30.06.2007, 17:46
Zitat:World Wrestling Entertainment – the Chris Benoit communications breakdown
Friday, June 29 2007
The fabric of sports entertainment, a multi-billion dollar industry, imploded earlier this week with the terrible news concerning the complete psychotic breakdown of WWE wrestler Chris Benoit suffered over the weekend. By the time Benoit’s killing spree had ended, Benoit had murdered his wife and his son before killing himself. Almost from the time the news broke late Monday afternoon WWE has failed at effectively communicating the tragic news and in getting their message to their fans and to the media.
After Benoit didn’t appear at two WWE events in Texas Saturday and then a pay-per-view on Sunday, the WWE contacted officials in Fayetteville, Georgia after Benoit missed the pay-per-view, this according to the timeline provided by the WWE.
World Wrestling Entertainment released additional details of what it knows concerning communication with Chris Benoit and authorities before and after the tragic double homicide-suicide involving Benoit, his wife Nancy, and his son, Daniel.
WWE’s timeline of events began on Saturday:
On Saturday, June 23, Chris Benoit was slated to appear at a WWE live event in Beaumont , Texas . That afternoon, Benoit contacted WWE to inform them that his wife and child were ill, and that he would not be able to attend the show.
WWE executives rebooked Benoit’s flight for the following morning, allowing Benoit to miss the Beaumont event and making alternate arrangements for him to attend the pay-per-view event in Houston on Sunday.
WWE employees attempted to confirm with Benoit his travel plans but were unable to contact him.
Early Sunday morning, between 3:51 and 3:58 a.m., Benoit sent five text messages to co-workers:
Text Message 1 to two co-workers (sent 6/24 at 3:53am) - Chris Benoit’s cell phone
“My physical address is
130 Green Meadow Lane , Fayetteville Georgia
. 30215”
Text Message 2 to two co-workers (sent 6/24 at 3:53am) - Chris Benoit’s cell phone
“The dogs are in the enclosed pool area. Garage side door is open”
Text Message 3 to two co-workers (sent 6/24 at 3:54am) - Nancy Benoit’s cell phone
“My physical address is
130 Green Meadow Lane
. Fayetteville Georgia . 30215”
Text Message 4 to two co-workers (sent 6/24 at 3:55am) - Nancy Benoit’s cell phone
“My physical address is
130 Green Meadow Lane
. Fayetteville Georgia . 30215"
Text Message 5 to one co-worker (sent 6/24 at 3:58am) - Nancy Benoit’s cell phone
“My address is
130 Green Meadow Lane
. Fayetteville Georgia . 30215”
Throughout the day on Sunday, WWE made numerous attempts to contact Benoit both at home and at local hospitals in the Atlanta area. As of 11:00 p.m., WWE officials were unable to establish contact with Chris Benoit.
At 12:30 p.m. on Monday, June 25, WWE officials were notified of the text messages sent to the co-workers the previous day. By 12:45 p.m., WWE had contacted Fayetteville County Sheriff’s office requesting they check on the Benoit family.
Fayetteville County Sheriffs office made contact with WWE at approximately 4:00 p.m. advising that they had entered the house of Chris Benoit and found three deceased bodies – an adult male, adult female and a male child. WWE was told that Benoit’s home was now considered a major crime scene.
The decision to cancel the live event scheduled in Corpus Christi that night was made between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m. In keeping with company policy, and with limited knowledge regarding facts of the case, WWE choose to air a memorial dedicated to the career of Chris Benoit. As facts emerged surrounding the case, all tributes to Chris Benoit were removed both on-air and on WWE.com.
WWE was stunned and saddened by the details released today by local authorities and is continuing to monitor the ongoing investigation.
In the first of many curious public relations decisions the WWE has made in the past few days the WWE did offer an expanded more complete timeline, however that has since be removed from all WWE sites.
After being informed by the Fayetteville County Sheriffs “that Benoit’s home was now considered a major crime scene” the WWE immediately cancelled that night’s scheduled event and to quote the WWE, “In keeping with company policy, and with limited knowledge regarding facts of the case, WWE choose to air a memorial dedicated to the career of Chris Benoit” The facts such as they were to the WWE late Monday afternoon, the company had a three-hour live event scheduled on the USA Network a few hours later. The same three-hour program was set to air on Canada ’s Score Network on a tape delay basis.
