The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

People are calling it the Cornell 7 case. In twelve days, Cornell, the Tompkins County district attorney, the mayor of Ithaca and Governor Kathy Hochul all put out statements about the same night in 2024. A former student, identified only as Jane Doe, has filed a civil lawsuit alleging she was drugged and sexually assaulted at a fraternity house. No one has been charged. Molly McPherson reads the statements one at a time and names the move in each.

Cornell's first statement says federal privacy law stops it from saying more. Molly looks up the law. Since 1998, FERPA has allowed a college to release the name, violation and sanction of a student found responsible for sexual assault, and Cornell chose not to. Cornell's second statement calls the criticism of its punishments irresponsible and says it will make survivors feel less safe. Molly calls that the blame flip, and asks the women who write these statements whether they could put their name on that line.

She also takes apart a defense lawyer's hair follicle test, the DA's complaint about the calls to his office, the mayor's moratorium and the Hochul statement that hit every note. She runs all of them through the same test. Own it, explain it, promise it.

She opens with why this one is personal. A professional crisis has a personal crisis baked into it, and the moves people use in statements are the moves they use in life.

Molly is a crisis communication and reputation management consultant, APR, and the host of The PR Breakdown. This episode was recorded live.

00:00 A personal crisis inside a professional one
01:51 What a move is
04:38 Guardrails, and what is only alleged
07:27 Cornell's first statement
08:53 The privacy shield
09:52 FERPA and the 1998 rule
12:32 Cornell won't, we will
13:09 Cornell's second statement
15:33 People don't like truth tellers
16:54 The blame flip
17:42 The New York Post headline
20:08 Own it, explain it, promise it
20:22 The defense lawyer's details
22:56 The hair follicle test
24:23 What would you do, Conor?
25:19 "A money grab"
26:27 Blame the victim
28:22 The DA's statement
29:34 The wah excuse
31:09 Apologize to your staff
31:48 Publishing her sworn statement
33:31 Nine pages to prove he was right
34:18 The statement I would have written
35:06 The mayor of Ithaca
37:26 Governor Kathy Hochul
37:53 Cornell's letter, finally signed
39:10 The only line that matters
39:28 What changed
40:36 Emotion and empathy
41:59 Closing

Every week I break down the biggest PR crises in the news: the slips, the moves, the scandals, and the lessons behind the headlines. I'm Molly McPherson, crisis and reputation strategist, known to my audience as the PR Lady. This channel is home base for the podcast and my weekly Substack live chats. Subscribe and follow along.

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🎙️ Apple Podcasts: [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-pr-breakdown-with-molly-mcpherson/id1441897190]
    
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📱 MOLLY ON SOCIAL
 
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⚖️ DISCLAIMER
    
This video is for educational and commentary purposes only.
Some links may be affiliate links. Sponsorships are always disclosed in-video.
Videos are based on publicly available information unless otherwise stated.

Copyright © 2026 Molly McPherson. All rights reserved.

Buckingham Palace does not comment on books. It has said so for a hundred years. Last week it said it again, inside a comment on a book.

Charles Spencer, Diana's brother, writes that Charles sounded "giddily elated" on a phone call after Diana died. That is his account, and nobody has independently backed it up. The Palace answered with 42 words about how "the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason." Molly McPherson reads the statement line by line and finds three tells: it breaks its own rule in its first clause, every word doing damage is a kind one, and there is no denial anywhere in it.

She names the move the pat on the head: answering an accusation by going after the person's memory instead of the claim, in the language of sympathy. Then she looks at why silence no longer protects the royal family, what already fixed a crisis about this same woman in 1997, how Trump reacts when the press pool takes his microphone away, Piers Morgan's legal growl, and what the Muck Rack numbers say about who is taking the hit.

She finishes with the statement she would have written instead. Find the uncle.

Molly is a crisis communication and reputation management consultant, APR, and the host of The PR Breakdown. This episode was recorded live on her Substack.

00:00 "We do not comment," said in a comment
02:48 Rewatching Harry and Meghan
07:12 The zone of genius: Meghan and Diana
10:06 Why Charles Spencer wrote the book
11:10 The timeline, 16 to 22 September
12:19 The Palace statement, read in full
13:01 Three tells in 42 words
16:52 The pat on the head
18:18 Could they have said nothing?
20:59 The mask
21:41 Balmoral, 1997
24:12 Never complain, never explain
28:33 Trump and the press pool
32:55 Piers Morgan and the legal growl
36:16 Where it stands
37:02 The Muck Rack numbers
40:08 The statement I would have written
41:55 Find the uncle
44:00 Nobody in the room sat in Diana's chair
44:43 The golden rule

Every week I break down the biggest PR crises in the news: the slips, the moves, the scandals, and the lessons behind the headlines. I'm Molly McPherson, crisis and reputation strategist, known to my audience as the PR Lady. This channel is home base for the podcast and my weekly Substack live chats. Subscribe and follow along.

