Quote of the day

A property management firm in Chicago decided to sue one of its tenants for a Twitter post that spoke ill of the company.  The company, Horizon Group Management, says that the tenant sent the message maliciously and filed suit asking for $50,000 in damages.

Asked about the suit by the Chicago Sun-Times, Horizon owner Jeffrey Michael noted:

"We're a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization."  Yee-haw!

Ok, I added the Yee-haw part.  And I don't think he was riding a horse when he was talking to the reporter.

But anyway, I guess that didn't go over so well because the company went on to issue a news release yesterday "apologizing for tongue in cheek comments that were made previously regarding our approach to litigation".

Phew.  But they're still litigating.

The case against real-time PR

At the end of the G8 conference Canadian Prime Minister Harper attacked Liberal opposition Leader Ignatieff for a quote that ended up being from someone else.

How'd it happen? Harper's press secretary Dimitri Soudas was e-mailed the quote from a colleague in Canada; briefed the PM on the fly; and the PM then let fly a verbal pounding against Ignatieff. When it soon became clear the quote that set Harper off wasn't actually from Ignatieff, apologies started flowing from the PM and Soudas.

Harper: "I learned shortly after the press conference this was not a quotation of Mr. Ignatieff," said Harper before departing L'Aquila.

"I regret the error and I apologize to Mr. Ignatieff for this error."

Soudas: "I am upset," and he added later that the prime minister was "clearly, clearly not happy with the fact that he was put in that situation by one of his advisors.

"The prime minister is very bothered by the fact that his press secretary mis-informed him, and mis-briefed him and hence he obviously made an accusation."

I can see where Soudas wanted to use what seemed like a good opportunity to bash an opponent, but this episode is a great example of ensuring your communications infrastructure has the right checks and balances to make sure everything you say is 100% accurate.

For companies, the closest comparison to the speed in which the communications cycle was running in this situation would be a crisis management episode. In crises, events happen quickly, facts can change by the moment and its critical for your reputation that your communications remain accurate.

That means stay open and honest, but also slow down the process a bit to ensure you're providing clear and accurate facts. If you don't you run the risk of a meltdown that could likely compound any reputational damage from the crisis.

Jasmine MacDonnell, Ryan Sparrow - move over and make room for Mr. Soudas.

Going waaaay of message

Bernie Ecclestone owns the commercial rights to F1 racing. In an interview with the Times of London he somehow wandered from discussing racing to Hitler. You can guess where this went.

"It's probably my fault in that I got dragged into something I wasn't supposed to discuss – we got out of F1 into something else," Ecclestone said.

However, Ecclestone said he does not regret praising Hitler's leadership "except as usual things were taken a little bit wrong."

Just a bit.

Sarcasm award

CTV just announced that it's selling three TV stations it had slated for closure for $1 a piece to Shaw Cable.

"I think it's great," said Ivan Fecan, President and CEO, CTVglobemedia, and CEO, CTV. "We've accepted their offer of $1 per station. Cable is rolling in money and can obviously afford to underwrite the losses. Good for them."

Zing!

Why even bother with the window dressing of civility?