Given the news that unfolded over the next six to seven hours airing a tribute show to a man who had murdered his wife, his son and then killed himself was a mistake and the WWE at least in part recognized that error in judgment by removing anything associated with the tribute. The contractual agreement the Canadian sports network The Score has with the WWE allows The Score to re-air RAW early Tuesday morning and Tuesday afternoon. By midnight Monday with major media (The Atlanta Journal Constitution, the Associated Press to name only two) reporting that the police believed it was a murder/suicide The Score for reasons known only to Score officials repeated the tribute show they had just aired. The repeat aired after the news had broken. Thankfully officials at The Score decided to not air their scheduled Tuesday afternoon airing of Monday’s RAW broadcast. Unfortunately officials at The Score were inundated with e-mails from angry WWE fans who were upset the network didn’t repeat the Benoit Tribute Wednesday afternoon. That broadcast would have followed the press conference aired nationally on cable news networks in both the United States and in Canada where Fayetteville police officials released the horrific news.
The WWE reacted very quickly on their website after the news broke. The WWE’s focus of concern was on “the sensationalistic reporting and speculation being undertaken by some members of the media following the press conference held by the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department and the District Attorney. During the press conference, the investigating authorities made the following points, all of which run contrary to the media speculation that "roid rage" was a factor in the senseless murders and suicide:
The authorities stated that all drugs found in the house were believed to be legal prescriptions.
Steroids were not, and could not, be related to the cause of death (asphyxiation). Authorities had no factual basis to speculate as to Benoit’s state of mind, and rightly did not do so.
Toxicology tests have not even been completed, so there is no current evidence that Benoit even had steroids or any other substance in his body. In that regard, on the last test done on Benoit by WWE's independently administered drug testing program, done on April 10, 2007, Benoit tested negative.
The physical findings announced by authorities indicate deliberation, not rage. The wife's feet and hands were bound and she was asphyxiated, not beaten to death. By the account of the authorities, there were substantial periods of time between the death of the wife and the death of the son, again suggesting deliberate thought, not rage. The presence of a Bible by each is also not an act of rage.
WWE strongly suggests that it is entirely wrong for speculators to suggest that steroids had anything to do with these senseless acts, especially when the authorities plainly stated there is no evidence that Benoit had steroids in his body, pending the toxicological reports, and that they had no evidence at this time as to the motive for these acts.”
It’s how you craft a tale that often impacts how you’ll be remembered. Regardless of whether or not Benoit had recently used performance-enhancement drugs and the impact they have on the human body (that’s not the basis for this Insider Report), to try and steer the media away from suggestions wasn’t “sensationalistic reporting and speculation” but instead “suggested deliberate thought, not rage” suggests whomever manages that company doesn’t fully understand the ticking bomb that exploded in Chris Benoit’s mind late last week.
Thursday morning a distraught looking Vince McMahon appeared on NBC’s Today Show, doing the best he could to stem the growing storm enveloping his billion dollar business.
“This is a horrific tragedy,” he said. “It happened in pro wrestling. There’s a rush to judgment. There’s almost a hysteria around us.”
And at the least, McMahon admitted the obvious Thursday morning on The Today Show:
“Steroids may or may not have had anything to do with this,” McMahon told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira. “It’s all speculation until the toxicology reports come back.”
McMahon said that Benoit was known to the organization as “a mild-mannered individual,” adding, “there was no way of telling this man was a monster.”
“Everybody in this organization, to my knowledge, is well-adjusted family people,” McMahon said. “They go to work like everybody else. They’re performers. We put smiles on faces. That’s our job description, not to be tainted and smeared by this.”
Those are all fair points but at the same time the engineer of the billion-dollar WWE, the man who leads the company that “puts smiles on faces” has to appreciate any company would be held accountable if they employed someone who McMahon referred to as a “madman” Thursday morning on national TV.
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http://www.sportsbusinessnews.com/_news/news_365390.php