Risky Business

One public relations practitioners experience with crisis and risk communication By Sabrina Watson The Challenger disaster, the oil spill and natural disasters in the Gulf of Mexico, and John F. Kennedy Jr.s aircraft incident near Marthas Vineyard are all tragedies. They are all events that John P. Philbin managed in his career as a public relations practitioner. His years of experience have seen good days, long nights and many crises. One of the most well-known crises is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)s response to Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane hit land on August 29, 2005, John Pat Philbin, president of and criticism on FEMAs lack of Crisis1, has decades of experience preparation in their relief efforts in public relations and crisis and followed briefly. Philbin was not with risk communication. FEMA at the time of this event, but dealt Source: Crisis1 website with other crises when he joined. Government public relations is not all paperwork and filing. Philbins career experiences provide insight on risk communication and its place in government public relations. Philbins Career Philbin began his public relations career during the 1980s. He served in the U.S Coast Guard for more than 21 years, and retired as chief of public affairs in 2004. He also served as the deputy chief of the Coast Guards strategic analysis staff, chief of coast guards media relations and press assistant to the commandant. Philbin served as director of the office of external affairs for FEMA. Soon after announcing he would be leaving FEMA, the agency faced media scrutiny for staging a fake press conference without media personnel present. This could have been a career-ending event, but Philbin persevered.

Fake Press Conference

On October 23, 2007, FEMA staged a press conference about their response to the California wildfires. John Philbin, who was the external affairs director of FEMA, said he noticed the media was not there, but he was told the media were on the phone. Philbin did not know that this was a one-way line and the media were not able to ask questions. He took responsibility for what happened and received a lot of backlash. A senior editor at a leading newspaper told him that she did not have the time t o do research on the incident. The media was blaming Philbin, and nobody was double-checking his or her information. Philbin had turned in his letter of resignation prior to the staged press conference and had another prospective job. After being blamed for the event, and having received negative media attention, the other job retracted their offer for Philbin. The personal consequences have been pretty devastating, Philbin said in an interview with PR trade.

 He is now President of Crisis1, LLC, a consultancy located in Virginia. Crisis1 provides audits, assessments, training and aims to reduce potential risks their clients may face. Philbin has a lot of experience working for and with the government, and now he has many clients, both federal and private sector, such as the American Red Cross, Department of Defense Business Transformation Agency, Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security U.S. Coast Guard and several others. Risk Communication Philbins public relations career provides several examples of effective risk communication. Risk communication involves handling crises, natural disaster, mechanical failure or human error, and developing solutions. Risk communication infographic explaining the process of handling a crisis. Source: Google Images In an interview with students at the University of Maryland, Philbin said one of his public relations epiphany moments was the dirty bomb in D.C. He explained that telling the public about possible safety threats could cause panic and chaos, but it is also important to tell the truth. You have to assume whats going on is going to be public information someday, Philbin said when discussing handling a crisis and risk communication. PR people should be focused on reducing risks, saving face is secondary. ###