With the overabundance of news surrounding former Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., and former presidential candidate John Edwards’ mistress Rielle Hunter climbing out of the woodwork this week, Yeas & Nays chatted with Eric Dezenhall, a crisis communications expert at Dezenhall Resources, on how to (sort of) survive a scandal.
1. Curb the jokes: Ridicule always is the hardest aspect to survive.
“It’s better to be hated than ridiculed because you can always claim that you’re hated for taking bold positions,” Dezenhall said.
2. Get out of the news cycle: The objective is damage control, not damage never happened.
“By resigning, you get the story out of the news more quickly,” he said.
3. Just stop talking: The more you explain, the worse you look.
“In political scandals, people ask themselves, ‘is this exotic, or is it familiar’? Republican men chasing after young male pages is exotic. So is a tickling fetish,” Dezenhall explained. “There’s just nowhere to go with it other than away.”
