Some corporations spend millions of dollars on so-called crisis communication plans. Others offer lip service, avoiding the subject like the plague. They simply hope for the best, praying that they never face a crisis. Either way, as Steve Adubato says, Wishful thinking is no substitute for a strategic plan.

Nationally recognized communication coach and four-time Emmy Awarduwinning broadcaster Steve Adubato has been teaching, writing, and thinking about comm!unication, leadership, and crisis communication for nearly two decades. In What Were They Thinking? Adubato examines twenty-two controversial and complex public relations and media mishaps, many of which were played out in public. Among cases and people discussed are:

• The Johnson & Johnson Tylenol scare: Perhaps the best crisis management ever
• Don Imus: Sometimes saying sorry is too little too late
• Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: Authority does not put you above questioning
• Bill O'Reilly: Know when to stop defending yourself and save face
• Former EPA Administrator Christie Whitman: Proof that your written words can come back to haunt you
• Hurricane Katrina: A natural disaster that led to a larger governmental disaster
• The Catholic Church's pedophilia scandal: Denial won't get rid of the skeletons in your closet

Arranged in short chapters detailing each case individually, the book provides a brief history of the topics and answers the questions: Who got it right? Who got it wrong? What can the rest of us learn from them?