During World War II there was a slogan, “Loose lips sink ships.” It warned people involved in aspects of the war effort not to discuss what they are doing because the enemy might be listening.
Because of technological advances, the same can be said today about many other methods of communication, including the Signal chat app that was used by United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a discussion of military plans that included a journalist who was inadvertently invited.
During the chat, Mr. Hegseth revealed plans of a military strike against the Houthis with members of the Trump administration. None in the group questioned who JG was. He is Jeffery Goldberg, editor in chief of the Atlantic magazine, who was mistakenly invited by national security adviser Mike Waltz, who insinuated that the journalist may have infiltrated the group, which of course is not true. He was invited—mistakenly, but invited.
While it’s unlikely that any information brand and corporate PR practitioners are privy to are as important as the information revealed in the chat situation, clients expect their agencies to keep secret any particulars that they don’t want to make public.
Personal Experience:
I once traveled by airplane to a client meeting to unveil a new PR program. When we were done with the presentation, our client said he was instructed by a top marketing executive not to let us leave until we were questioned by the exec. What happened was that we were on the same airplane with the marketing exec and an advertising team from another agency that was presenting their plans for a new product rollout. The ad team was discussing their plans on the plane, just one row ahead of the marketing exec. We were told that three different agencies were presenting that afternoon and the exec didn’t know which team was from the ad agency.
When it was our turn to be questioned, we were told what happened, received an apology for detaining us and were told the penalty for discussing client information in public was to lose the account, which the ad agency did.
While Republicans and Democrats might differ whether the chat information was a serious enough security breach for Secretary Hegseth to be fired, any reasonable person would admit that the situation is a serious PR crisis that has a long shelf life with lessons that apply to all crisis situations.
Here are five important lessons to be learned from the military chat situation
- The most important lesson to be remembered is that during a PR crisis all spokespeople should have a similar message. Those involved in the chat discussion delivered different messages about the importance of the military information to the press and to Congressional committees.
- Always advise a client in crisis not to blame others, as Boeing did when its 747 Max planes crashed, and as BP did during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Doing so leads to a “he said, she said” situation. In the chat situation, some attendees involved, and other GOP spokespeople, attempted to play down the serious of the information by attacking Mr. Goldberg, some calling him names, for writing an article that made it appear classified information was discussed. Those involved said the information was not classified, as did President Trump. As a result, Mr. Goldberg released the entire chat discussion, which revealed information he did not publish in his original article. Bi-partisan national security officials said what was discussed was classified and should not have been discussed on a commercial channel.
- During a crisis situation, the best thing for a client to do is to accept responsibility. In the chat situation, denying the truth led to additional media coverage as more damaging information became public.
- Never attack a reporter’s professionalism. In the chat situation, other journalists defended Mr. Goldberg against GOP attacks, resulting in additional negative coverage.
- In a crisis situation, always tell the truth. Experience shows that it will eventually come out. In the chat situation, immediately admitting responsibility would have limited the “he said, she said” coverage.
Below are some general rules regarding how to handle sensitive client information
- Discussing confidential information should never be done in a setting with other people nearby. Take a walk around the block and discuss it outside of the office.
- Never email or text anything that a client says is confidential to others in your agency. Walk it over to members of your team. If you have to relay the information to other offices, don’t do it via office phones or smartphones. Overnight the information.
- Never take sensitive information out of the office.
- Never leave sensitive information on your desk when you leave the office. When leaving for the day, always lock sensitive information in your desk.
As the advertising agency I referred to earlier in this essay learned the hard way (by being fired), sensitive client information should be handled only in a “need to know” manner. And in a secure place that only “need to know” personnel are told about it.
Early in my PR career, before joining Burson-Marsteller, where as a senior VP/senior counselor I restructured, managed and played key roles in some of the most significant national and international sports and non-sports programs, and traveled the world with high-ranking government officials as a media advisor, I worked on local, statewide and national political campaigns, including presidential ones, So protecting client information, even non-sensitive information, was always in my DNA.
But often young PR practitioners are so proud of their contributions to client programs that I’ve heard them discussed while they were unwinding at the bar. They should be reminded of the World War II slogan, “Loose lips sink ships.”
And sometimes careers.
