Fantasy is not freedom!
"Men seek for vocabularies that are reflections of reality. To this end, they must develop vocabularies that are selections of reality. And any selection of reality must, in certain circumstances, function as a deflection of reality." - Kenneth Burke
When you’ve made a very public mistake or are in the midst of a very public stoush, DON'T …
· Take a defensive stance. It coud backfire on you. Recently, a world famous royal who shall not be named, conducted a media interview to defend his actions in a widespread scandal.
The interview led to major public fallout and was later labeled as a “catastrophic error” by a top media lawyer.
The royal apparently came accross as unsympathetic to the victims of the crisis. The interview only led to more questions on his culpability and exposed him to more ridicule.
It seems he should have never agreed to an interview unless he had all the complete and plausible answers to every possible question - a feat that is almost impossible as interviews usually tend to take a life of their own.
“If he’d kept his silence he’d have been able to remain outside of the case, as he’s a witness and is entitled to diplomatic immunity. He was a private individual and now he’s waived that privacy,” said one expert.
Moral of the story - don't get defensive and share more than you need to. It rarely works in your favour.
· Tweet or Gram in anger - capture footage or images in your defence but please don't instantly broadcast your frustration on social media.
Quite a few celebrities in recent times have tweeted or 'grammed their annoyance at a lack of customer service, or 'unfair' treatment.
The fact is that when you're in the midst of a fire, you are naturally riled up.
Your perspective IS clouded by your anger - making it the worst time to communicate to your fans and followers.
Your words are public record and could be twisted or used against you in a legal proceeding.
Your fans may not present at the location / situation where the altercation is happening and don't have context. This can lead to misconceptions and a public escalation of unnecessary vitriol.
Worse still, in the case of celebrities who've tweeted the names of the people they were angry with, innocent people can be hurt in the line of fire.
When you're in the midst of a storm, take a deep breath and realise the responsibiity of your platform.
· Deflect and blame - a by product of fake news that is so 2018. Blaming others, alcohol, the time of day or your dog for your misstep will only make you out as a fool.
· Wait a month or more to issue an apology.
· Steadfastly reject overtures to end a dispute.
· Wage war with your critics and the press.
· Issue falsehoods and fake lies
· Jump into legal solutions and stoushes – threatening legal action and suing those who accuse you could become very costly and work against your favour.
Finally, don't ignore the issue and hope it'll go away. It never does ... and remember this, no matter how long it takes, truth and justice always prevail.
Think on it.
