A lesson on requesting anonymity before a conversation

Or maybe she just forgot. While seeking the newspaper’s endorsement for a 16th term, the Manhattan Democrat said President Joe Biden wasn’t running for re-election. She thought she was speaking off the record. The comment added to reports that many members of her party don’t want him to run for a second term.

And that wasn’t even the worst thing that happened to Maloney during the session.

Using anonymity when talking to reporters is a gamble. It can be embarrassing when too-colorful statements turn up in a news report, attributed to an organization’s spokesperson. At worst, it can be financially damaging to a brand if sensitive information is disclosed. Some successful PR people go their entire careers without going “off the record.”

But anonymity can be a highly effective way to shape a story. You can steer a reporter to “on-the-record” sources, such as public reports and official documents, that the reporter might never find or not find as quickly. To explain complex subjects, you can help the reporter with a candid discussion that will only be background in the story and won’t need attribution.

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