COMM 207: BP damage control. Read, post and discuss

We've read about crisis communications and damage control in our text Public Relations: The Profession and the Practice, and we've looked at the BP website to analyze how it gets the company's message across. Now comes a news story that deals with how BP dealt with a situation that put the company in a bad light -- a lawsuit filed in the wake of a Texas refinery explosion that cost the lives of 15 people.

The New York Times reports:

Just as jury selection was beginning in what would have been the first civil case to go to trial, the plaintiff, a woman whose parents were killed in the blast and who had expressed eagerness to go to court, settled.

The woman, Eva Rowe, 22, is to receive an undisclosed amount. The settlement also called for BP, which is based in London, to continue to release documents related to the case and to donate millions to schools and medical facilities, including one where victims were treated after the March 2005 explosion. The blast also injured more than 170 people.

“We are happy to have been able to resolve this and spare Ms. Rowe the task of bringing this case to trial,” said a BP spokesman, Ronnie Chappell.

Read the rest of the story, review the discussion of crisis communication in the text, post your thoughts as comments to this blog and be ready to discuss it in class.