PR Rock Head Award: Not intended to be a factual statement

U.S. Senator Jon Kyl from Arizona gave a speech on the Senate floor recently in which he said, “If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood, and that’s well over 90% of what Planned Parenthood does.”

But Kyl was wrong.  Really wrong.

According to Politifact, “Planned Parenthood says the statistics are dramatically different – that 90% of its services are preventive in nature, compared with 3% that are abortion-related.”

So what should you do when you realize you made a very public statement that was wrong?

Instead of apologizing for making a mistake, Kyl created a new category of speech – the “intended non-factual statement.”  Kyl’s office released a statement to CNN that said the Senator’s “remark was not intended to be a factual statement.”

This new category of speech takes spinning into a new realm.  It allows someone to say whatever he or she wants regardless of its validity.  All that is needed is a new, magical disclaimer, “not intended to be a factual statement.”

Comedian Steven Colbert has exploited this new disclaimer on his satirical news show, “The Colbert Report,” and on Twitter.

Goff Public and The GP Spin work hard to make sure anything we create is as factual as possible.