"No Comment" is Still Saying Something
Journalism school taught me to be skeptical of someone who refuses to comment in a news story. My years in communication have only cemented that skepticism.
When you tell a reporter “no comment”—or worse, don't return their call—you may as well say “I've got something to hide.” Because that's what people will think. Avoiding comment has been used by plenty of folks who did indeed, I have something to hide, so why would you intentionally put yourself in their company?
If you leave an information vacuum, people will speculate, guess, and draw their own conclusions. Without the (correct) information, how likely do you think they are to get it right?
Lest you think this is just a media relations issue, let me tell you: I see this in internal communication. All. The. Time. Management or a department don't have all the answers figured out or all the decisions made, so you stay mum on the whole thing. But more often than not, other employees know something’s going on—and now they think you're hiding something, because otherwise you’d just tell them the truth, right?
When you say nothing, other people get to decide what you're saying…or at least what they think you’re saying. On top of that, you're giving the impression that the truth is bad because it’s worth hiding. It's a rare situation where saying nothing is your best choice, especially if you're giving many people the chance to make up their own story. Someone is going to come up with a doozy of a story, and then you're not only have to get out the real story, you have to convince people that the other story isn't true or correct. Heaven help you if there are multiple stories to shoot down.
Why spend twice the effort when you can just be upfront from the beginning? A careful response—or even better, proactive information sharing—will go a long way to building trust, reducing risk, and saving time/energy correcting an untrue story.
It can be tough to find the right words or the right proactive plan, so if you're struggling (with a particular issue or in general) I can help! Get in touch and we can make sure you’re telling the story yourself.
