Memetic
But someone needs to actively deal with that call.
No, they don't.
Any journalist with even a modicum of intellligence knows that you go to a company management, or their
PR company, for the official line. Any journalist talking to a line pilot, or other employee, is after "dirt", not the line a
PR company will spin them.
Some journalists, by their professionalism and sense of what is fair and right, gain the trust of pilots and will get all sorts of inside information on what
really goes on aviation. Others are less trustworthy, and simply use those who will speak to them to further their own careers, and the hell with the consequences for their informants (the recent use of a caterer to smuggle fake weapons onto an aircraft, for example). Fortunately, the journalists who are visible on PPRuNe tend to be the former, not the latter.
But, going back to the point:-
However I would urge you to call the
PR team, even if the manual does not demand it - perhaps it should - as you could provide useful info to them on the journalist's approach to the story - even if it is just a "heads up" that extra 5 minutes can make for a smoother response and a better result for your employer.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. If a company employee was to speak direct to their companies
PR firm, the very least that would probably follow would be a stiff talking-to by their line manager- more likely a disciplinary action would follow.
My point was that companies need to be prepared to deal with media enquiries - not automatically clam up. Some of the worst
PR received by major companies has been the direct result of refusing to talk to the press, being evasive or dishonest.
An employee should direct any query by the press to their management, making
no comment in the process. I also take issue with your statement- I don't believe for a minute that refusing to talk to the press has resulted in bad
PR. It is certainly true that being evasive or dishonest
has resulted in bad
PR- but only because the person concerned
did talk to the press, and handled it badly. If they hadn't done so, no bad
PR. QED.
Unfortunately
PR people seem to live in a different world to the rest of us- if you are not skilled in the art of spin, best to say nothing (and be thought a fool- than to speak... etc...)