The First Rule of "Gotcha Journalism"

"Fight Club" fans already know the answer to this. The first rule of "gotcha journalism" is you do not talk about "gotcha journalism."

So when asked to speak at last week’s Bulldog Reporter webinar on the topic of how PR spokespeople can combat overly aggressive tactics, I punted and said, "It's just journalism."

Thinking back on years of interaction with journalists, I recall only a few legitimate fights and not too many sucker punches.

A little over a year ago, I took a call from a Guardian reporter I didn’t know. After he laid out his story premise and research, I thought, “I bet I know who’s going to win the Pulitzer Prize next year,” before connecting him with a colleague who declined comment on behalf of the company.

Surely, that wasn't "gotcha journalism." (It may have been something else, given what we soon publicly learned of Glenn Greenwald's source, but that's an even thornier issue.)

As a PR person, I may not like or expect a reporter’s question, but that doesn’t make the question unfair. Similarly, a reporter may not like my answer, but that doesn’t make the answer – even when I must decline comment -- any less valid.

This give-and-take between journalist and source is changing due to technology. PR can't reliably play the "let's-go-off-the-record" game because not everyone follows the same rules. The New York Times can't play the "you-have-150-words-to-respond-with-a-letter" game because it doesn't own the printing press anymore.

Today everyone – including PR people, brands, trolls, conspiracy theorists and even my mother – can be a publisher. That may level the field a bit for PR, but it also makes the role of the journalist even more critical.

It's getting harder and harder for readers or viewers to find authenticity online. With that in mind, here’s a suggested start at my New Rules of Media Relations:

1. Show a little faith in people – including parents, teachers and, yes, even journalists – who try to help people find or discern the truth.
2. Do not talk about this with journalists.

Civility in Corporate America

“You and the rest of your corporate greedy cronies are destroying the country,” the recent email to me began. “Does crawling into bed with a multitude of other corporate whores feel good?”

The sender felt compelled to use that “shock jock” intro in response to my company’s POV on regulatory proceedings at the FCC. I had respectfully provided background on the issue.

The truth is, my PR job does make me feel good… because, ultimately, my job is to help my company do the right thing.

The best PR is built on the best business practices. At a recent professional event, Bob DeFillippo, Prudential’s chief communications officer, commented on what he would have done differently during the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to reduce the damage to BP’s reputation. He replied, “I would have capped the well faster.”

He also said, “I never had to compromise my integrity because of concerns over profit or to avoid admitting that we did something wrong.”

I can say the same about my own career. At my company, there’s an oft-cited one-page Credo that reminds us we only have work because our customers value our services. There’s also a more-detailed Code of Conduct that outlines policies to ensure integrity and respect in our workplace.

The result? I believe there’s more mutual respect, civility and decency evident in corporate America than in general society… or even in my church parking lot.

That’s not such a bad bed to crawl into after all.

Financial Communications: Not Everything's a Show

As the first quarter draws to a close, I'm reflecting on how best to communicate Verizon's earnings results in the simplest, most direct way. The format for our 1Q disclosure becomes the de-facto template for the year and, these days, one year is a very long time -- considering the sea change in the way companies now report results.

It began inauspiciously as a live mic caught CEO Marissa Mayer calling the on-hold music for Yahoo's 4Q 2012 earnings conference call "garbage." Two quarters later, Yahoo's earnings call became a video production, and Netflix followed suit with its own video featuring questions from a CNBC journalist.

Since then, seemingly anything goes. And it begs the question: do investors, analysts and financial media really need to be engaged... or simply informed?

There are billions of dollars at stake when companies disclose financials. It impacts investments that support pension plans, college savings, the ability to buy a home or the ability to provide care for an aging parent.

This is real life. Not everything's a show.

And yet... not everything should be a boring news release either. Just two months after watching Yahoo and Netflix executives discuss financials on YouTube, I found myself sitting in an auditorium of Verizon employees in Basking Ridge, NJ. We were waiting for CEO Lowell McAdam to appear on stage to talk about Verizon's then-just-announced plan to purchase Vodafone's stake in Verizon Wireless -- for $130 billion.

The room was full of electricity. Blaring from the professional sound system was Jack White's awesome cover of Little Willie John's "I'm Shakin."

The person sitting next to me leaned over and asked, in all earnestness, "What time does the show start?"

The Myth of No Corporate Taxes

This post originally appeared on Verizon's Public Policy blog site:

Verizon filed its 10K at the SEC last night. It’s available here – all 92,611 words.

