The PR Trap of July: Scandals, Silence, and the Setup for September

July appears quiet. It isn’t.

This episode outlines why summer is a high-risk period for reputation management. With newsroom staffing reduced and audience attention low, deeper stories start brewing. Reporters have more time. Leadership is often distracted. That’s when reputational cracks start to widen.

The timing is rarely accidental. Many of the biggest PR crises in recent years—from Lizzo’s lawsuit to Drew Barrymore’s strike backlash—began simmering in July and erupted by September.

What’s covered:

• How reduced oversight and lower engagement create space for reputational damage
• The patterns behind summer stories that spiral
• Case examples including Diddy, Cuomo, Barrymore, Lizzo, Fallon, Baldoni, and Lively
• The role of social media in sustaining backlash
• Why July is a critical window for transparency, not silence

Also featured: a breakdown of how MuckRack supports proactive monitoring and sentiment tracking.

Referenced Stories:

• Sean Combs trial
• Andrew Cuomo's primary upset
• Lizzo legal fallout
• Writers strike flashpoints
• Celebrity missteps and media strategy

Key takeaway:
July is not the time to disappear. For anyone managing a sensitive narrative, this is the moment to speak before being spoken about.

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Chapters

• 0:00 July PR Alert: Don't Look Away
• 6:07 Summer's Deceptive Calm in Newsrooms
• 8:40 August: The Hot News Desert
• 12:16 September's PR Firestorms
• 14:19 Strategic Advice for Communicators

Transcript

Molly McPherson: 0:01

If you work in public relations, strategic communication or crisis management, perhaps you own your own firm and you're working with clients who are dealing with issues. I have something I want to share with you. Not only did this topic come up numerous times last week, it came up twice today with two clients dealing with viral PR crises. And here's the tip July is not the month to look away. It might feel quiet, but it's not, it's loaded. Case in point Sean Diddy Combs.

Molly McPherson: 0:37

As of this recording, jurors are deep in deliberation over these explosive federal charges. I know what you're thinking, molly. That happened two weeks ago. Yes, I'm recording this on Tuesday, july 1st. I'm trying to squeeze it in before the July 4th holiday. I have to take a, I think, well-deserved vacation, so I wanted to record this ahead of time, but it gives me time to make a prediction about Sean Combs. Now it's interesting. If you remember, two weeks ago when this happened, I saw a notification that the jury only reached a partial verdict only four out of five counts and there was a holdup because there was one person on the jury who they could not convince, and I was thinking my conspiracy brain was working overtime. I thought maybe Sean Combs or someone close to him got to one of the jurors and their job was to muck it up. I don't know, but at this point they've been in deliberation for a little over 12 hours. Personally, I think Tiddy will be found guilty on all counts. I think this trial, with all of the abuse allegations and this high-profile defendant, is a perfect reminder of why public relations is so important and how you manage it, because PR is managing your reputation as well. Now, this trial didn't just happen to land in July, but the announcement of the charges landed in September, and that is what this episode is about.

Molly McPherson: 2:19

Welcome to the PR Breakdown Podcast. I'm your host, molly McPherson, and this is your midsummer check-in and it's for anyone who manages reputations when stakes are high. Now, newsrooms they feel calm right now. If you happen to work in one, you know this is a time when people are out. If you work in a younger newsroom, maybe a lot of people are going on maternity leave or they're going to have babies in late summer, because you know what, Sometimes we can plan these things. But June a lot of the top editors, executives they're on vacation, likely in Europe, and, oh my goodness, what if they were invited to the Jeff Bezos, lauren Sanchez spectacular wedding. I don't think I remember seeing a lot of newsy people on the invite list next to Tom Brady, leonardo DiCaprio and all the Kardashians.

Molly McPherson: 3:11

But July, heading towards the July 4th weekend in the US, canada Day in Canada we have looser oversight, more open-ended reporting time. This is the time when reporters start pitching deeper stories. You're going to see stories about back to schools take shape. There's still going to be primary stories out there. Case in point Andrew Cuomo, who was whomped in the New York City mayoral primary. Now that was a big story. He wasn't expecting it to be a big story. He thought he was going to march right through it. So there's still some political stories. But summer you're going to see a lot of evergreen stories out there as well.

Molly McPherson: 3:49

But it's the time when reporters kind of take their foot off the pedal a bit because not a lot of people are consuming news. Now, a lot of people are on social media, but newspapers, news outlet, local national television they're not expecting a lot of people, at least in the US and in Europe and Canada North America, you know sitting at home watching television. This is a time where a lot of people are out, so you're not going to get big, high-rating television or these really deep, compelling stories. And August, well, that time is a news desert because that's when everybody the hoi polloi, everyone is on vacation. Then Social media is still percolating. It is a news desert but it can be very hot, not just in weather and the temperature, but also in scandal, because August is a time that reporters who are on duty many times it's those young reporters they're looking for stories.

Molly McPherson: 4:46

Now in my career I had a number of August stories pop up and all of a sudden I got very busy. I had a number of August stories like pop up and all of a sudden, you know, I got very busy. One Lizzo. Do you remember that story? Former dancers filed this explosive lawsuit that happened in August Accusations of sexual harassment, body shaming, religious discrimination. It simmered online and then erupted in traditional and legacy media. By the fall, I was doing a lot of media interviews then and the reason why there weren't any other news stories to break that cycle. But there are plenty of other stories that dropped in that August September timeframe, right when the news consumption surges again, more stories.

