Master of Disaster rides to rescue

PR guru Mark Fabiani is peddling the Lance Armstrong tour of contrition. Photo / AP

Lance Armstrong's Oprah confession is part of a long-term rehabilitation strategy orchestrated by a PR guru.

Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong is on a contrition tour every bit as emotionally gruelling as the seven he won in France.

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey to be broadcast today, he is said to have confessed in broad terms to the doping charges of which he was accused by the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) last year.

This round of self-flagellation is believed to be the beginnings of a "years-long" strategy to publicly rehabilitate Armstrong, an attempt to salvage both his own brand and that of Livestrong, his cancer charity.

Winfrey has revealed that the interview the world wanted was secured relatively easily, that Armstrong appeared ready to face the music. The pair both have homes in Hawaii, and after an email exchange initiated by the TV star they met for lunch where she talked him into owning up.

The confession may help him to rebuild relationships with the cancer community, secure book deals and speaking engagements, even compete in the triathlons he now favours. But it will also lead to legal difficulties: Armstrong faces potential lawsuits from his sometime-sponsors SCA Promotions, fellow ex-cyclist Floyd Landis and the Sunday Times, which is suing for the libel settlement of around US$500,000 that it paid Armstrong in 2006.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has also stated that if he wants to compete again as an athlete, he must confess under oath.

The man behind Lance's plan is lawyer and public relations strategist Mark Fabiani, whose services Armstrong has retained since July 2010, when the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigation into the Texan's doping first began. Fabiani and his business partner Chris Lehane are known for tackling some of the world's trickiest reputation management challenges, and in 1996 were dubbed the "Masters of Disaster" by Newsweek, for their part in defending Bill and Hillary Clinton from the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky scandals.

The pair worked on behalf of Goldman Sachs when the bank faced public fury over the sub-prime loan crisis and advised its executives as they were called to testify to Congress. They represented Michael Moore as the film-maker navigated the controversies of his documentaries Fahrenheit 9/11 and Sicko. They took on Sheikh Khalid bin Saqr al Qasimi as a client after he was deposed as the deputy ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, a minor Emirate, in 2003. They crafted Al Gore's aggressive anti-Republican messaging when Gore ran against George W. Bush for President in 2000. And they massaged Madonna's image in relation to Kabbalah and her charity work in Africa.

The pair, having worked together in Washington, founded their firm Fabiani and Lehane in 2001 in California. Fabiani has been described by the LA Weekly as "by far the least irritating and more gentlemanly of the team". But when the firm represented the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers as the film studios fought striking screenwriters in 2007 and 2008, the picketers gave them the nickname: "Fibs and Liars."

Fabiani and Armstrong seem to have finally decided the genie is well and truly out of the bottle.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Fabiani was chief of staff to Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and was at his side in 1991 in the aftermath of the Rodney King beating and riots.

The Clintons were never prosecuted. Armstrong may end up with a similar playbook, but whether Fabiani's strategy will win the day again, only time will tell.

The interview:
Watch on Discovery Channel 3pm.

- Independent