How to Manage the Press: Don't!

Having just returned from two days of panel discussions by artworld lawyers and museum administrators, I am amazed by how fixated some are on "managing" the press.

So, here's my advice: The best way to manage the press is not to manage us. I can't speak for my colleagues, but I usually know the difference between someone trying to spin me and someone trying to inform me. If I sense that you're "managing" me, you've aroused my suspicion, not my trust.

I like the Harold Holzer Rule, described yesterday at a three-day conference on Legal Issues in Museum Administration, organized by the American Law Institute of the American Bar Assocation. Sharon Cott, the Metropolitan Museum's senior vice president, secretary and general counsel, confided during a session on "The Lawyer's Role on Crisis Management" that the cardinal rule promulgated by the Met's senior vice president for external affairs is:

Tell me everything.

As I've said before, if someone is assigned the role of public spokesman, he must be kept in the loop so that he can usefully and adequately perform that function. If he only tells part of the story, because that's all he knows, we curious creatures are likely to dig in other places for more. Partial truths usually backfire. And when the full truth emerges, the museum looks like it was hiding something.

So here's the Rosenbaum Corollary to the Holzer Rule:

Tell ME everything.

We all know that rules have exceptions: Sharon confessed that she didn't really tell Harold everything, partly because some of the information (regarding the Met's antiquities negotiations, the subject of her talk) was "legally privileged." Similarly, some information cannot be divulged to reporters because of legitimate confidentiality concerns.

That said, the presumption should be disclosure and transparency, with explanations when something must be kept secret. After all, as Max Anderson, director of the Indianapolis Museum recently said, "We're not making weapons here. It's not like we've got that much to hide."