What communicators can learn from Hillary Clinton’s goof

Sen. Clinton’s whopper about dodging snipers in Bosnia can teach us all

Hillary Clinton may have taught PR pros and communicators a valuable lesson about social media last week. It goes something like this. Imaginary snipers can’t hurt you. But lying about them in the age of social media can.

Unless you’ve been hunkered down in a cave without wi-fi, you have no doubt heard the story: On St. Patrick’s Day, Clinton repeated her oft-told lie that during a mission to Bosnia she had to dart across an airport tarmac while dodging sniper fire.

She told this whopper several times and had been outed by reporters before, but last week she got nailed. The CBS Evening News aired a video of Clinton calmly crossing that tarmac in Tulza to receive flowers from a local delegation.