Damage control (news)

When something bad happens, like maybe a person says something really mean or a building catches on fire, people want to know what's going on. That's what news is for - to tell people about all the stuff happening in the world.

But sometimes, the news can make things worse. If someone does something really bad and it ends up on the news, people might think even worse of them or get even angrier.

That's where damage control comes in. It's like when you spill milk on the floor and you try to clean it up before your parents see it and get mad.

People who do bad things might try to "clean up" their mistakes by doing things like apologizing or explaining why they did what they did. They might also try to make things better by doing good things or making up for what they did.

News outlets themselves also have to do damage control sometimes. If they report something that turns out to be wrong, they might have to correct their mistake and apologize.

The goal of damage control is to try to make things better and prevent things from getting worse. It's like trying to fix things after they've gone wrong.