Arguably, the two most important lessons that PR practitioners should have learned (so far) from the 2024 political scene concern the use of cell phones and emails.
Emails containing derogatory remarks about Mr. Trump that JD Vance sent before he became a supporter of the former president have received media coverage several times during the presidential campaign
And the indictment of New York City Mayor Eric Adams on five federal public corruption charges most likely contained information from the cell phones seized from the mayor and his associates.
This brings us to how public relations practitioners should handle confidential information
Emails: Never email 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. Call from a landline phone or overnight it.
Discussing confidential information: This should never be done in a setting with other people nearby, even members of your agency. Take a walk around the block and discuss it outside of the office.
Your briefcase: It’s dangerous to carry confidential information in a briefcase filled with other documents. When looking through your briefcase it’s easy for the confidential information to be misplaced or fall out.
Your desktop: If you are dealing with confidential information, never leave papers or your desktop at the end of the work day. Make certain that you lock it in a secure place. And during the day, do the same if you leave the office. When you are through with the documents, always shred it.
Off The Record: Many PR practitioners hold off the record background sessions with the media, detailing information that is not for public consumption. I think that’s a bad idea for a few reasons: 1) Not all journalists honor off the record information; 2) Reporters who normally honor off the record sessions might have to use the information if it fits into a breaking news story; 3) just because a source says this is off the record doesn’t mean all the reporters at the briefing agree that it is: 4) A reporter might use the off the record information to interview other sources knowledgeable about the situation, thus using the off the record information, but attributing it to the secondary source.
Embargo Releases: Some PR practitioners send information to journalists that is not to be used for legal or other reasons until a certain time. PR people should not do so because there is no obligation for the reporter to honor it.
Receiving confidential information by mistake: Don’t mention it to anyone in your organization. Instead, inform the individual who sent the information and let that individual dictate what should be done. Also, as soon as you see that the information wasn’t meant for you, stop reading it.
Personal Experiences
1) I once received by mistake a transcript of a telephone call between an executive of a client’s company and the governor of his state. I called the client and was told not to send it back by messenger; we arranged to meet and I personally returned it. Then he took me to lunch. In all the years I worked with that client the matter was never again discussed.
2) I once traveled by airplane to a client meeting to unveil a new 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 had happened was that we were on the same airplane with the marketing exec and an advertising team 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.
3) A financial PR person at a major PR agency was instructed to issue an earnings report at a certain time. Reporters were advised about the timing. One reporter asked if he could have the information in advance so he could prepare his story in advance because of a personal situation and he would hold it until the information was released. The PR person provided the reporter with the information who immediately put it on the wire. Bad outcome for the PR person.
My personal credo is that information not to be distributed to the media should never be discussed in public places and should only be distributed or discussed on a need-to-know basis. That’s a good rule to follow. But too 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 2 slogan, “Loose lips sink ships.”