BP Execs Not Likely to Face Criminal Charges

According to a recent Bloomberg News report the U.S. Justice Department is considering filing manslaughter charges in its investigation of BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The report played prominently enough in the media on Tuesday to drive BP’s share price down a noticeable amount.

An analysis of industrial disasters by University of Maryland law professor Jane Barrett shows that company managers are very rarely charged in industrial accidents to include bigger disasters than the recent explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, which resulted in 11 fatalities.

“If they are large corporate entities, what has happened historically is the company pleads guilty, pays a fine and no individuals are prosecuted," Barrett said in an interview with AOL News. "The bigger the company, the less likely there will be individuals held accountable."

Just six years ago, in 2005, BP’s Texas City refinery exploded resulting in 15 fatalities and more than 170 injuries. BP pleaded guilty and paid more than $130 million in criminal, civil and administrative fines and still no one was charged with any offense.

"How the Justice Department handles this case is going to be important," Barrett said.  She has spent two decades prosecuting environmental cases for both the Justice Department and the state of Maryland. "If they are able to prosecute individuals, they'll send a message that a large corporate criminal find won't shield culpable individuals from prosecution."

From both a PR and law standpoint this situation is a disaster for BP. The threat of the government targeting specific individuals in corporations is a PR/law nightmare. Up until recently the courts never charged people for disasters because it was thought that they were simply doing their job to the best of their abilities. That premise is not going over too well in today’s eco-friendly age.

The BP oil spill has been one of the biggest to date as well as one of the most talked about events of the decade. The oil spill injured millions of aquatic life, ruined lives and resulted in the deaths of both people and animals. It is interesting to look at the oil spill from a PR point of view since it is the epitome of a crisis for such a huge corporation. Even with that being the case criminal charges on individuals from companies are usually tough cases to make.

 "In a lot of situations, it's hard to find somebody above the level of line employees who has that knowledge that would make them liable," says Steve Solow a former federal prosecutor who previously headed the Justice Department's environmental crimes unit. "Is it right to go after someone just doing their job as well as they could, when the issue is far more complex and broader than what their job presented?"

This will remain to be the question in the case to come and will undoubtedly be the defense for both the company’s PR and legal counsel. If they are charged it will be a landmark case and one of the biggest rulings of our time.

-Alisha Mychele

For more information go to http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/30/will-bp-execs-face-criminal-charges-in-gulf-oil-spill-not-likel/

Black Swan

The Oscar award winning movie Black Swan is being investigated for a “cover up”. The professional dancer who worked as Natalie Portman’s stunt double in the movie has claimed that she is a victim of a cover up and that Portman only did about 5% of the dancing in the movie. The seasoned ballerina told Entertainment Weekly magazine that the film and producers are misleading the public about the amount of dancing Portman did.

It was not disputed by anyone that Lane performed the complicated dance sequences and fancy footwork and allowed the filmmakers to digitally graft Portman’s head onto the body.

Black Swan producer and Portman’s fiancé, Benjamin Millipied, commented in L.A. Times earlier this week. "There are articles now talking about her dance double [Lane] that are making it sound like [she] did a lot of the work, but really, she just did the footwork, and the fouettés, and one diagonal [phrase] in the studio," he disputes. "Honestly, 85 percent of that movie is Natalie."

Lane did admit that she was never promised any specific billing for her role but was disappointed to see herself barely credited and only acknowledged as “hand model,” “stunt double,” and “Lady in the Lane,” (a brief walk on role). Lane also claims that the movie’s producer Ari Handel asked her not to discuss her work with the press.

"They wanted to create this idea in people's minds that Natalie was some kind of prodigy or so gifted in dance and really worked so hard to make herself a ballerina in a year and a half for the movie, basically because of the Oscar," Lane told Entertainment Weekly.

This issue is relevant to public relations in a couple of different ways. For one, it could be considered a small crisis when it comes to the credibility of the movie. Black Swan has won several awards and has been regarded highly in the world of entertainment. Part of the reason for this is the amazing dancing throughout the film and Portman’s ability to transform the role of the modern ballerina and become relatable. For someone to come out and say that it was actually them working in the movie and not Portman that is definitely a problem.

Another issue is the producer telling the stunt double what to discuss with the media. The fact that he said this makes me wonder if they were actually trying to cover something up but on the same note it’s her word against the filmmaker or studios.

Lastly, Portman was just involved in the recent drama with John Galliano of Christian Dior. The fact that her name is again being brought up in some kind of scandal or controversy is not a good look. Both the pr  for Black Swan and Portman should be pretty busy in the upcoming months.

-Alisha Mychele

And the results are in… you have a problem.

If I take anything away from my pr/communications classes this semester it will be Professor Bufkins’ popular quote: “If the public thinks you have a problem, then you have a problem.”

I couldn’t agree with this more and lately I have been finding myself, to my horror, quoting it and applying it to real life situations. For example, the other day my ex-boyfriend and I were having a disagreement about another disagreement and why and where we disagreed in the first place. As the convoluted “misunderstanding” continued on I found myself looking at the situation in hindsight and, for the most part, remembering what had taken place. I rolled my eyes and mumbled, louder than I intended, “if the public thinks you have a problem, then you have a problem.”

I was mortified. Why in the heat of the battle am I even thinking about quotes from school? And PR quotes at that? I couldn’t even manage to think of a scholarly, mysterious quote, to at least leave him guessing, but instead something about public opinion and problems. It was then that I realized that public relations has taken over my life.

I eat, sleep, breathe and dream about the profession that I have not even stepped foot in yet, not completely at least. I always wonder how people devote their whole life to their career, love the life they live at work more than the one at home and live for the grind. I always wanted to see the people behind the scenes, the brains of the operation, so to speak.

After taking years of journalism classes, doing numerous projects, shadowing, volunteer work, working and doing everything else I can make time for, I now realize that it becomes a way of life for most. After a while, the hectic schedules become so second-nature that you don’t even realize it anymore.

Public relations is more than a career for most practitioners, it’s around-the-clock, it’s a lifestyle. It’s not hard for people that are truly passionate about their career to live it because they love what they do. The people that are successful in the field are successful because they chose to be. You have to work to make a good career out of this profession, even if an opportunity is handed to you, you have to grind to not only prove yourself but to prove the value of public relations itself.

PR is doubted, underestimated, frowned upon and misunderstood. The public assumes the profession is all about spin and damage control and twisting arms for your clients. PRSA’s next task should be to start a public relations campaign for the profession itself; to dispel the rumors and show that there are ethical practitioners in the field. To set an example for what public relations should be like and warn people of what it shouldn’t.