ough to let them ask the right questions. That does not mean PR counselors should say everything they know in every situation. Sometimes that could also be misleading. For ex- ample, in planning layoffs, every organization is asked to prepare mul- tiple options. Releasing all that raw information would not tell anyone anything truly useful and could lead people to the wrong conclusions. Other times, it could be needlessly damaging. When AT&T's data net- works suffered a day-long outage in 1998, we quickly traced the prob- lem to a technician who installed some faulty software. The New York Post wanted his name. But what purpose would releasing it have served? Management was responsible for providing the software, training the company's technicians, and ensuring the procedures they followed were fail-safe. Fingering the technician would have been irre- sponsible. Ethicist Kirk Hanson notes there is a continuum of truth-telling, from lies, to incorrect interpretations, implausible interpretations, plausible interpretations, partial truths, and truth itself.6 The PR coun- selor's job is to dig out the facts of a situation, assess their meaning and communicate them responsibly to relevant stakeholders. A data dump is not responsible communications, nor is abdicating their in- terpretation to others. An effective counselor tries to understand the facts from her stakeholders' points of view SO she can give them all the information they need to act intelligently and prudently. That was the nub of AT&T's pricing dilemma. The solution was not to try to hide it, but to put it in context. AT&T's basic calling rates had not changed in four years. While most people thought of the company as the "high-priced spread," its basic rates were actually lower than those of its largest competitors, and would remain SO after the planned price increases, even without considering the elimination of the $3 minimum charge. As a practical matter, AT&T couldn't use its customers' monthly bills to notify them of upcoming price changes. In 200