FUMBLES: ROOKIE & VETERAN SLIP ON NEGATIVE POSITIONING

Two very different men, with infinitely different levels of media experience, ended up committing the same communications Fumble this week – and providing the rest of us with a valuable reminder. It usually happens when confronted with a negative notion, often coming in the form of reporters’ questions. The respondent tries so hard to shoot down the negative positioning that they end up helping it reverberate in the process. To wit: two high school students in Keswick get into a fight, and there are allegations that one of them used a racial slur against the other at the outset. The father of the boy is very upset by the suggestion, and tells a Toronto Sun reporter: “He’s not racist at all, and he’s not a bully.” Headline: “Boy ‘not racist bully’: Dad.” Sure, the word “not” is in there, but it can’t help but be swamped by the much more powerful, negatively charged other words uttered in the same breath – “racist” and “bully.” Later on, Dad does well, saying that his son “doesn’t even think in terms of race” and noting that his boy’s best friend is Filipino – but the damage is done. Now, that man is far from an experienced communicator, and made one of the most common mistakes in the business. But also this week, there was Prime Minister Stephen Harper – obviously a veteran in front of the microphones – commenting on increasing tensions between Canada and Russia over expulsion of diplomats. “I don’t want to say this is the Cold War … but it’s certainly not an ideal situation,” Harper told reporters. But ya see, if you don’t want to say it’s the Cold War, you probably shouldn’t include the phrase “this is the Cold War” in your comments. The lesson here is to fight the natural temptation to refute negative positioning by using the same words you’re trying to shoot down. Better to keep your language generic (“on the contrary” or “not at all”) or, better still, describe the matter at hand in the actual – positively-positioned – language that you would like to see reported. In other words, talk about what it is – not what it isn’t.