Where are America’s business and organizational leaders heading on the concept of working actively and progressively with the news media during a crisis situation? Well, the jury is still out on that question, at least according to an ongoing survey conducted by The Media Trainers.

TMT trains primarily corporate executives and managers, as well as the leaders of non-profit and other types of organizations. Before each seminar, participants are asked to complete a questionnaire asking for their reaction to a number of statements about working with the news media.

One of the items on the questionnaire seeks a response to the statement: “The less said to the news media the better – especially in times of crisis.”

After administering the questionnaire to more than 600 organization executives, we’ve found that just over half (51.3%) disagree with the statement. Nearly one quarter, fortunately, strongly disagree with that statement.

Twenty-three percent of the executives responding to the statement agree that avoiding the news media – especially in times of crisis—is the best tactic. That seems a large percentage for this day and time. But what seems truly problematic is that 27.7% of respondents were unwilling to commit to one course of action or another, responding only with “neither.”

Should they find themselves facing a crisis, which course would they choose? No doubt, their course of action would be heavily influenced by the corporate culture, the professionalism of communications staff members, past experience with the news media, and any number of other considerations.

But it is worth noting that, even as the year 2002 draws to a close, with the all the known examples of organizations that have improved their situation during a crisis by cooperating with the news media, still more than a quarter of executives in key corporate positions still have doubts about the wisdom of that course.