Today, Karen Handel the vice-president of policy and center of the public relations firestorm at the Susan G. Komen Foundation, resigned her post. Handel, a former candidate for governor for the state of Georgia and pro-life activist, was the alleged instigator of the foundation’s decision last week to cut off funding for breast cancer screening at Planned Parenthood.
Since that announcement , the Komen Foundation spent over a week in clumsy damage control of what turned out to be a corporate PR fiasco. It was inevitable that the Foundation would have little else left to do but take the next step to avoid further corporate cratering, tarring and feathering: find the scapegoat and force her to resign.
Yet Handel’s resignation will probably not bring an end to the Komen Foundation’s public relations troubles. There is still the issue of her boss, Nancy Brinker. Komen Foundation CEO Nancy Brinker — Susan G. Komen’s sister — has been under equal, if not harsher, scrutiny. The oscillating rationale as to why the foundation cut Planned Parenthood’s funding for breast cancer screening raised enough antennae for the media — mainstream and bloggers — to put legs on the story and interest in the backstory. Brinker was not under the scrutiny of a Congressional investigation, or a press or left-wing blogger jihad. It was simply the unveiling of Ms. Brinker’s political and corporate history, revealing how much of a shield the foundation was for its CEO’s portfolio and history, which is rife with corporate and political conflicts of interest.