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racesbul.185
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1994-11-13
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From : W6HIR @ WA6NWE.#NOCAL.CA.USA
To : RACES @ ALLUS
Msgid : $RACESBUL.185
TO: ALL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCIES/OFFICES VIA THE ARS
INFO: ALL RACES OPERATORS IN CA (ALLCA: OFFICIAL)
ALL AMATEURS U.S. (@ USA: INFORMATION)
FROM: CA STATE OFFICE OF EMERGENCY SERVICES (W6HIR @ WA6NWE.CA)
2800 Meadowview Rd., Sacramento, CA 95832 (916)427-4281
RACESBUL.185 DATE: September 2, 1991
SUBJECT: PRESS - PUBLIC RELATIONS, Part 4/5
In any ICS event there can be only ONE VOICE. Don't ever
forget that I said....ONE VOICE. A one-voice story comes from the
Public Information Officer ONLY. That's the one voice I am
talking about.
If you are doing your job as a communication specialist, the
chances are that at some point the press will poke its nose into
your "bailiwick" and will want to know what is going on.
It is the absolute right of the press under the First
Amendment to the United States Constitution to know and report
what is going on in the public domain. That is Freedom of the
Press.
In any situation in which we are working under the ICS
system...and that will usually be the case in disasters or severe
emergencies from here on out, what we say MUST be cleared with
the Public Information Officer who speaks for the entire
incident.
The reason.....simply....is consistency. We can't have, for
instance, one fireman saying that the fire is "under control"
and another fireman saying, "all hell is going to bust loose any
minute." We can't have a cop saying "the situation is under
control" when another cop says "the gunman is still armed, has
five more rounds of ammo and two grenades." Or, one
weatherman saying "the eye of the storm has passed" and another
saying, "You have not seen the worst of it yet!"
The single voice system is the ICS way of controlling
rumors. We don't want to be part of any rumor mill. What we
must do with the press if they show up is to assign one member of
the ham radio community to interface with the Incident Public
Information Officer and the Press. It may sound cumbersome, and
it can be, but it can also protect our credibility with the
community, and with the press, and the Incident Commander. The
IC will appreciate our attention to this matter.
How do we go about this delicate task of telling our side,
and continuing to feed that oat and honey mixture to the press?
First of all, agree at your location how the press will be
handled -- and by whom. Know who the public information officer
is and how to get hold of him pronto.
(to be continued)
EOM