PUBLICITY PROS JAW OVER JIAN’S MEDIA-JOB ODDS

Jian Ghomeshi may have been acquitted in a court of law, but what about the court of public opinion? Though the former CBC Radio host went silent soon after allegations of sexual assault arose in October 2014, some public relations experts believe we haven’t heard the last of Ghomeshi. Responses have been condensed and edited.

Martin Waxman, communications strategist and president of Martin Waxman Communications

“If I were him and I was acquitted, I would look at my options as trying to start over somewhere else. But that comes after contrition . . . and an apology. The thing is, right now if you do a search of his name, you can go to page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4, page 5, page 6 of Google and it’s all stories about this trial and what he allegedly did . . . So how do you bounce back from that? It’s not something you can do overnight.”

Marjorie Wallens, public relations consultant and president of MJW Communications

“He still has those skill sets. He’s not going to be going back to the CBC . . . he’s not going to be asked to host iconic Canadian award shows. But he can create a podcast, create a show on Sirius. He will, if he writes a book, go on selected talk shows and interviews with selected journalists. But he carefully laid the groundwork to get ahead of this story in October (with a Facebook post defending himself against the allegations).”

Alan Middleton, marketing professor, Schulich School of Business at York University

“The main problem then is not so much going to be the broad Canadian audience, because there will always be 5 to 10 per cent who will hate anybody employing him, but the internal staff and, obviously, the internal female staff. And that’s got to be a big consideration for any employer . . . It’s going to be really hard for his colleagues. There will be some in the media undoubtedly who sympathize with what he went through and want to give him a break, but there will always be a cloud. And the cloud will last for a longer time in the industry than outside.”

David Gordon, managing partner at public relations firm Cohn & Wolfe

“There’s channels open to anyone, primarily through digital media, that he may attempt to leverage to rebuild, to assume a role again. Does he seek a role out of the limelight versus under the spotlight, which is where he was. And would he even want to (be in the spotlight)? I think that would be exceedingly difficult in Canada.”

Amanda Lao, communications director and partner with Liquid Communications

“I personally think he’s going to have a very hard time; his public image is affected greatly. I don’t see anyone wanting to take a chance and tie their name to that, to be honest.”