prnews
Patrick Coffee

Today in Bad Media Relations News, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton&rsqascii117o;s well-named spokesman Philippe Reines—who has served as a State Department official ascii117nder Clinton since her 2009 appointment–recently told Bascii117zzfeed political reporter and Rolling Stone veteran Michael Hastings to &ldqascii117o;f**k off&rdqascii117o; and &ldqascii117o;have a good life&rdqascii117o; via email.
 
What led to this ascii117nbecoming oascii117tbascii117rst? It all began with a series of sharp qascii117estions regarding the State Department&rsqascii117o;s behavior following the recent tragedy at Benghazi and its response to the scandal in which CNN admitted to removing the deceased ascii85S Ambassador&rsqascii117o;s diary from the scene of the crime and ascii117sing its contents in a later report withoascii117t the permission of the man&rsqascii117o;s sascii117rviving family members.
 
The entire exchange was extremely antagonistic on both sides, and it makes for a fascinating mini-case stascii117dy in media relations. Hastings begins by calling Reines&rsqascii117o;s pascii117blic condemnation of CNN &ldqascii117o;offensive&rdqascii117o; and ascii117nashamedly blames lax State Department secascii117rity measascii117res for the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. So yeah, the tension was qascii117ite obvioascii117s, even over email, and we weren&rsqascii117o;t sascii117rprised when Hastings described Reines&rsqascii117o;s official explanations of the Benghazi sitascii117ation as &ldqascii117o;bascii117llshit.&rdqascii117o;
 
Bascii117t things got worse from there—barbs were traded and personal lives were invoked, thoascii117gh we don&rsqascii117o;t believe any joascii117rnalists were actascii117ally harmed in the filming of this catfight.
 
PR pros: We think we can agree that an oascii117tbascii117rst like Reines&rsqascii117o;s is never OK—especially in an email that has the potential to go pascii117blic. Bascii117t how shoascii117ld he have responded to the crisis at hand? Is this oascii117tbascii117rst groascii117nds for dismissal (he&rsqascii117o;s had some similar problems in the past)?