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How did you control rumors?
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Manuel Salinas
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Question:
You mentioned rumor control. What exactly is involved in
rumor control?
Answer:
Rumor control, the way we set it up, and we had a gentleman who did that for us in CRS, is
to come up with a telephone number. Then you have people who feed information into a
person or persons at that number, as accurate information as possible. So that if people heard
of something, the community could call that number and say, "Hey we heard that fifty cars are
coming down the highway," and we would verify that and say "yes' or "no". So rumor control
involved getting as accurate information as possible, so that if anybody would call we could
convey the correct information. Because rumors begin when you have something like that and
they are way off the wall, but the person doesn't know that until you try to find out if it's true or
not. The press might call, too. So that's what rumor control was about.
Question:
Who was it who called in the accurate information?
Answer:
CRS people, or the police department, people with authority, not just anybody. Because if
anybody called in, it was difficult for us to justify or check out that information, if any person
just called in. So we would have to depend on ourselves and the police department, the
sheriff's department, things like that. Or city officials, city officials might call in on
something.
| Bob Ensley
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
This was a case involving a whole series of events and many people were
affected, including the
family of the young girl who was viciously murdered. Kazell Moore is still on death row and
he's been there about 20 years or more now. Roosevelt Green had his mother come out there
dressed as if she was going to a cocktail party. A sheriff was hurt by the people making the
accusation that he had allowed vigilantes to come in and lynch Roosevelt Green.
Question:
How did that rumor get started?
Answer:
I don't know. All I know is that I got a call from a black councilwoman up there. She
called me and told me that I'd better get up there. I only live 22 miles away and they were
holding
a mass meeting at this church, talking about how the sheriff allowed these vigilantes to go in
there,
how he knew where the body was and how they had poured lime into the well. This is the kind
of thing you have to be very careful with, and the media didn't give it that much attention. We
were able to nip it before the media got a hold of it and sensationalized it. Nobody would
benefit from it being plausible because it would have caused a lot of damage. It would've
damaged the credibility of the sheriff. After the fugitive was found in New York, it would've
created a lot of doubt in the credibility of a lot of the black leaders up there who were involved.
In a crisis situation, one of the first things you do is take into account what rumors will do to
you. In large cities we always set up a rumor control center. That's the first thing we do
because of the people. The most notorious people for spreading the rumors are the wives of
white law enforcement officials.
They're the world's worst. The officers go home and talk about it, and then their wives get on
the phone. The first thing, you know, we have all these wild rumors going. So that's
why it's extremely important to set up a rumor control center and check it
out and verify it and get back to the person who's calling.
Question:
So in a small community, how do you separate the issues from the rumors?
Answer:
First of all, you have to get credible people. You call so-and-so,
they'll tell you there are certain people in every community that both black and white feel
comfortable talking to. That's the only way to do it because you cannot do it yourself; you don't
live
there. You're not familiar with anyone there. You have to get people that are respected, who are
honest. You let that rest with the community, don't try to take on that burden yourself, because
you can't win.
| Manuel Salinas
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Later on, of course, to talk about conciliation, they would have
demonstrations say in Sioux Falls and they would call us say, "Hey we're going to have a
demonstration in Sioux Falls, we would like for you to be there so you could help us establish
the relationship between the police department, the sheriff's department and the highway
department because we're going to march from such a place to such a place, and then we're
going to end up at the courthouse, or the prison in Sioux Falls because they're holding one of
our Native Americans there." So we would like you to make those arrangements with law
enforcement so that we have protection.
After Wounded Knee, we were also involved in their pow-wows in other towns.
Question:
And this is the Native Americans who asked you to do this?
Answer:
Yes. They called us and said these are the things that we're going to need because this is
what we're going to have. They were having a pow-wow and there
were a lot of rumors going around. It goes to show you how small communities react. They
were fearful the Indians would get out of hand. I guess they go back to history and they think
of that. That doesn't happen, but that's the way the system thinks. We said "ok, let's set up a
rumor control system at the Catholic Church". Well, being a small community, the Catholic
Church wanted to do that. But the priest was told, "you set up a rumor control center in this
church basement, and we will no longer fund or contribute toward the church." So we had to
set it up at another location.
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