In 3 high-profile ‘fiascos,’ did PR or the news media fan the flames?

Crisis communications experts offer contrasting viewpoints on three major stories of 2010

BP, Toyota and Goldman Sachs have had to deal with major public relations messes this year.

A recent article in The New York Times about how mishandled PR efforts turned crises into what the paper calls “fiascos”has sparked debate among crisis communications experts as to just what caused the companies’ mishaps to grow so huge.

Some agree with the Times’ thesis that the companies themselves fueled the fire. They include PR executive Norman Birnbach and Howard Anderson, an entrepreneurship and communications professor at M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management.

Birnbach followed up the Times story with a blog post listing all the lessons companies can learn from the three companies’ bad example. Likewise, Anderson, who is quoted in the Times piece, said the paper covered the topic well, though “the subject is worthy of a book.”