Fox News Sets a Bad Example for Media Relations

When you think of Fox News, you may think of some of its positive attributes, such as its take-no-prisoners style and its obvious commercial success.

Chance are, though, that you do not think of Fox News as one of the world's premier news organizations. You probably do not think of any Fox News reporters when compiling lists of the best TV news journalists, and you likely don't think of Fox News as the place to turn in a crisis for complete, thoughtful coverage.

Whether Fox News deserves this positioning is debatable. But as an extraordinary recent piece by David Carr of the New York Times makes clear, Fox News' PR operation isn't doing the network any favors in this area.

Carr sticks his neck out by detailing the highly aggressive and borderline abusive behavior of the Fox PR department when dealing with reporters covering Fox News. He notes that reporters who dare to criticize the network run the risk of being mocked and ridiculed on the air, and that the PR operation is perfectly willing to try to intimidate reporters out of producing stories by threatening them with such treatment.

To which I ask: what good is this doing Fox News? Is it helping the organization achieve its business goals, which presumably focus on gaining viewers and advertising dollars? To the distant observer, it looks like this PR operation is more concerned with pushing Fox's political agenda than with doing its job in support of Fox's business objectives.

Fox News may be a special case, but I'm highlighting this story to make a few points, to wit:

• PR should never be the story. If you become the story, you're doing something wrong. Go back and look at your tactics and figure out how to get yourself out of the news.
• PR is about positive relationship building. You should be building positive working relationships with the media, not simply to be an ass-kisser, but because such relationships will result in more favorable coverage of your organziation and will earn you the benefit of the doubt when your organization is in trouble and needs friends in the media.
• While there are times when you need to go on the attack against a journalist who isn't giving you a fair shake, that's a tactic that you should rarely need to employ. You should always be searching for common ground and only going on the attack when all else has failed.
• "Do unto others..." This is kindergarten-level stuff -- show the respect for others that you would want them to show to you. How in the world can Fox News expect to a get respectful treatment in the New York Times -- the New York Times! -- when it doesn't treat Times reporters respectfully?