[Photo: Bill Koplitz/Wikimedia Commons]
By Nicole LaPorte
“This is not a game for beginners or poseurs.” Michael Sitrick says matter-of-factly. “There are a lot of people who claim to know how to do what we do. My experience is there are very, very few who really know how to do it, and really do it, and really do it right.”
“It” is crisis public relations, which Sitrick has been doing for more than 30 years in and outside of Hollywood, salvaging reputations and entire companies through what some would call “spin,” but that he sees as a combination of artful strategy and an almost folksy simple belief in such basic tenets as telling the truth and getting the facts straight.
Those principles are two of Sitrick’s “Ten Rules for Engagement,” the formula for success he outlines in his new book, The Fixer: Secrets for Saving Your Reputation in the Age of Viral Media. Others include “Focus on the Fix” and “Put Your Opponent in the Wheel of Pain.”