But as the state-run company grows, it is attracting the scrutiny of Brazilian investigative journalists and senators who worry that billions of petrodollars might be put to political use. And that’s not sitting well with Petrobras CEO José Sergio Gabrielli, a left-leaning former economics professor and close adviser to Brazil’s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. While the Brazilian government holds 38% of the publicly traded Petrobras shares, it controls 55% of the voting rights.

In May, the Brazilian Senate launched an inquiry to determine if Petrobras had evaded more than $2 billion in taxes by channeling funds to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) run by political allies of President Lula in the runup to next year’s presidential elections. It also started looking into alleged overpayments for ships and pipelines. That’s when Gabrielli—frustrated by newspaper reports that he complained were tendentious and quoted him out of context—ordered his public relations team to create a blog called Petrobras—Facts and Figures.

“We’re Going to Defend Ourselves”

Gabrielli says he personally signs off on many of the company’s daily postings on the blog, which is published only in Portuguese. The idea is to rebut what he calls “false information” in the Brazilian press about the company. But the site, which has had more than 1.5 million visitors, is raising questions about whether one of the region’s most respected state-run companies is harming its reputation by being so combative. “We’re going to defend ourselves,” Gabrielli told a reporter from leading newspaper Folha de São Paulo in late June, in a Q&A posted on the blog. “Attacking is also part of defending oneself.”

One of the first things the Petrobras blog did was to publish the entire transcript of an interview Gabrielli granted to a major newspaper—before the newspaper’s article appeared. That infuriated journalists throughout Brazil, who claimed that their questions are the intellectual property of their publications—and in any case, out of courtesy, should not be aired before an article appears in print.

Petrobras agreed to wait until midnight before an article’s publication to post transcripts on the Web, but it still takes a no-holds-barred approach to rebutting, point by point, every major news report.

Petrobras avoids making inflammatory statements about journalists in its daily postings. But its pointed rebuttals spawn vociferous reader comments that accuse journalists of working for political parties or belonging to a conspiracy to turn over Brazil’s oil riches to foreign oil companies. One blog post by a reader identified as Da Torre said that “the Folha [de São Paulo] never tires of making up facts to denigrate Petrobras’ image. Could it be that they are working for the multinationals to knock Petrobras down and…grab the best thing Brazil has, its oil?”

Mesh Media Strategies has always advised its clients who may be interviewed by the media – any media – to record the interview and be prepared to use it to combat misleading media reports which use bits of the interview out of context. This applies to both corporate clients and political candidates. Ideally, the interview should be video-recorded, with cameras on both the reporter and the interviewee. Immediately after the interview is concluded, a verbatim transcript of the interview should be made, and the video or audio of the interview should be prepared for uploading to the web. YouTube is a good platform for video, while a corporate or campaign blog can easily handle an audio file as a “podcast.”

No corporate CEO, organization leader, business owner or political candidate should ever do a media interview without recording it – and no corporate CEO, organization leader, business owner or political candidate should agree to an interview with any media outlet that refuses such conditions.

I have been on both sides of this issue.

Several years ago, I managed to land an interview with music superstar Garth Brooks as his fame was peaking – an interview not for an entertainment magazine, but for a business magazine called Business Nashville. (Today, it’s called Business TN.) The focus of the interview was not music but money and Brooks’ approach to business. In granting the interview, Brooks’ people asked that he be allowed to record the interview.

I had no problem with that request, because I had no agenda in doing the story. I was going to record the interview to ensure accuracy, and didn’t mind if he did the same. I tell clients today, if the media doesn’t want you to record the interview and post the recording or a transcript, they’ve got an agenda.

Brooks did the interview but, as it turns out, his people didn’t record it. They did ask to review the quotes we selected for the story, and although all of the quotes were verbatim, Brooks did ask – not demand – that we delete one sentence because the situation he was talking about – ironically, involving Brooks and a dispute with a major national newspaper – had been resolved since the interview. The quote was accurate but the context had changed, so I made the edit. The result: An accurate story.

Garth Brooks didn’t need to record the interview because I came to it with no hidden agenda, but today’s professional news media is so rife with bias and agendas that you can’t take that chance. Even if the media isn’t biased or coming at you with a hidden agenda, the chances are still high that you will be misquoted or information you give will be used in the wrong context. No member of the media knows more about your business or your campaign than you do, which means there is a good chance they’ll get it wrong.

Having audio or video recordings and a verbatim transcript means you can quickly respond when they do.

Transparency is a two-way street – a media outlet which demands transparency but refuses to grant it is not to be trusted.

They’re right, of course.

The communications challenges facing businesses are as varied as the businesses that face them – and the array of communications tools that are available to help solve them. Mesh Media isn’t here to sell you the latest digital media trend using the latest buzzwords – we’re here to help you solve your communications challenges with the right tool or tools for the job. If that’s Twitter and a blog, okay. If it’s a more traditional media relations approach, okay. If it’s a blend of traditional media relations, advertising and social media – or if hiring a plane to write your company’s name in the sky would do the trick – that’s okay too.

Not every CEO needs to be a social media star, but every CEO ought to make sure their business is taking full advantage of all the available communications tools, technologies and trends that make sense and get the job done. Like it or not, you’re doing business in the age of interactive media and digitally-empowered customers who seek transparency and connection and community and see through the latest slick ad campaign. You’re doing business in the era of the iPhone and Skype, YouTube, LinkedIn, podcasts and other user-generated content and if your businesses isn’t using certain social media tools because, after careful review, you believe they don’t fit the need, that’s one thing.

But if you’re not using the tools because your business doesn’t know how to use them, and you aren’t making the effort to understand them and their potential, then chances are your business is leaving some powerful business-building tools gathering dust on the shelf.