This shambles of a story is pure Departed territory. A man inside the system, hiding in plain sight. Just like DiCaprio and Damon’s characters, Lesā lives a double life. The difference is, there’s no undercover mission, there’s just one fake qualification, a litany of false claims, and the tenuous hope that no one would notice.
It worked for a while. Lesā got the title, the influence, the trust. But lies don’t stay buried forever. And when they surface, the fallout isn’t just personal. it shakes the system that allowed it.
The Ministry shouldn’t have been blindsided. As Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) says, “I don’t want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me.”
If you’re not shaping your own #narrative and managing events, you’re just waiting for them to explode.
Dr Jordan King raised the red flag. MoJ shrugged. So the story landed in Stuff‘s lap, a direct result of institutional inertia. When credibility’s on the line, silence isn’t golden. Planning is. Even better? Don’t hire your own Walter Mitty in the first place (wait… wrong movie).
#PR #ProTip
Actually, I’ve got two today.
1. If you’re the Ministry, don’t wait for a journalist to force your hand. Get ahead of the story. Own it. When you act like a bystander to your own mess, the public will treat you like one. What you never, ever, ever, ever, want is a Ministry of JUSTICE looking irrelevant, expendable, and untrustworthy.
2. If you got into this mess by talking, more talking won’t save you. Say less. Think more. You’re not in a Scorsese film and you don’t get to monologue your way into some grand finale. Neither do the people who let it slide. Someone find me a patsy!
