PR people are generally not the headline news. We toil behind the scenes, while the stories around our clients play out on a public stage.
In most cases the subjects of our campaigns cooperate with us. Of course, there is one in every crowd, and sometimes you do get the difficult ones; the people who are just tough personalities, or don’t want to listen to our counsel.
These situations usually get resolved quietly, out of the public eye; the client either shoots the messenger AKA fires the agency; or they get smart and learn to be better at dealing with their teams and the media. Over the past few days, however, the drama surrounding PR counsel and a challenging subject was thrust into the limelight during the trial of John Edwards.
The stories highlighted how Edwards worked with his team to put the best possible spin on the unfolding story about his affair with Rielle Hunter, resulting in a child, and legal troubles about how the coverup was funded. Ultimately, Edwards wanted to tie the loose ends together into a package that was just too neat and convenient for his former speechwriter and press secretary.
A NY Times article that ran on Wednesday recounted his work work with Wendy Button to write a speech and prepare for questions from the media. I have been through many, many media training sessions in my time, but this one must have been a doozy. Here’s an excerpt:
Mr. Edwards… listened to Ms. Button recount how shocked she had been when she learned … that rumors of the affair were true, but how she had believed him when he said that an aide, Andrew Young, was the father.
Within a year, she would discover that that was a lie. …he told her that he had wanted to tell the truth for nearly a year, but “things were difficult inside his house…”
First and foremost, she said, Mr. Edwards wanted to make a public declaration to Frances Quinn Hunter, the girl he fathered with the campaign videographer Rielle Hunter and then distanced himself from by having Mr. Young claim paternity.
Mr. Edwards suggested this language: “I made a mistake, she is not,” Ms. Button recalled.
Ms. Button said she continued… to coax Mr. Edwards to be completely honest. They debated how to best present the statement and practiced how he would answer questions from reporters.
If they asked why did he do it, he would answer, “I didn’t think I would get caught.”
If they asked why he lied about it, especially in a national TV interview? “To protect my family.”
Do you love Ms. Hunter? “Yes. It’s complicated.” Is the affair still going on? “You’re not entitled to all the details.”
Regarding the preparation of the media statement, Ms. Button conceded that she went along with a lie, albeit grudginlgy:
The one thing that did not sit right with Ms. Button, she said, was his statement about the money, the very thing for which Mr. Edwards is on trial.
Mr. Edwards and Ms. Button finally decided on this: “Some people, without my knowledge, supported Quinn.” It made Ms. Button uncomfortable. “There I was, typing a lie,” she told the court.
In the end, the line would be erased from the statement, which would not be issued until January 2010.
An article in the NY Times today cites an earlier episode, in which Edwards first went public about the affair, via an exclusive interview with Bob Woodruff on ABC Nightline. The prosecution showed the video segment before resting its case – talk about a dramatic finish!
Watching Mr. Edwards watch himself lie was the most electric moment yet in a three-week trial that has been relatively light on federal campaign law and heavy on dramatic narrative.
…he thought he could make the story go away by confessing to a brief affair but deny that the baby, at that point 6 months old, was his.
So he asked Jennifer Palmieri, his former press secretary and a close friend of his wife, Elizabeth, to help arrange an interview on the ABC News program “Nightline” with the reporter Bob Woodruff…
Mr. Edwards was going to use a “thread the needle” strategy, said Ms. Palmieri, who is now a deputy director of communications for the White House.
That is, he would confess to a brief affair and claim that it was over and that he and his wife had reconciled. He would deny both that the baby was his and that he arranged to pay to support Ms. Hunter.
Ms. Palmieri advised him against it. She had come to believe the baby was his.
“I told him I didn’t think he should do an interview if he was going to lie,” she told the court. “He didn’t need any more press attention at this point.”
She knew his political career was essentially over, she testified Wednesday.”He was deluded for thinking otherwise,” she said.
Still, he went ahead with the interview.
He went ahead and lied about all relevant details:
Mr. Edwards watched a younger, happier-looking version of himself sitting forward in a chair in his Chapel Hill home, taking question after question.
Was the affair over? “Oh, yes. It’s been over for a long time.” Is that your baby? “That is absolutely not true.”
Two weeks earlier, he had been photographed at the Beverly Hills Hilton holding Quinn. But in the interview, he claimed no knowledge of who the baby was or where the photo had come from.
The articles and trial show a communications team trying be eithcal and do their best for a subject who was going down in flames and did not feel bound by the same scruples.
