It feels like a misunderstanding.
Trust me, I’ve been there… Someone calls. They sound puzzled, not panicked. “Have you seen this?” They send a link, or a screenshot, or a tweet. Your stomach moves before your brain catches up.
This is what I call Danger Hour. Not because the story is loud yet. Because nobody is sure it EVEN IS a story.
Decisions made now lock in faster than people realize. Whoever speaks first to whoever asks first becomes the record. Whoever gets pulled into a meeting now misses the call that actually matters.
What to do in this hour: Stop. Get the right four people on a phone, not a Slack thread. Confirm what you actually know versus what you’ve only heard. Identify the next person on your team who will get a call from a reporter, and make sure they don’t pick up before you’ve talked.
Speed kills careers. Don’t let lack of speed kill yours. You don’t have to decide what to say… yet. That will come. Right now, you can decide who’s allowed to say anything at all.
If there’s a reasonable chance this is going to get talked about, don’t wait. You can issue a statement with who, what, when and where. Careers get broken on “How and Why.”
“Two fans have attacked each other at tonights Chris Stapleton concert. We’re aware of the issue and police have responded. We’ll have more information tonight at 10:30pm Eastern.”
There. You just bought yourself time.
Which is good… because you’re going to need to explain why the metal detectors weren’t working, how fans managed to get a gun into your venue, or why security didn’t respond right away. Those are the NEXT hours problems. You’ll get there soon enough.
Don’t try to fix it in the first hour. Just don’t make it worse before you understand it.
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