[LINK] "Jian Ghomeshi’s Poison Pen"

[rfmcdonald]

At Maisonneuve, Carly Lewis deftly analyzes, with the help over various PR professionals, Jian Ghomeshi's infamous Facebook posting from last Sunday. It was well-crafted enough to last for a day, yet flawed. It's a nice take.

Jian Ghomeshi’s voice sounds like a latte being poured. He’s charming. Many find him a comfort. Get into a cab in any Canadian city on a weekday morning: Q is on the radio. It plays on one of the only stations you can hear in the woods. He is familiar.

So are his PR moves.

On Sunday, Oct. 26, hours before the Toronto Star published its first story containing violent allegations against him, Ghomeshi released a Facebook post, skillfully crafted, it’s reported, with the help of powerful public relations firm Navigator Ltd. (Past clients include Michael Bryant and Brian Mulroney.)

With the post, Ghomeshi mobilized an army of allies just in time. “His pre-emptive strike was aimed at hitting hard first, to intimidate and potentially reduce his enemy’s ability to respond, knowing that media stories were imminent,” says Heath Applebaum, owner and principle consultant at Toronto’s Echo Communications. “He knew that the CBC, with their privacy policies, and the anonymous women who refused to come forward publicly, would be at a disadvantage. He wanted to project the image that he had nothing to hide.”

Applebaum is one of three damage control (or reputation management) experts who agreed to comb through Ghomeshi’s Facebook note with me. For most outside Canada’s media microcosm, it was the first they’d ever heard about Ghomeshi’s dusky reputation. Initially, the post was “liked” by over 100,000 Facebook fans—that figure is in decline as more women come forward with accounts of violence and brutality. “It now appears to be a thinly veiled ploy to silence his critics and victims,” Applebaum says. “It was successful for about a day.”

Ghomeshi’s note was successful, however fleetingly, because it reinforced untruthful stereotypes about Good Men and Crazy Women. Texting “Happy Thursday” to a woman the morning after sexually assaulting her would be a move from the same playbook—to leave a person bewildered by hatching a reality too gruelling to confront.