I would like to be able to report to you today what Al Gore told a group of risk managers at this morning's client breakfast hosted by Marsh here in New Orleans during the Risk and Insurance Management Society's annual conference. Unfortunately, the former vice president and current global warming crusader declared press coverage off limits, and Marsh allowed Mr. Gore to get away with it. I can think of only one reason why a potential presidential candidate would insist on a press ban–he is ashamed to be associated with the insurance industry in general, and a firm that has been accused of bid-rigging in particular.

I've never seen a politician who didn't want press coverage unless he was afraid that public exposure would do him more harm than good. Although Marsh gave no formal reason for Mr. Gore's insistence that no press be allowed to report on his keynote address, I can only imagine that he is still keeping open the slim possibility of running for president, and doesn't want to be seen taking big bucks from an organization that had been hounded by New York's former attorney general (now governor), Eliot Spitzer.

Marsh's new management team has worked hard to put its regulatory and legal problems behind them, having settled allegations of bid-rigging and account-steering, while giving up the lucrative, volume-based contingency fees that supposedly motivated such scandalous behavior.

But to the less-informed general public–and the consumer media–there might still be some taint that has yet to wear off. That possibility no doubt prompted Mr. Gore and his politically-sensitive staff to keep his appearance before Marsh under wraps, even though he was speaking to the very people supposedly victimized by the big brokers in the scandal–commercial insurance buyers.

In the interests of disclosure, Marsh did offer me an invitation on a VIP basis, but only with the understanding that I could not write about anything I heard Mr. Gore say. Even though I have been a supporter of Mr. Gore in the past, am intrigued by the possibility that he might run again in 2008, and would have been very interested in hearing him talk about insurance and global warming, I could not in good conscience accept, if it meant wearing a gag when I walked out the door.

Marsh, in my view, should not have accepted Mr. Gore's terms, either.

I understand that Marsh was hosting a private breakfast for clients (although “private” is a relative, even ridiculous term when 1,300 or so people are in attendance). Marsh had the right, technically, to close the door to the press. But that doesn't mean the move was wise or smart in the long-term.

Indeed, this is exactly the kind of media mismanagement I talked about during my panel discussion yesterday on dealing with the press. Instead of basking in Mr. Gore's reflected glow, Marsh, by allowing this very public speaker to dictate terms of his speaking engagement, have turned what should have been a positive event into negative press.

Most political keynoters at industry events are has-beens, cashing in on former glories. Al Gore is an exception to the rule. Not only is he a key player in the environmental movement (with the documentary about his climate change presentation winning an Oscar), but he had something legitimately important to say to an industry hammered by global warming, speaking in a city that was Ground Zero for Hurricane Katrina.

If Mr. Gore is ashamed to be associated with the insurance industry, or with this particular player, he shouldn't have agreed to cash in by speaking at the Marsh event, period. And if he refused to allow press for whatever reason, Marsh should have told him to take a hike, period.

Shame on both of them.

Special Reports /

Marsh Helps Gore Dodge The Press

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