Embracing Left and Right Image Repair and Crisis Communication in a Polarized Ideological Milieu

The author explores how a tobacco firm in crisis engaged in crisis communication and image repair work in a highly polarized ideological milieu. Through an analysis of the tobacco firm's public statements produced in the aftermath of a 1997 lawsuit, the author demonstrates how the firm dealt with its milieu by exploiting and embracing both of the ambient ideological poles. By embracing these poles, the firm turned critique and opposition into discursive resources for its crisis communication. The author argues that political ideological framing of organizational communication and discursive appropriation of critique and opposition serve as critical foci for organizational communication scholarship.