Crisis Management: Sean “Diddy” Combs

Nov. 30, 1994 was a date the hip hop scene lost a legendary rapper, Tupac Shakur. He was ambushed and shot at the Quad Recording Studios in New York, but it is still unknown who was behind the cruel murder. This is one of the biggest incidents that happened in the history of hip hop, and people are still talking about it, even after 14 years have passed since the mogul’s death. On March 18, 2008,, Chuck Philips, who has been trying to put the pieces together for the Los Angeles Times have suggested that Sean “Diddy” Combs may have taken a part in the shooting 14 years ago.

Most of the mainstream media covers the incident in an impartial manner. However, as of now, the spotlight is definitely on Diddy. The mainstream media is emphasizing the fact that Diddy is continuingly denying the accusation made by Chuck Philips. Diddy mentioned in an interview that the accusation is “beyond ridiculous and is completely false” and that Los Angeles Times is “so irresponsible as to publish such a baseless and completely untrue story.” The mainstream media also covers much of what Phillips had to say in his report, but the report being very lengthy and hard to understand, mainstream media is not giving extra effort to analyze a report that is mainly based on interviews that may be biased. Drawing from the 6 mainstream media converges, it seems like the media is just taking report as something like a rumor. Of course, the topic being very sensitive and knowing that there are going to be lot of young readers, the media is dealing with the issue very seriously. However, there have been more incidences similar to this one in the past, and the media is not new to this kind of accusations.

Blogs seem to be accusing the reporter for wanting get some attention with this highly controversial issue. This does not mean that bloggers are in favor of Diddy, but rather indifferent about Diddy’s involvement in the shooting. This may be because they believe the case will not be solved, and they do not want to accuse some with low level of understanding of Philips report. I say this because Philips’ report is very diffcult to understand, especially if the reader is not very familiar with the history hip hop scene. If the reader do have a great understanding of the hip hop scene, then they are likely to have a belief of their own and are unlikey to be swaggered from a viewpoint of another person.

Obviously, mainstream media is not taking sides in this topic of discussion. Not only this is a very sensitive issue, but also it may end up as just as a rumor. Phillips has done his homework, but most mainstream media believes that no one will ever find what really happened 14 years ago. However, bloggers seem to be taking side without much contemplation. Most bloggers thinks Diddy is innocent, and that Phillips just wanted to get some attention, know that he will get a high level of audience with such topic. As I mentioned before, this is not the first time accusation is being made regarding Tupac’s death. Consequently, it seems like vast majority of audience already have list of names of the murderer. Having someone already in mind, many bloggers are just elaborating on their thoughts they had previously, leaving Diddy aside of issue.

I firmly believe that the publicists are doing a good job handling the issue. They have denied the accusation, and they are not over reacting. When accused of something that can hurt one’s reputation, I think the best way handle the situation is not to just ignore it, but to address the alleged accusation and firmly stand at a point and continue to build and restore the reputation. So far, this is exactly what Diddy and his publicists are doing.

 

References.

http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2008/03/21/diddy-didnt-do-it-or-did-he/

http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bal-to.tupac18mar18,0,3045865.story

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1583505/20080317/puff_daddy.jhtml

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jsx6uqsXEvCqt01AdlJX1C2m5muwD8VFFHTG0

http://uk.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUKN1761776520080317

http://www.gazette.com/entertainment/shakur_34381___article.html/times_rosemond.html