👇 Stay Connected
📧 Weekly Substack Lives and Newsletter [https://mollymcpherson.substack.com/]

📣 Speaking Inquiries [https://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/molly-mcpherson/]

🎙️ THE PR BREAKDOWN PODCAST [https://www.prbreakdownpodcast.com/]  

🎙️ Apple Podcasts: [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-pr-breakdown-with-molly-mcpherson/id1441897190]
    
🎙️ Spotify: [https://open.spotify.com/show/53jOIfJuu00dsZhQMgI1Id?si=a0152e4ce81b4725]
    
📱 MOLLY ON SOCIAL
 
TikTok: [https://www.tiktok.com/@mollybmcpherson]
    
Instagram: [https://www.instagram.com/molly.mcpherson/]
    
Substack: [https://substack.com/@mollymcpherson?utm_source=user-menu]
  
⚖️ DISCLAIMER
    
This video is for educational and commentary purposes only.
Some links may be affiliate links. Sponsorships are always disclosed in-video.
Videos are based on publicly available information unless otherwise stated.

Copyright © 2026 Molly McPherson. All rights reserved.

Three television news networks asked Molly McPherson to break down the Macklemore, Ed Sheeran and Robert Kraft story this week. She said no to all three. Not because it is not a story, but because the frame they wanted turns a crisis communication lesson into a verdict on a war, and that is not her lane.

So she took it to her Substack community instead, and this episode is that room. Four parties, four statements, read in the order they landed: the promoter, Macklemore, Robert Kraft and Ed Sheeran. Who spoke first, what each one claimed, and what it cost the person who signed it.

Along the way: the red herring test she runs on any algorithm-driven news story, why an audience apology gives itself away, why naming the standard without naming the conduct leaves a hole the audience will fill, and the one move that would have changed all of this, which is deciding in peacetime instead of writing policy in public at night.

It closes on the Muck Rack numbers. Ed Sheeran told everyone the decision was not his. He still carried 41% of the week's coverage, double Robert Kraft's share, and the biggest word in Robert Kraft's own word cloud for the week is Ed Sheeran.

Molly is a crisis communication and reputation management consultant, APR, and the host of The PR Breakdown. The weekly live chat this episode came from runs on her Substack.

00:00 Why three networks asked and why I said no
01:28 Into the live chat
02:21 The lane: crisis communication, not foreign policy
06:14 Working in backlash, and getting it either way
09:14 The red herring test for algorithm-driven stories
11:25 The timeline: who spoke, in what order
12:13 Macklemore's statement, in the first person
13:27 Robert Kraft's statement and the line he drew
16:26 The 2014 performance Kraft is likely pointing at
18:27 Drawing a line in public comes with a cost
20:48 What the statement left out, and what the audience filled in
21:05 The weakest commercial hand at the table
24:05 This is not a First Amendment problem
25:00 The sentence in that apology I would redline
25:27 Audience apologies: naming who felt it, not what you did
29:16 Arch Manning, Holly Rowe, and an apology that works
32:12 The same hole, twelve years apart
32:37 Ed Sheeran's statement, read line by line
35:15 Why jurisdiction protects nothing
36:12 The four support acts who walked
37:42 Four statements, and the only thing they agree on
39:52 What should Ed Sheeran have done — the room answers
43:40 The hard choice is usually the right choice
47:04 My real answer, after the live ended
48:22 Decide in peacetime, publish it before it burns
49:02 The Muck Rack numbers
49:42 You cannot file your way out of a story

Every week I break down the biggest PR crises in the news: the slips, the moves, the scandals, and the lessons behind the headlines. I'm Molly McPherson, crisis and reputation strategist, known to my audience as the PR Lady. This channel is home base for the podcast and my weekly Substack live chats. Subscribe and follow along.

👇 Stay Connected
📧 Weekly Substack Lives and Newsletter [https://mollymcpherson.substack.com/]

📣 Speaking Inquiries [https://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/molly-mcpherson/]

🎙️ THE PR BREAKDOWN PODCAST [https://www.prbreakdownpodcast.com/]  

🎙️ Apple Podcasts: [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-pr-breakdown-with-molly-mcpherson/id1441897190]
    
🎙️ Spotify: [https://open.spotify.com/show/53jOIfJuu00dsZhQMgI1Id?si=a0152e4ce81b4725]
    
📱 MOLLY ON SOCIAL
 
TikTok: [https://www.tiktok.com/@mollybmcpherson]
    
Instagram: [https://www.instagram.com/molly.mcpherson/]
    
Substack: [https://substack.com/@mollymcpherson?utm_source=user-menu]
  
⚖️ DISCLAIMER
    
This video is for educational and commentary purposes only.
Some links may be affiliate links. Sponsorships are always disclosed in-video.
Videos are based on publicly available information unless otherwise stated.

Copyright © 2026 Molly McPherson. All rights reserved.

Amanda Hirsch posted a Polymarket ad about the Lindsay Clancy trial on the Friday that trial ended in a mistrial. By Sunday there was a Notes App apology on Instagram, three paragraphs, comments turned off. Most of the internet read the apology as the story. Molly's argument is that the apology is a red herring, and that anyone stopping there is going to miss what actually happened.

