Bottom line: When a media outlet gets something wrong about you or a client, you must fight back—especially when that error can cause damage to your or your client’s reputation or business.

At some point in his or her career, an attorney, his or her law firm, or his or her client will likely be the subject of bad publicity as a result of a media outlet getting something very wrong in its reporting.

The error could be misquoting an attorney or a client which then causes a public outcry against the attorney or client.

Or, perhaps, a reporter or media outlet has taken the wrong perspective or the wrong approach as to a certain situation and is essentially reporting on the worst case interpretation of a set of facts. 

If this ever happens to you, your law firm, or your client, there’s only one thing you can do. 

You’ve got to fight back. 

You’ve got to fight back and tell your side of the story or the client’s side of the story. 

And when you fight back, you must do two things. 

You’ve got to articulate and you’ve got to engage. 

When I say “articulate,” I mean putting into words what the reporter or media outlet got wrong. 

Did the reporter or media outlet misquote you or a client in a way that set the stage for an entire unfavorable article? 

Or did the reporter or media outlet misread or misunderstand certain documents, or perhaps cast them in the worse possible light, which caused bad publicity for you, your law firm, or your client?

You need to articulate what the reporter or media outlet got wrong. This will provide support when you go to correct the record and tell your side of the story or the client’s side of the story. 

Make sure that you are thoughtful about what the media outlet got wrong. Explain why it was wrong. And provide supporting evidence of why it was wrong. 

After you have articulated what went wrong, it is time to engage. 

The first step when you are engaging is to go back to the source.

Go back to the reporter with your articulated reasons for why the original reporting was wrong. Ask the reporter if he/she/they will correct the story or at least update the story to reflect that you believe there were errors in it.

If that doesn’t work, go to the reporter’s editor and explain that you think the reporter has written something that is untrue or is not 100% accurate, and you would like to correct the record. Mention that you went to the reporter but that he/she/they declined to correct or update the story.

If that doesn’t work, I would think about how to go back to that media outlet through a side door or a back door in order to tell your side of the story. 

That could mean writing an Op-Ed or a Letter to the Editor. Or, that could mean buying an ad.

(I understand that seems kind of strange: paying a media outlet money to tell your side of the story to rebut what you think the media outlet originally got wrong. But that’s an option that you could put into play.)

If you’ve gone to the media outlet and it is not willing to play ball, the other part of engagement is using your own resources and your own media to tell your side of the story. 

Maybe that means your law firm or your client putting up a page on a website dedicated to telling its side of the story. If you go this route, you would include your articulation of what was wrong about the reporting.

You could also post a transcript of the interview if one existed. In a similar vein, you could post an audio recording or video recording of the interview if one existed. You could even analyze the problematic article line by line and point out each instance of incorrect reporting.

Once you have that website up and running, you can then share it on social media. You can put a link to it on your blog. You can blast it out to clients, employees, referral sources, business partners, and any other key audience members who you think need to hear your side of the story. 

If a reporter or media outlet gets something fundamentally wrong about a story that causes that story to impact you, your law firm, or your client in a negative way, you need to fight back and tell your side of the story. 

You need to articulate what went wrong, and then engage that media outlet and other key audiences so as to mitigate any reputational damage or business damage this incorrect reporting might have caused. 

The last thing you want to do is stand pat and not fight back and not tell your side of the story. 

If you don’t tell your side of the story in the Court of Public Opinion, the other side will almost always prevail in that court.

Bottom line: When a media outlet gets something wrong about you or a client, you must fight back — especially when that error can cause damage to a reputation or a business.

Wayne Pollock is the founder and managing attorney of Copo Strategies in Philadelphia, a national legal services and communications firm. Attorneys and law firms enlist Copo Strategies to engage the media and the public regarding their clients’ cases (to help resolve those cases favorably), and to engage the media, referral sources, and prospective clients regarding their firms (to help bring new client matters in the door). Contact him at waynepollock@copostrategies.com or 215–454–2180.