Getting Out in Front of a Story

“Rule No. 1 in any public-relations disaster is to get out in front of it early,” Matthew Phillps, Newsweek.com

Good morning and thank you for joining me. My name is Charles Swisher and I am an accountant from Cincinnati, Ohio. I am holding this press conference today at the Highland Avenue Taco Bell because I thought it would be better for you to hear this coming from me rather than reading the rumors which will no doubt begin to leak out later in the press. (By press, I don’t mean CNN or People magazine, but rather CAJ or The Chartered Accountants Journal, the TMZ.com for people who ply the financial numbers trade.)

Many of you here today are my friends. Many of you know me. Many of you have cheered for me or you’ve worked with me or you’ve supported me – particularly come the end of the season during those nerve-racking days before April 15.

Soon the annual getaway to Pine Lakes Lodge will be held for members of the Greater Cincinnati Chartered Accountants Association. And we all know how wild and crazy these events have been in years past.

Although the getaway is still three weeks away, I am aware of the pain my behavior will cause those of you here today. I will let you down, and I will let down my fans in the accounting business. For many of you, especially my friends, my behavior will be a personal disappointment. To those of you who work with me, I will let you down personally and professionally.

I know I will bitterly disappoint all of you. I will make you question who I am and how I could have done the things I will do. I will be embarrassed that I will put you in this position.

I will have a lot of time to think about what I will do. My failures will make me look at myself in a way I never wanted to before. It will be up to me to make amends and that will start by never repeating the mistakes I will make.

Some people will make up things that will never happen. They will say that I will drink eight strawberry daiquiris and then will dance the cha-cha with Fred Johnson’s wife while wearing a lampshade over my head. This will be completely and utterly false. Some will write things about my family. Despite the damage I will do, I still believe it is right to shield my family from the public spotlight. They will not these things; I will.

I recognize I will bring this on myself, and I will know above all I am the one who will need to change. I will owe it to my family to become a better person. I will owe it to those closest to me to become a better man.

For all that I will do, I will be so sorry.