Learn English – “be out in front of” What does it mean

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The movie Michael Clayton has a line:

Michael Clayton: OK. Look, it's very simple. Arthur has a chemical imbalance. He's fallen behind on his medication. He's back on the mend. He's gonna be fine. Now, I wanna make this crystal clear. What happened here stays in this room. This is not information that you wanna be out in front of. Anybody has a problem with that, I need to know right now.

How can one be out in front of a piece of information? The phrase appears to mean "to leak," but I haven't found anything online that shows it is idiomatic. Is this idiomatic language?

Best Answer

In the context of public relations, to be out in front of something nasty or unsavory is to deal with it in the media proactively rather than reactively. By not waiting to respond but taking the initiative, the goal is to define the "narrative" to one's own advantage in order to limit the damage.

Here's a "narrative":

Arthur has a chemical imbalance. He's fallen behind on his medication. He's back on the mend. He's gonna be fine.

Here's an example:

The congressman has had sexual relations with a chimpanzee. We have to get out in front of the story. The lab was dark. The chimp knew sign language. The hearing impaired don't want to be treated like they're different.

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