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The phrase “don’t shoot the messenger” stems from an old idea in warfare and politics, in which people often blamed or even killed bearers of bad news. Let’s look at the origins of the phrase, then apply it to Public Relations practice. 

In classical Greece, Sophocles has a character say, “No one loves the messenger who brings bad news,” in his play Antigone, capturing the sentiment behind the modern phrase. Plutarch later recounts King Tigranes having a messenger’s head cut off for bringing unwelcome military news, after which no one dared report honestly to him. Similar stories appear in other traditions (for example, David killing the bearer of bad news about Saul and Jonathan in the Bible), all reflecting the human tendency to attack the bearer rather than confront the message.

Over the years, envoys and messengers often crossed battle lines under an accepted “code of conduct”: they were to be received and returned unharmed, even when they carried ultimatums. The very need for such a code shows that commanders sometimes retaliated against messengers, so advice not to harm them became the norm.

The same logic applies in civilian life to figures such as the town crier, who publicly announced decrees and bad news. Harming such an officer could be considered treason. Even Shakespeare has characters express the “don’t blame the messenger” sentiment in Henry IV, Part 2 and Antony and Cleopatra, though not in the exact modern wording.

By the late 1800s and early 1900s, “don’t shoot the messenger” had become a common figurative warning against blaming a person who merely reports bad news, a usage that has persisted into modern communications and political discourse.

In 1988, Dr Jon White wrote an article in the Public Relations Review entitled “The Vantage Point Problem of Public Relations”. Jon argues that one of the main contributions PR practitioners offer organisations is the perspective they bring, both internally and externally. He cites a PR director at a UK manufacturing company who said practitioners must be able to talk to management from this outside perspective with “complete candour”. Yet that depends on whether senior management is willing to listen. Structurally, most PR practitioners sit below top management, making this harder to achieve. Drawing on Jaques’ hierarchy of decision levels, he shows that high‑level socio‑cultural decisions (such as pay negotiations with employees or integrating AI into the organisation’s work) require characteristics that only senior leaders possess, limiting PR’s ability to see the organisation “from the outside, warts and all.” This creates both theoretical doubts about whether PR can deliver the vantage point it claims, and practical problems of role conflict and tension when practitioners try to “move up” to a higher vantage point or seek professional structures that might support a genuinely independent perspective. Jon is still very active in Public Relations, by the way.

Has the vantage point Jon described changed over nearly 40 years? 

Over the past 15 years, I have been in two situations where, by bringing stakeholders’ views to my clients’ senior management, I have been metaphorically shot. So, in my experience, no change.

So what does good PR practice look like? It is probably more about how you communicate bad news or negative stakeholder sentiment. Senior managers generally hate any implied criticism. 

In internal communications, the comms manager might tell the executive team, “I’m just sharing what employees actually said in the survey; please don’t shoot the messenger,” when presenting harshly critical survey data. 

An agency account executive delivering negative campaign results to a client may preface the message with, “Don’t shoot the messenger: the click‑through rate dropped after the last creative change, so we need to adjust the campaign.” 

When an organisation’s spokesperson has to confirm an unflattering story a journalist is about to publish, they might say internally, “My job is to give the facts. Don’t shoot the messenger if the coverage is rough tomorrow.”

Back to the vantage point dilemma, factual evidence, not gut feelings or emotions, is needed to persuade senior management. I recommend to my PR apprentices that they reference every factual point they include in an environmental scan.

Leadership behaviour and culture matter. Leadership coaches warn that if leaders “shoot the messenger” when staff raise issues, they encourage people to hide problems rather than surface them early. In good organisations, there are systems for listening to stakeholders, and environmental scanning is a regularly conducted activity. PR practitioners are well placed to help in this area, given their focus on external and internal stakeholders. Some organisations reward employees who bring uncomfortable truths, explicitly saying “we don’t shoot the messenger here” to set the right cultural tone.

[Image of a revolver and bullets on a wooden box from Unsplash+]