"SOLVED" MYSTERY

THERE'S A SIDE TO PR THAT FEW KNOW EXISTS

That hot August day set out to be a "bad one" by PR standards. I place that phrase in quotes because when you work for a hospital system you understand that a "bad" day could mean dozens of bleeding people being rushed into the Emergency Room after an accident or some other disaster. Or a child going into cardiac arrest as doctors and nurses race down the hall after hearing the cry of "Stat!"

But for public relations folk a bad day is usually anything that can make your organization look "bad." It doesn't matter whether you are at fault or not -- perception, as they say is everything.

We knew that morning (my boss and good friend Marty Davis and I) that this would be a bad one for us. There had been a rash of food poisonings in facilities in the NYC Health & Hospital Corporation (HHC) -- the largest municipal hospital system in the world. Not just any facilities mind you, but long-term care facilities where patients are generally sent because their conditions are too severe to leave without ongoing medical care. Two patients had died and others were ill -- all from food apparently prepared and served by HHC staff. The thought of bed-ridden patients being fed poisonous food at city health care facilities is a ghastly image. The media just loves those!

After a briefing from the HHC president we headed out to one of the affected facilities. In the car we talked about the awful possibilities: Either we had a systemic food supply problem that made all patients potentially vulnerable. Or we had some wacko "angel of death" going around killing off patients. The media loves those too.

Then our beepers went off simultaneously. For those too young enough to know -- there weren't always cell phones. So Marty pulled the car over and found a working pay phone to call in. I knew by his expression this was bad -- but I never dreamed of what he would say: "We have to make it over to Harlem Hospital -- someone just walked out with a baby..."

Unbelievable! Even for two veteran PR guys, this was beyond the playbook.

When we arrived the streets were cluttered with police cars and media vehicles. A summer Harlem crowd had formed, many of the stunned, many angry, many both. 

We cut through the media frenzy and went to meet with the Harlem Hospital Executive Director, Head of Security and other key staff. No one had any answers other than: A "suspicious-looking" woman who was dressed as and acting like a nurse, was the one who most likely walked away with the baby.

First you think - how could this happen? Didn't anyone think anything strange? Didn't they know this woman? Well, no. Hospitals are open 24 hours a day, seven days a weeks, etc. There are multiple shifts -- no one knows the faces of everyone who works there. This woman apparently had an authentic looking hospital I.D. (not so difficult given the postage stamp-sized photo) and hospital garb. Nurse outfits are not like the 50s and 60s when all wore white dresses and caps. Now the dress is far more casual and can vary. Hospitals also have lots of visitors for patients, meetings, etc. every day. Not to  mention there are other distractions like, well  patient care.

And what of Security? Well as my boss told a reporter -- "A hospital is not a prison."

How true. Nor is it an airport.  You don't frisk people, there are no metal detectors and it is relatively easy to get a pass to visit a patient. That pass takes you virtually anywhere in the hospital that is not flat out restricted to personnel members only. 

Remember this is nearly 15 years before 9/11.

As the days and weeks went on we knew little more than we knew that first day. Police, as they say, were baffled.   

Then a solid lead came to light. A person of interest was traced to an address in South Carolina. The NYPD dispatched detectives, the S.C. State Police were on the scene, as was the FBI. They converged on the home, but to no avail. The woman in question had an air tight alibi.

The case eventually made it to television's "Unsolved Mysteries"  a Top Ten show at the time that had lead to the arrests of numerous cold case suspects.

No leads, nada!

And so things stood suspended in mystery.

Years later I began teaching PR in college. I have told this story to students many times as a way of telling them:   1) how in PR events can take a bizarre turn;  2) that there are lessons to be learned about how we dealt with the media that day (such as waving off the "packed room press conference"  and instead opted for individual interviews with the Executive Director to avoid a circus atmosphere)

I told that story to two classes just last month. It almost always draws a gasp or two.

But not nearly as loud as the one I let out yesterday when I saw the story on-line that she had been found!

I have often thought of her. In recent years I even wondered if it would have a Hollywood ending -- like maybe she would wind up as a student in my class.

But in reality there could be no more Hollywood ending than sitting at the computer on a cold January day when the news came flashing across the screen that the the mystery of that hot August day had been solved -- finally!   

     

A FEW GOOD WORDS -- PLENTY OF BAD ONES

Millions -- perhaps even the majority of Americans -- do not remember (or worse even know!) that there was a time not so long ago when terrorist acts and assassinations were common and were not "foreign" in origin. 

