Who doesn’t know Mark Fabiani, the man nicknamed “Master of Disaster” for the way he handled crises during the Clinton administration? On his personal profile at San Diego Chargers you can still see the descriptive “special counsel to the President” line, displayed proudly under the PRs’ name. If you don’t know him, you probably should, especially if you run a corporation like Goldman Sachs, always in the headlines. Fabiani is one of the “big dogs.” He knows who’s who, he knows how to spin a story and he definitely knows how to approach the media. He’s even skilled in legal matters, if you consider that he graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1982.
Yes, Mark Fabiani’s experience is broad and complex, but will his efforts to clean Goldman Sachs’ shady image succeed? Let’s not forget that the most recent scandal that hit the bank is not the only issue that contributed to the company’s degraded public image. There were many other issues in the past.
One of Fabiani’s tasks would be to advise CEO Lloyd Blankfein and Fabrice Tourre on various aspects, including handling the media. He will also have to prepare the two for a Senate subcommittee hearing that will be probing the bank’s role in the financial crisis on Tuesday.
Before Fabiani, Goldman’s PR efforts were ridiculous, if you take some time to read a brilliant analysis by Eric Starkman at Forbes. First Goldman Sachs said that the SEC allegations were “completely unfounded.” Hours later, the bank issued a statement saying that it had lost more than $90 million on the Abacus 2007-AC1 deal. But as Forbes reports, Goldman had insurance in place on the Abacus transaction to offset the $100 million loss and, separately, internal Goldman Sachs e-mails made public by a congressional committee also suggested that Goldman had profited handsomely as the housing crisis escalated.
These are the facts, and for Fabiani there is only one possible strategy to success. Instead of advocacy and propaganda, the proper track for this particular PR campaign would be transparency:
If Goldman Sachs is to survive this reputational crisis, it will have to devise a more credible strategy that addresses the legal and moral issues relating to its role in the housing collapse. Filing back on deception and playing with the facts could potentially doom the firm. Here’s a secret that spinmeisters will never tell you: When you use spin to minimize a crisis, the crisis almost always spins right out of control. – Eric Starkman writes. Right on the money!
About Mihaela Lica Butler
As Jimmy Paige once wrote – or was it Robert Plant? – “It makes me wonder”. I wonder what defect it is in the psychological makeup of a group of human beings that would have them putting the health and well being of millions of other human beings behind the private profit of a very few. Most of these lawmakers who live in the pockets of the Plutocracy call themselves “Christians”. Have they ever made a serious study of the books? You know! – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? – Those guys! How do they justify their actions? How do they sleep at night? We’re talkin’ major hypocrisy here! That’s what makes them so much fun to watch! I always get a certain twisted delight in watching their fake piety. Imagine Wendy O. Williams being cast as Bernadette of Lourdes; or Marilyn Manson as Mahatma Gandhi. It’s kind of the same thing.
Sooner or later our right wing friends, within the Congress and without, are going to be forced to admit that the era of anything goes deregulation was a really stupid idea. You can only sit calmly in a burning house, ignoring the flames all about you, for just so long. Sooner or later you’ll be forced to flee for your life. After making your escape, if you still refuse to acknowledge that the house is indeed on fire, you’re beyond the point where you can make rational decisions on your own. You’ve entered Librium Country, hombre!
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Tom Degan