This is a crisis because the restaurant has threatened to sue the paper. The reporter failed to take the necessary steps to verify the information he acquired on social media. It was the responsibility of the reporter to discuss with the editor about the matter before deciding whether or not to write about it.
It is a high-level crisis since it has led to major external issues. For instance, the restaurant has sued the organization and it was ethically wrong for the reporter to write about the matter without verifying its accuracy. It was also human nature for the reporter to feel the responsibility of reporting about a matter in the society that might harm people, even though he failed to follow protocol.
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The crisis has the potential to substantially affect the organization in terms of litigations costs and reputation. An immediate action is, thus, required. The chair of the organization’s board and the chair of the communications and marketing department must be involved in managing the crisis. The communication team will plan and examine the basic communications tools the organization will use.
Digital, social, and traditional media channels will be used to handle the crisis in different ways. For instance, proactive phone calls will be used to update Pizza Hut about the crisis, Twitter and Facebook platforms will be used to engage with people in real time, and fact sheets will be used to offer accurately written responses to other media outlets and Pizza Hut itself.
The situation is that a Daily News reporter wrote false news about Pizza Hut serving questionable food that led to hospitalization among its clients. Pizza Hut confirmed that the news was false and has threatened to sue Daily News. If Pizza Hut sues Daily News, then the organization’s image will be tarnished severely for reporting the fake news. The reported information was false as the reporter did not verify the information. Daily News, however, can defend itself by arguing that the reporter acted without following the required procedures.
In preparation for handling this crisis, it will be vital for the spokesperson to understand how to manage media communication. The editor in chief, chair of the board, external affairs representative, and the communications director will be part of the communication team. The main spokesperson will be the editor-in-chief. Some of the Materials that will be required include a telephone hotline with Pizza Hut, writing materials, and media list.
The position of Daily News is that we acknowledge the incident and apologizes for negative effects it has caused to Pizza Hut. We acknowledge that one of our reporters wrote an article that claimed that the restaurant was serving inappropriate food. Daily News, however, deny that the article was approved for publication by the editor-in-chief. We emphasize that the writer of the news article failed to confirm the authenticity of the information he obtained from his friends. The reporter read shared stories from Twitter in which his friends were talking about not feeling well after eating pizza. Instead of following up on the story by either contacting Pizza Hut or visiting the restaurant himself to confirm what was going on, he believed what his friends told him and decided that that was something to write about.
The reporter also did not follow the required procedures when writing about the news. Under normal circumstances, after finding something to write about a reporter must first verify the validity of the information through official channels or evidence. After establishing the authenticity of the information, the reporter must then consult with the editor-in-chief about the news. The editor-in-chief will approve the story and allow the reporter to gather more information to compile the story and publish it or the editor will disapprove the news item. If the news item is disapproved, then the reporter cannot write about it and publish it. In the present incident, the reporter did not consult with the editor-in-chief, which means that the organization did not approve that article. The writer of the article is, thus, fully responsible for the article and its consequences.
The incident is an unfortunate occurrence that happened because of the failure of a reporter to follow protocol before writing about a news story. Daily News did not author the said news article. The article was the work of a single reporter who obtained information from Twitter, thought that the information was relevant even without verifying it or obtaining an official statement from Pizza Hut, bypassed the editor-in-chief and published the article. The reporter did not follow the normal procedures when writing about an issue as the organization requires. The management of the organization has, therefore, decided to suspend the reporter and further investigations are underway. Daily News promises to take the necessary steps to ensure that the reporter takes full responsibility for his behavior. We apologize to Pizza Hut again for all the inconveniences that the news article has caused so far and promise that the said article will be deleted from our website with immediate effect.
To prevent such occurrences in future, all daily news reporters and staff are required from today to verify information before writing about it and consult with the editor-in-chief about the information before publishing it. All news uploads must be approved by the editor-in-chief before being published on Daily News website. The website administrator will also be given permission to only published articles that have been approved by the editor-in-chief.