Molly McPherson: 5:27

Drew Barrymore and the Writers Guild of America strike backlash. Do you remember that? It flared up in September 2023. That writer's strike was a huge story, if you remember, and it's funny. When the Drew Barrymore story hit, when she crossed the picket line, I happened to be in New York City because my daughter, rory, had a college soccer game in New Jersey and ABC asked me to do an interview in New York City on September 11th. That's right, I was there the evening of September 11th, so I went there for ABC. I was blocks away from CBS, which is where Drew Barrymore was going to record her program, her talk show, the next morning, and then a producer from Access Hollywood, which is NBC, reached out to me and said I saw you post about here's another story Ashton Kutcher, when he and the missus, do you remember? They posted a video where they were defending Danny Masterson on the charges while he eventually went to prison. But all of that happened at the same time. It was like the first second week of September. Jimmy Fallon was in the story as well. Do you remember that?

Molly McPherson: 6:33

The toxic workplace story that Rolling Stone published post-Labor Day? That was another hit piece that took months to work on. The reporters started calling former staffers over the summer. So by that September 2024, nbc was dealing with a major crisis on their hands. And then, of course, who could ever forget?

Molly McPherson: 6:57

Last August, the it Ends With Us movie premiere starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. Justin Baldoni was also the director. That premiere was happening at the same time as Deadpool starring Blake's husband, ryan Reynolds, and his buddy Hugh Jackman. All of it happened to fall together because of the Writers Guild strike. The production was delayed on both of them, so the premieres ended up happening in August, when you don't often have premieres.

Molly McPherson: 7:26

But they probably thought again news desert we can capture a lot of news here. Well, at that time I was writing for Forbes and I was watching that story and I thought this has sus written all over it. You all know about the reputational firestorm that happened, the lawsuits, the counter lawsuits, the allegations of onset misconduct. All of that started percolating big in August. It blew up in September. Percolating big in August. It blew up in September. By December is when Blake Lively I believe at the behest of her husband, ryan Reynolds filed that civil complaint in California, also working in sync with the New York Times, who was working on a hit piece. Now that one dropped at Christmas because it was strategically timed to work with Blake Lively. Also, that's another dead zone for news. So they wanted that story to actually sit over the holidays because they wanted it to hurt Justin Baldoni, still not convinced.

Molly McPherson: 8:25

Here are some other exposés that broke in 2024. Of course, I mentioned Sean Diddy Combs. The indictment happened in September. Also another indictment New York City Mayor, eric Adams. It was a federal indictment. Five charges bribery, wire fraud, foreign influence. All of these charges came down in September. All of these charges came down in September. Now the district attorney that's not a news outlet but a DA knows that the news outlets will follow these stories. There was also Dave Grohl his Instagram confession to his affair and secret love child. That came out in September and that was a story that certainly wasn't planned. It was a long-form scandal, but because it broke in September, it that was a story that certainly wasn't planned. It was a long-form scandal, but because it broke in September, it was a huge story. I remember doing a post on that For my UK listeners. You may remember the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing investigation and bullying complaints that tainted the network brand, and that was also in September.

Molly McPherson: 9:27

So these aren't random hits, these are built over the summer. So what does this mean? Communicators, pr people, publicists, crisis managers. It's July. What are you doing? You are paying attention. Let everybody else go on vacation, and you can go on vacation too, if you want. Of course, you have to relax we all have to relax but you have to keep your senses about you. Pay attention to the reporters, pay attention to your beat reporters. Are you hearing things from them? Are reporters like? This is the case of one of my clients.

Molly McPherson: 9:59

All of a sudden, reporters started asking questions about this one issue. I said they're probably simping around because they want to work on a deeper story. And if your story has anything to do or your issue has anything to do with social media, that is a danger zone, because people stay on social media over the summer. So pay attention, own your story. If there's a narrative coming, you can either draft it or you can be drafted into it the way you want to manage it, particularly if there's a longstanding media inquiry there.

Molly McPherson: 10:31

Speak out before you're spoken about and don't forget the one tactic that reporters respect the most. That's transparency. Say something now. Even if it's not everything, at least it's something. This isn't about playing defense. It's about preparing your offense. This isn't about playing defense. It's about preparing your offense. You know journalists are always working their angles, so you need to shape your arc as well.

Molly McPherson: 10:57

All right, everyone. That's all for this week on the podcast. Now I'd like to add I found all of these stories using Muckrack. They're now a supporter of the podcast. I'm excited to partner with them. If you're not familiar with Muckrack, it's an AI-powered platform that supports your entire PR workflow. It's an essential tool in my work because I use it to find my stories, to find reporters, but also I love it for monitoring sentiment, and in these stories, a lot of them came up negative. So if you want to find out more about muckrack, you can check out a link in the show notes. I hope, like me, you all have a chance to have a little bit of quiet and calm in July, but if you're holding on to something sensitive, now is the time to act. Start putting your comms out there, maybe some FAQs, maybe. Start putting it out on the website. Get the information out there so there isn't a September surprise waiting for you. Thanks for listening. Bye for now.