Recently, while traveling abroad, I was the subject of a very flattering profile in Forbes Magazine (the Croatian version). In the article, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was listed as one of my clients. This does not happen to be true. This is a mini-mini media problem for me that, left unchecked, could one day grow into a media crisis. The issue of resume inflation has brought down many a public figure, and I don’t want to be one of them. So I always try to correct the record when this happens. But this is an issue that has to be handled delicately. I don’t want to make a mountain out of a molehill. I don’t want to embarrass the reporter for making a tiny, innocent mistake, that, frankly, made me look good. Still, I don’t want this to work its way permanently into the public record. And I want to be able to show a paper trail if anyone ever tries to suggest that I have fabricated my credentials. So, in an effort to act ethically and honestly and to protect my future reputation, I sent the following email to the publicist who is my liaison with the journalist at Forbes.
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The article in Forbes seems to suggest that Hillary Clinton was a client of mine. If the translation I am reading is correct, this is not the case. I don’t want to make a big deal out of it, but I need to send something to the journalist to go on the record as correcting this. I am not asking for a correction or anything in print, but I need to protect myself in case anyone ever suggests I have fabricated a client list. Please forward the following message to the journalist:
“Great Article. Thanks so much for your time and insights. One minor point where I was perhaps unclear. I have been a media trainer to Hillary Clinton’s replacement in the US Senate, Kirsten Gillibrand, but not to Hillary Clinton herself. Thanks again for the great article and good luck with the first full year of Forbes Croatia.
TJ”
What do you think? Is this the best way to handle this situation? How would you handle it? Please let me know your thoughts. TJ
TJ
#1 by Allen Montrasio on April 27, 2009 - 3:57 am
To a certain extent, dealing with media corrections has to do with the media culture of the country the journalist/publication comes from, but having said this, I believe that courteously stating the facts and courteously asking that the record be put straight in print is perfectly legitimate and should not embarrass anybody.
As you say yourself, reputations are at stake and when it’s a matter of fact rather than opinion, not only you have the right to see the facts you state correctly reported, but also the reader has a right to know the true facts.
There are many reasons why simple facts may appear in print in a different way than was intended – for example the article may have been edited and a key piece of information may have been unintentionally lost – and editors are usually amenable to put the record straight without much fuss. All the ones I’ve dealt with in such cases were happy to print a rectification and usually apologised too.
Your message was more than courteous and will probably result in a printed rectification, not least, I believe, because editors too are keen to maintain their reputations with their readers.
#2 by Joanne Mallon on April 27, 2009 - 7:44 am
It sounds like you handled it pretty well TJ. The only thing that I would have added would have been to ask directly that the online version of the story be corrected to reflect the truth. It’s the web version that will hang around in cyberspace and possibly be referenced in the future.
best wishes
Joanne
Media Coach
#3 by TJ Walker on April 27, 2009 - 9:58 am
Allen, Joanne, good points from both of you. In this case, I don’t believe the publication has an online version. The other issue in this case is that I don’t specifically want a correction to the story. I feel it is such an inconsequential matter and I don’t want to inconvenience the writer or the publication. Nor do I feel that it fundamentally creates an impression about me that it is distorted because I have trained numerous people of equal stature to Hillary Clinton. So my goal wasn’t to get the correction in print, but simply to protect myself if the issue ever comes up of client inflation.
TJ