Several years ago, when I took on responsibilities for Verizon financial communications, a senior accountant advised me that all information of relevance to an investor is contained in the company’s 10K filing.

“There’s not a question you’ll be asked this year where the answer won’t be found somewhere in the 10K,” she advised.

She was right. I’ve come to view these filings as the corporate version of an AMA, with every bit of information that’s disclosed having been personally attested to, under force of law, by the CEO and CFO -- and independently audited.

So how much does Verizon pay in taxes?

Search the company’s 10K for the number “3,786” and you will land on a table showing that Verizon paid nearly $3.8 billion in taxes in 2013 -- $422 million in income taxes, $1.282 billion in employment taxes, and $2.082 billion in property and other taxes.

This is the disclosure of cash taxes paid by Verizon last year. It’s the total of everything – the net amount after any and all pluses and minuses – in the more than 140,000 tax compliance filings that Verizon made in 2013. That’s about 6,000 income tax filings in various jurisdictions, and 135,000 property tax and other tax-compliance filings.

If you’d like more information, please see the more-detailed information in Verizon’s 10K, or the one-page summary posted here [PDF].

Oh, the Irony

The message on this wall greets me every day as I walk to my office.

It. Never. Changes.

It's Not the Same Old Song at Verizon

A version of this post appeared on the Huffington Post's site.

Pianist Glenn Gould notably recorded Bach's "Goldberg Variations" early in his career in 1955. He then recorded the same music in a more soulful way as a mature artist in 1981.

What brings this to mind is the recent three-part rant against the telecommunications industry by a previous Huffington Post blogger. The content was not surprising. The author, after all, has been writing variations on this same theme for nearly 30 years -- and many of the sentences written in 2012 read as if they had been written in 1983.

However, this is in stark contrast to Gould's later recordings where, by music alone, it's easy to tell that the world has changed over the years.

The initial blog was outdated and erroneous in many ways. While it focuses on "rate-of-return regulation" (which ceased applying to Verizon wireline companies many years ago), it inaccurately portrays our company's financials.  Perhaps most absurdly, it suggests that Verizon wireline revenues subsidize Verizon Wireless.

The decline in landline phone use is written about as if it were only a conspiracy theory -- and this argument reaches a crescendo in the latest blog post that suggests that Verizon's more than $20 billion investment in FiOS fiber-to-the-home services may not even exist.

This simply isn't in tune with the reality of Verizon in 2012.

Verizon today is one of the largest private investors in America. In 2009-2011, while Verizon made more than $11.1 billion in tax payments, we also invested nearly $50 billion in technology infrastructure. This has created and sustained great U.S. jobs -- both in and outside of Verizon -- as the company has deployed innovative broadband technologies like FiOS.

While Verizon today is most known as a nationwide wireless company and is increasingly becoming known for international network capabilities, the previous blog posts here focused on Verizon as a local U.S. wireline company. This is part of our business where demand has fallen due to customer use of cell phones and phone service from cable companies and other competitors. Our base of traditional access line -- landline copper phone connections to homes and businesses -- is less than half of what it was in 2003.

And yet Verizon today is vibrant and profitable. We changed with the times. We shed businesses, such as printed phone directories, to focus on meeting and anticipating the changes in customer demand.

Today, on the wireline side, Verizon continues to serve many customers with copper-based telephone and Internet services. For income-eligible customers, this can cost as little as $1 a month. Meanwhile, Verizon is the only company in America to have invested in a future network to carry TV signals and high-speed Internet data. We will meet our commitment to provide this network to more than 18 million households and small businesses, having already extended the reach of our fiber-optic network to more than 16.7 million. This investment has come from shareholders, not ratepayers, and it has created great jobs and a bright future as we transform into a company focused on delivering the best in broadband and entertainment services to customers.

FiOS Internet speeds, currently delivering up to 150 megabits per second, rival anything found in the world, and FiOS TV gets better all the time. We now serve more than 5 million FiOS customers, and we're on a mission to make the service even more compelling. It's Verizon's pledge to continually develop FiOS -- as well as complementary and integrated broadband wireless services -- to deliver the borderless lifestyle that our customers live today.

So go ahead and listen to Glenn Gould's recordings and marvel for yourself at the evolution of genius. Today, you can... anytime, anyplace and on virtually any device -- compliments of Verizon's investment in networks.