If you’ve followed this blog or tuned in to the webcasts where I’ve been a panelist, you know that I’ve been saying that 60 seconds is the new “first hour” – the textbook window of time when a Company must take control of a situation in order to preserve reputation. And while that is a somewhat hyperbolic statement, the Miracle on the Hudson is my case in point – and was the day that I began to rethink everything I had learned about crisis communications 101.

Today, I heard that BP’s cap may be leaking. An editorial in the New York Times calls Congress to the carpet for not taking detector tampering in the Massey Mining explosion that was the industry’s worst in 40 years. But the furor and public outcry seems to be losing steam.

Certainly, the intensity and speed with which information moves creates some unique and new challenges for crisis communicators….but does it also create opportunities? Are memories shorter? Does interest wane more quickly? Do we move on to the crisis du jour and give reputations a pass?

Has the plethora of “worst events in history” in the past few years desensitized us to the significance of these issues? Or does the pervasive mistrust of all things big – big banks, big companies, big governments caused us to expect the worst?

Big questions for a rainy Monday morning…

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BP’s CEO told NBC today that the oil spill that is likely to be worse than the mother of all spills – the Exxon Valdez – “wasn’t their accident, but they would clean it up.”

As more than 200,000 gallons of oil are spewed into the Gulf of Mexico each day – a number that may climb to millions according to some experts – BP is desperately grasping onto any lifeboat it can to preserve its reputation. This began with the assertion that the U.S. Government should have have acted more quickly to mobilize resources, to today’s attempt to draw a distinction between the big brand of BP and the little known operator of the actual machinery, Trans Oceana.

This raises an important issue on the role of partners and reputation. To put it simply, reputational sh#@ doesn’t roll down hill. It stays right at the top, where it belongs. Airlines use code share partners, sometimes very small regional code-share partners. But when that plane goes down, the flagship brand’s reputation takes the hit. Always.

Any time you put millions of gallons of oil anywhere other than a tank, you’ve got a problem. But it is how you respond that defines your future. So far, BP isn’t doing much to help themselves.

The issue of reputation cannot be sub-contracted. Leadership, like management, requires that the leader accept responsibility in bad times, and share credit in good times. And BP’s attempt to throw their vendor under the proverbial bus does little to advance their cause.

They selected this vendor.

They supervise this vendor.

They are responsible for this vendor.

The good Sisters at my Catholic School always used to tell us that when you point a finger, three more are pointed back at you.

In other words, BP… you own it.

Carreen Winters can be reached at cwinters@mww.com.

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