Image credit: USAToday.com |
Depending upon where and when you chose to get your news this morning, this may come as a shock: the United States Supreme Court ruled to largely uphold the Affordable Care Act (ACA) this morning.
Unfortunately, in the race to be the first to break the news, a handful of major news outlets and a number of politicians (and surely a host of others…) erroneously reported that the ACA had been ruled unconstitutional. And while many of us might have missed the early reports, thanks to social media, screen grabs and other news outlets, the mistakes already are infamous.
Rule one in a rapid-response situation? Slow down and get all the facts straight before you put your message out there. There’s certainly a risk/reward factor to consider when trying to be “first to market” – but the risk far outweighs the reward if you create your own crisis that requires shifting your focus from the original goal to cleaning up the mess you’ve created in your haste.