Seitel: Paula Deen's Southern Fried Crisis Management

Dean isn't done.

Paula isn't pickled.

Yet.

But she sure has made a king-sized calamity of her run-in with racism.

Every move she's made to tamp down her crisis – from reneging on a "Today" show interview to prematurely announcing (by about three hours) a You Tube response to finally issuing and then retracting said response – has only burned the sassy Savannah chef even further.

Let's review her crisis management mistakes thus far and figure out how she gets her mojo back; and she can if she acts quickly and is smart.

· Mistake One: Failing to Settle the Suit.

In today's viral world – where everyone is a media publisher, journalistic standards are anachronistic, and "confidentiality" is a non-starter – a public figure is a fool to think that he or she can keep something "private."

Any money-hungry plaintiff, attorney, secretary or stenographer will release "confidential depositions" for a price, and Paula Deen should have known that.

If she said what she said, then any marginally-competent public relations counselor would have urged her to "settle the suit before the shish kebab hit the fan."

She didn't, and it did.

· Mistake Two: Booking the Today Show

Ms. Dean's first public relations mistake was to agree -- immediately after her racist remarks at a "closed deposition" went viral – to appear on the Today with Matt Lauer.

Dumb.

Today is losing ground to Good Morning America and fighting for its ratings life; Lauer, in the wake of waning ratings and his reported ruthlessness in deep-sixing the helpless Ann Curry, is fighting for his journalistic reputation.

So Today also needs to get its mojo back; the quickest way to do it would have been with a blistering interview with an alleged racist.

Deen's camp obviously realized -- after-the-fact and way too late -- that their lady wasn't prepared to be fricasseed – so they embarrassingly claimed "Paula is exhausted" and bowed out. 

· Mistake Three: Promising a Video

Releasing one's own video on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, et al has become commonplace – for everyone from Michael Jackson to Lebron James to Barack Obama.

As a consequence, 21^st century public relations people mistakenly believe that such a video – often in the form of an explanation or apology -- will sooth the savage scrutiny of the critics.

It won't.

Videos like the one Deen ultimately released, took back, and then released anew are the social media equivalent of advertising. They are written by you, orchestrated by your allies, and then uttered without rebuttal or challenge.

That's not traditional public relations "third-party endorsement," but rather home-cooked paid messaging; its value pales compared to earned publicity.

So how, at this late moment does Paula Deen extricate herself from the crisis casserole in which she is now ensconced? Here's how.

· First, go after Food Network.

The Food Network, after riding Deen's homespun celebrity for more than a decade, gave her less than an hour after her the first of her two video apologies, to dump her.

Just like clueless MSNBC did to Don Imus, when he got into similar racist hot water in 2007, the network fired its biggest star without so much as the courtesy of a meeting or opportunity to clear the air.

Instead, Food Network issued the following:

"Food Network will not renew Paula Deen's contract when it expires at the end of this month."

Period.

Deen's supporters were properly outraged by the network's callousness and flooded social media channels with their contempt. 

Thus the fumbling Food Network has made Deen a sympathetic figure and opened the gates for legions of Deen loyalists to make it the new target of opprobrium.

· Second, mobilize the faithful.

On the very day the Food Network was beheading her, Paula Deen's The Lady and Sons restaurant in Savannah was packed. And the large crowd of large people was adamant that their heroine should be given a second chance.

Some threatened to stop watching the Food Network. Others acknowledged that lots of people in the south of a certain age used the words Deen did at some point in their lives. Still others insisted that the beleaguered chef was "a cook not a Harvard graduate."

If the Deen people are smart, they will keep the public relations heat on and keep building third-party support.

· Third, call Oprah.

Forget the Today show, Deen's best chance for redemption is to seek out someone on whose show she has already appeared, the queen, herself, Oprah.

Sure, Oprah Winfrey will be enraged about the use Ms. Deen's choice of words. But an Oprah interview will give Paula Deen what the Today can't; an opportunity to take her time to explain fully -- – over the course of an hour or more – how she could have uttered such awful things.

Oprah's OWN network would welcome the publicity surrounding such an interview and would play it for all it's worth.  And besides, there's precedent.

Oprah's extended interview with Lance Armstrong was tough, comprehensive and fair. The disgraced biker got ample opportunity to explain, acknowledge and apologize.

Paula Deen, her career hanging in the balance, would be wise to follow suit and seize the Oprah opening.