To clarify - I'm not speaking super-highly of her specific abilities, but just of the idea of the value of a functional PR department. I would think any reasonable level of competence in your PR Department would have led the Astros to NOT accuse reporters of lying and fabricating stories, for example - especially without conducting any sort of internal investigation. If she's good at her job, she doesn't particularly need experience in putting out massive fires to avoid doing what the Astros did, which was the opposite of that.
It could very well be their PR department was more aligned with Taubman and the culture... But in my fairly extensive experience, PR departments wield very little power, especially the further up the food chain you go. Taubman probably would've listened to them; Luhnow less so; Crane, less than Luhnow. Actually, given what we know about Luhnow, he may have been even less agreeable than Crane. We have a longstanding motto in our comms department: advise & then obey. I'm not trying to piss all over your post - I understand the spirit of it. But I don't think it's true. My guess is Luhnow's fingerprints were all over the Osuna (which was a massive disaster) and Taubman responses, and if true, no PR person was going to overrule him, for sure, and certainly not dissuade him as it sure seems like ego was a big stumbling block for him. Also, people need to understand that there's only so much even a very good comms team can do. You prepare messaging and perform media training (which I doubt the Astros have for their executives, because, again - that's more crisis-related) but the people still need to perform under the bright lights and that's much tougher to do. The Astros' apology press conference.... that's an example of people faltering. People read that as begrudging and forced - and some of it may have been. It read to me like they hadn't been properly prepared, and - again, I'd wager it's because they don't have crisis comms people on staff and it sure didn't look like they went and got an external firm to help (which we often do).
I'm not sold on the idea that Lunhow was involved at all, honestly. The outburst happened the night the team won the ALCS and a couple of days before the World Series. I'd imagine Lunhow would be focused on game-related stuff - roster decisions, strategizing with Hinch, etc. If anything, I would think a Lunhow would think that whole thing is a ridiculous distraction and tell someone else to handle it, no? The Astros ridiculous press release was on the night of Oct 21, which was the day before the World Series. I just can't imagine Lunhow being focused on writing and approving press releases at that point. His version from the interviews of that part of the story rings true to me - that he wasn't involved, he became the face of it because the team asked him to and no one else would, etc.
"Cultural fit" is usually code for "did something morally wrong". Seeing as how this lady isn't exactly a bank robber, I think it's reasonable to expect her mildly outspoken personal liberal politics got her shitcanned by Cal and the God Squad. I really ****ing hate the Texans and cannot wait to be rid of them.
There is zero chance Jeff Luhnow did not review/approve the statement about his employee, and here's how I know that: not a single communications person was fired. That means *someone* powerful reviewed and approved the statement (comms people *always* CYA), and given Luhnow's position, specific to Taubman but throughout the organization, it was either him or Crane. Possibly both - but no way Luhnow wasn't involved. Remember his awkward refusal to discuss who approved the statement? He didn't technically write it. Someone met with him, he communicated his messaging (after speaking with Taubman); the statement was then written and sent to him for review - maybe he revised some things - and then it was issued. The total time Luhnow may have spent on the actual statement itself was fairly small. Like I said, it's his employee. No communications person would *ever* release a statement about any group without first getting that group's approval. I suppose, it's possible, Taubman ran roughshod over the comms person and Luhnow was in the dark - I mean, that's viable, I guess. Or maybe Taubman went way rouge and issued it himself? But those would be the only logical explanations exonerating Luhnow - not that he didn't have time: he had plenty of time. ANYWAY! Point being.... I don't believe *any* communications person would've saved the Astros. They bungled the initial Osuna trade response; learned nothing from it - to the point of it obviously being, at least with some faction, a still-simmering issue - and screwed the pooch a second time in the Taubman aftermath. Communications cannot fix culture (despite how often management asks us to) - this was a culture issue.
That’s exactly what happened. I am majority republican on many viewpoints but it’s not fair if she was a good person and did her job
