In this episode of Communication Breakdown, hosts Steve Dowling and Craig Carroll examine the fallout from a rare, high-access Vanity Fair profile of White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. What looked like unprecedented transparency quickly turned into a reputational stress test, raising questions about intent, narrative control, and internal alignment. Steve and Craig move past the headline-grabbing quotes to analyze what they call “wedge warfare,” how third-party storytelling can disrupt relationships even without factual errors. The conversation offers practical lessons for communications leaders operating in high-salience, high-risk environments where perception often matters more than explanation.TakeawaysHigh-access profiles create cumulative risk, every quote, image, and anecdote compounds meaning.Defending intent or tone can worsen a wedge by reinforcing doubt rather than stabilizing trust.Images function as narrative events and must be managed with the same rigor as interviews.Topics MentionedWhite House communications, corporate reputation, wedge warfare, narrative control, media access, high-risk interviews, photojournalism, alignment signaling, claims-perceptions-reality framework, crisis communications, leadership visibilityCompanies MentionedVanity Fair, CNN, The Atlantic, New York Post, AxiosEpisode Hashtags#VanityFair #CNN #TheAtlantic #NewYorkPost #Axios #WhiteHouse #CorporateReputation #StrategicCommunications #PublicRelations #MediaStrategy #NarrativeControl #CrisisCommunications #LeadershipMessaging #StakeholderTrust #ReputationRisk #ShawnPNeal #AdvoCast #OCRNetworkCommunication Breakdown is a production of the Observatory on Corporate Reputation.Hosted by Craig Carroll and Steve Dowling.Produced by Shawn P Neal and the team at AdvoCast.For questions, feedback, or episode suggestions, reach out at [email protected]

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