assume that there is a rapid analysis among the President’s protective detail and much tighter controls for anyone getting into the White House for any occasion. .
The White House Social Office is probably in a higher state of Crisis Response. Reportedly, in the Bush administration there would have been a staffer at every entrance with the social list (and perhaps photos of guests) comparing notes with the Secret Service. At the entrance used by the Salahi’s, reportedly there was no one from the social office double checking the names on the invite list.
As to the Salahi’s, aka “Facebraggers” for using Facebook to post their photos, we still don’t know where their saga will end. The Washington press has been replete with stories about their personal lives, efforts at social climbing, family feuds and debts. They are vehemently claiming that they were invited to the ball. And the MO is all about playing the American celebrity game and trying to get paid for their appearances in the news to tell their story. Stay tuned, PT Barnum will probably raise his head and there will be a media sucker who can’t resist the habit for the “exclusive.” Then we’ll have the crisis of the press that pounds on the media that gets the exclusive (and bemoans the ratings hit). Staying in the limelight might or might not work for the Salahi’s, and is not the recommended course for most of our clients.
www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com