Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

General Motor’s Mary Barra admitted this week that, “something went wrong with our process…and terrible things happened.”

And while that is certainly true and laudable for the new CEO of the auto giant to admit her company mishandled some safety issues for 13 years, saying she is deeply sorry is not quite enough.

Yesterday, she held what GM described as a news conference but, according the the WXYZ-TV report below, only handful of print reporters were invited, slamming the car door on  local Detroit stations and the national news networks.

There are times (particularly when dealing with good news situations) when companies can play favorites. But when you are in a hole like GM — you can’t afford to annoy major parts of the media....

...But when Bash injected "If you could help one child with cancer, why wouldn't you do it?" Sen. Chuck Schumer, who was standing next to Sen. Reid, asked Bash, "Why pit one against the other?" After which, Sen. Reid injected, "Why would we want to do that?" Doh!

Reid went on to talk about how he has 1100 constituents who work at an Air Force Base in Las Vegas who are sitting and home and have problems of their own.  He should have instantly recognized that it is not wise to compare people who are furloughed for a few days with kids with cancer....