Because Amanda Hirsch does not have a Polymarket deal. Dear Media does. Her podcast sits on that network, Polymarket is a sponsor, and the two are already teaming up on a weekly show called What Are the Odds. So the ad was not a content creator's lapse in judgment. It was an employee doing her job inside a partnership she never signed. It is the same collision as Good Good Golf and Callaway the week before: a brand deal built to reach one audience, meeting public opinion, with the person on camera left holding it. Follow the money and the crisis is a prediction market trying to reach women through a media company.

Then the field guide. Law 3, it is never the thing, it is the response to the thing - the ad was the thing, the apology had one job and made it worse. Law 5, silence gets filled and never by your friends - turning the comments off only moved the conversation to Reddit. Law 7, the hard decision is invariably the right one, and the hard one was for Dear Media to say the word Polymarket out loud. Law 2, the crisis comes from inside the house. And Law 1, trust is the filter: podcast ads work because listeners trust the host, which is exactly what is spent when that expertise gets rented out.

Chapters:
0:16 — The Apology They Typed Instead of Filmed
0:43 — Why This Is Not About Amanda Hirsch
1:49 — The Lindsay Clancy Mistrial
2:25 — Why the Clancy Trial Was the Story of the Summer
3:10 — The Sponsored Reel That Started It
5:15 — The Replies, and the Retreat to Stories
6:45 — Reading the Notes App Apology in Full
10:25 — The Callaway Parallel
13:03 — What Are the Odds, and Who It Is Aimed At
21:03 — Follow the Money
22:16 — A Prediction Market Going After Women
24:39 — Law 3: It Is Never the Thing, It Is the Response
25:01 — Law 5: Silence Gets Filled
25:40 — Law 7: The Hard Decision Is the Right One
26:20 — Law 2: The Crisis Comes From Inside the House
27:02 — Law 1: Trust Is the Filter
27:27 — When Expertise Gets Rented Out
28:35 — The Apology Has Legal Fingerprints
29:13 — Who Was Left to Fall on the Sword
29:27 — Name the Crisis

Every week I break down the biggest PR crises in the news: the slips, the moves, the scandals, and the lessons behind the headlines. I'm Molly McPherson, crisis and reputation strategist, known to my audience as the PR Lady. This channel is home base for the podcast and my weekly Substack live chats. Subscribe and follow along.

👇 Stay Connected
📧 Weekly Substack Lives and Newsletter [https://mollymcpherson.substack.com/]

📣 Speaking Inquiries [https://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/molly-mcpherson/]

🎙️ THE PR BREAKDOWN PODCAST [https://www.prbreakdownpodcast.com/]  

🎙️ Apple Podcasts: [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-pr-breakdown-with-molly-mcpherson/id1441897190]
    
🎙️ Spotify: [https://open.spotify.com/show/53jOIfJuu00dsZhQMgI1Id?si=a0152e4ce81b4725]
    
📱 MOLLY ON SOCIAL
 
TikTok: [https://www.tiktok.com/@mollybmcpherson]
    
Instagram: [https://www.instagram.com/molly.mcpherson/]
    
Substack: [https://substack.com/@mollymcpherson?utm_source=user-menu]
  
⚖️ DISCLAIMER
    
This video is for educational and commentary purposes only.
Some links may be affiliate links. Sponsorships are always disclosed in-video.
Videos are based on publicly available information unless otherwise stated.

Copyright © 2026 Molly McPherson. All rights reserved.

Callaway spent three days saying it was disappointed by an ad. Then its CEO admitted Callaway approved that ad before it was posted.

This episode is about the gap between those two statements, and what a company reveals when it comments on its own conduct as though it were in the audience for it.

A content warning first: the episode discusses domestic violence as an image used in a golf brand campaign. Nobody in this story is accused of real-world violence. The scene was staged. What two companies chose to make, approve and publish is the story.

Then the read nobody in the golf feed has: Good Good is not a golf company. It is a media company that raised forty-five million dollars to become one, and the ad was not a lapse in judgment. It was the formula working the way it was paid to work.

0:00 — Why the communication is the story
0:31 — Three days of being disappointed
1:58 — The parody, described once
4:07 — Who approved it?
7:42 — Statement one: "disappointed by the content that was posted"
8:42 — The PGA Tour calls the response late and defensive
11:08 — Good Good is not a golf company
12:35 — Where the formula came from
18:39 — Statement two: "approved by Callaway prior to posting"
23:04 — A premiere moves at a sponsor’s request
24:17 — Forty-five million dollars
26:24 — "A 360-degree media company"
27:09 — The formula worked the way it was paid to work

The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson.

👇 Stay Connected
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🎙️ THE PR BREAKDOWN PODCAST [https://www.prbreakdownpodcast.com/]  

🎙️ Apple Podcasts: [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-pr-breakdown-with-molly-mcpherson/id1441897190]
    
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📱 MOLLY ON SOCIAL
 
TikTok: [https://www.tiktok.com/@mollybmcpherson]
    
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⚖️ DISCLAIMER
    
This video is for educational and commentary purposes only.
Some links may be affiliate links. Sponsorships are always disclosed in-video.
Videos are based on publicly available information unless otherwise stated.

Copyright © 2026 Molly McPherson. All rights reserved.