Clippers Handling Owner’s Racist Comments Yield Lessons In Crisis Management

The Los Angeles Clippers organization has been thrown in turmoil after TMZ released a nearly 10-minute audio recording, allegedly of team owner Donald Sterling, uttering a succession of disparaging, racist comments. Jonathan and Erik Bernstein of Bernstein Crisis Management say the team’s formal follow-up statement made key errors, including trying to discredit the woman on the tape, whom many presume is the source. “It really doesn’t matter what the tipster’s motivation was,” the writers say. “What matters is what we all heard.”