They were home grown and they came from the left as well as the right: church bombings; school bus bombings; homes of civil rights and civic leaders riddled with bullets; volunteers who had the audacity to help register Blacks to vote in America, were beaten, harassed, shot and three had their battered bodies left to rot in a swamp; failed attempts to destroy national landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty; successful attempts to bomb Fraunces' Tavern (where George Washington bade farewell to his troops); draft induction centers set on fire; abortion and family planning centers burned, sprayed with bullets and bombed; a President of the United States shot to death; a candidate for President (his brother) shot to death after a primary "victory" speech; another President barely escaping the same fate took a bullet; another escaped not one but two  assassins' bullets; and on and on. 

If you are of a certain age you remember all or at least some of these events and the names. Then there are the non-famous persons whose names slip the memory now, but not the terrible events.

To those the age of President Obama and Sarah Palin or younger, the shock of the events of Arizona has little precedent. Save for the rash of school shootings and 9/11, bullets and other terrorist acts are things of the past. And the impact is not the same. Many of us felt the world had changed when JFK was shot down. But for the generations since school shootings, although terrible things, leave little emotional residue unless there is a personal connection. No one is saying "hey man, I'm not going to college -- I don't want to get shot!"   

And the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon? A fluke. After all nothing has happened since, right? And all these foiled attacks like the underwear bomber and the Times Square car bomber seem more like they were performed by terrorists interns, then any really threatening people.

So Saturday's events in Arizona may shock but not surprise those of a certain age. For many of those younger, the horror will fade as soon as the media goes back to reporting on Ted Williams, Lindsay and Snookie.  For the time being we will wallow in it as the TV pundits debate whose fault it really was. 

I heard a Black radio broadcaster say yesterday:  "I understand all about the tragedy in Arizona -- but what about Haiti? Today is the year anniversary, I'm not seeing it on TV..." 

Well, it was on TV, but a distant second story to Arizona. The reason, although not simple, can be simply explained. The news value is in the most recent event, always. And also the one closest to home (proximity). In New York, Miami and a few other places there are large Haitian populations and communities. That is not true of most of the US, however. 

And the back stories in this horrific moment were strong: the dedicated, attractive (yes that counts too) Congresswoman gunned down in her home district; the heroic 20-year-old intern who rushed to save her, and of course that nine-year-old who seemed destined to do wonderful things had she had the fortune of a normal lifespan.

All of which set the stage for the other components of the story -- gun control and mental health. Exactly what trigger set off the gunman we may never know. To say that the political discourse may have contributed is reasonable.

So President Obama did what many say he does best; take to the pulpit. He gave a good speech, nearly flawless in achieving the objectives of making his audience of Arizonians and Americans at large believe this can be a beginning of a new day. A day, he says, that will make us rise  to "the expectations of Christina Taylor Green..." 

No cynicism intended, but this could be President Obama's  "9/11 moment."  

Remember how that tragedy made George Bush look like a leader as he stood in the rubble of the World Trade Center locking arms with New York city firefighter? Try to remember what you thought of him before that -- its hard.    

This won't at all affect the Obama haters, but many who have felt disappointed, or who were on the fence about him may at the very least give him the benefit of the doubt. Remember he has recently started to turn the tide with some significant "end-of-the-year" victories before Congress changed sides of the field on January 1.

And now the Republicans have to actually do something  instead of throwing spitballs in class. And their troubles are mounting. The new Tea Party members of Congress have made it clear that they are not beholding to John Boehner and the other party leadership. And the leaders are starting to get real queasy about how to defend their precious semi-automatic guns and high velocity bullets.This has them sacred shitless. The far right which once propelled the GOP into the power position they have held for nearly two generations, now threatens to fragment them into oblivion much like the far left did the traditional Democrats in 1968. Even Karl Rove is sacred. He may not know how to "message" this one into a 2012 victory. By then much of the damage by the Tea Party will have been done.

Which bring us to Ms. Palin. 

She hid when the shooting started and the bodies fell on one of the vary spots where her gun scope map had indicated. She says she sent a  note to the family of Rep. Giffords. Then she hid when the finger pointing began and she was caught in a deluge of video clips shouting "reload" and shooting at wildlife in Alaska. And of course that silly-ass map. Now amazingly, she produces a video that shows her for all her deceitfulness, hatefulness and transparency. If you haven't heard by now she used her favorite tactic of blaming the liberal media. But this time she out did herself  by using the phrase "blood libel" which refers to lies told about Jews that caused many of them to be persecuted and killed. Centuries later the residue of those lies remains in the minds and actions of many today.  The congresswoman, by the way is Jewish.

If you have ever had to do it, you realize that it is difficult to know what to say to someone who has lost a loved one. There are no perfect words -- but there are plenty of bad ones.  

Sarah Palin had plenty of bad ones.

President Obama had plenty of good ones in his well-crafted, heart-felt speech.

At some point he should use some good ones to address all the many victims of gun violence in this country. Including those in his hometown of Chicago, where young men die by bullets many times quicker than they would in Iraq or Afghanistan. 

      

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