Monday Morning Media Minute

Interviews are the most important tool for telling your story to the media.  And the most dangerous.  For the past few weeks, I’ve been discussing some of the most common mistakes people make during interviews.  Here’s a list summarizing eight of the most common ones:

1. Being unprepared:  Without question, the most common mistake people make when talking to reporters.  Sometimes it’s because they’re overconfident – executives who are good speakers and think they can wing it, for example.  Sometimes it comes from not realizing the importance of being prepared.  And sometimes it happens because the person being interviewed doesn’t know what s/he wants to say.  You should know what your objective is (why you’re talking to the reporter), who your audience is and what your message is before beginning any interview.
2. Overselling the story:  Reporters interview people every day who oversell their stories by being too optimistic and refusing to acknowledge obvious problems.  Think about the people you know who do that when talking to you.  You don’t believe them.  Reporters won’t believe you, either, if you oversell your story.  Do it too often and your credibility will be ruined for good.
3. Saying too much:  If you have more than three messages (including one primary one) for any given interview, you aren’t focused enough.  Throw too many messages at a reporter and the one you care about may not be the one that ends up in the story.  And failing to stick to your message is a formula for saying things you shouldn’t.
4. Saying too little:  There are times when it’s perfectly okay to remain silent when reporters want to talk to you. But when the public health and safety are at stake, you’ll be expected to disclose information and answer reporters’ questions.  The stronger reporters and the public feel that you owe them an answer, the more likely you are to pay a price for remaining silent or limiting what you say.
5. Speaking hypothetically:  Reporters love to ask hypothetical questions to get people to say more than they should.  Any time a reporter asks you a question that includes a variation of “what if,” alarm bells should go off in your head.  Don’t speculate or respond to the hypothetical scenario described by the reporter.  Stick to facts you know.
6. No line in the sand:  If you change your position on a topic or situation to fit what’s convenient on any given day reporters will learn to distrust you.  Be consistent in speaking your truth, even if that feels inconvenient at times.
7. Being combative:  We’ve all seen news stories where the person being interviewed becomes angry and argumentative.  Have you ever seen one where the person being combative won the argument?  Me, neither.
8. Being dishonest:  As obvious as it is, it requires repeating.  You’re entitled to a point of view and to make the case for your point of view.  Most reporters won’t fault you for that.  They will fault you for being dishonest.  Being dishonest includes being misleading by saying something that may be “true” but is designed to mislead.  One lie can destroy your credibility forever.

That’s my two cents’ worth.  What’s yours?  Next week:  More mistakes people make during interviews.

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The Monday Morning Media Minute is now available as an eBook.  My eStore features five eBooks based on the Media Minute.  To check them out, visit my eStore and buy early and often.  The eBooks come as PDF files.  You don’t need special eBook software to read them.

Don’t let the facts get in the way of your story.

Every good storyteller follows this rule.  So should you.  No, I’m not suggesting you play fast and loose with the truth.  Far from it.

This is about boiling your story down to its essence.

You don’t memorize the morning newspaper or the evening news.  Your audience won’t memorize what you say, either.

One of the most common mistakes people make when talking to reporters is sharing too much information.  Most of the time, too many details will blur your message — the real nuggets of what you have to say.

Assume reporters will ignore 98 percent of what you say and everyone else will forget 98 percent of what you say.  Focus on the two percent that matters.

That’s my two cents’ worth.  What’s yours?  Next week:  More mistakes people make during interviews.

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The Monday Morning Media Minute is now available as an eBook.  My new eStore features five eBooks based on the Media Minute.  To check them out, visit my eStore and buy early and often.  The eBooks come as PDF files.  You don’t need special eBook software to read them.

What if you could rule the universe for a day, with your every whim coming true? Would you end world poverty? Bring peace to the Middle East? Give yourself a trillion dollars? All that and more?

A fun parlor game, perhaps. But if it’s a question from a reporter, beware. Any time a reporter asks you any question with “what if” or some variation in it an alarm bell should go off in your head.

Reporters use hypothetical questions a lot. Almost always, they do it to get people to say things they wouldn’t — and shouldn’t — say otherwise.

The problem? A reporter can ask a hypothetical question in a way that the only logical answer is the one s/he wants you give: “If the toxic chemicals stored in your building got into that river over there, would that be bad for people living downstream in Podunk?” Well, yes it would. And if you answer the question as asked to say there’s a hypothetical threat you may find yourself being quoted as saying the chemicals stored in your building are a real threat to people living in Podunk – even if you know there’s no way those chemicals can get into that river and there’s no real threat.

Reporters on deadline frequently ask hypothetical questions during the early stages of a breaking story when there are few hard facts available. They need to write a story or go on the air with a live report. That’s hard to do if you don’t have anything to say. So, they look for someone who’ll speculate. If the speculation turns out to be wrong, it’s your mistake — not theirs.

Here’s my recommendation: Don’t answer hypothetical questions. If a reporter asks you a hypothetical question, either tell the reporter you can’t speculate on hypothetical situations or restrict your answer to what you know — even if that’s little or nothing. And stand your ground. It’s almost always a mistake to speculate for the benefit of reporters looking for a story.

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours? Next week: More mistakes people make during interviews.

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The Monday Morning Media Minute is now available as an eBook. My new eStore features five eBooks based on the Media Minute. To check them out, visit my eStore and buy early and often. The eBooks come as PDF files. You don’t need special eBook software to read them.

Just as you can say too much when talking to reporters (see last week’s Media Minute), you can also say too little.

There are times when you don’t want to say anything. And, despite some media trainers who claim you should never say “no comment,” sometimes no comment is a perfectly acceptable answer. In fact, sometimes it’s your only sensible answer.

Reporters are fond of referring to the “public’s right to know.” And serving our collective right to know is what makes being a reporter a worthy profession. But the public doesn’t always have a right to know.

For example, if you work for a company with publicly traded stock, you can’t give previously undisclosed material information to a reporter without issuing a news release disclosing the same information to everyone else. Some information’s private – personal medical information and personnel information, for example. Some information’s propriety. And some things simply aren’t anyone else’s business.

If it’s okay to say nothing, how can you say too little?

There’s a simple rule of thumb I’ve found works almost every time: How strongly will reporters and the people who see their stories feel that you owe them a response? The stronger they’ll feel about that, the more likely you are to pay a price for remaining silent or limiting what you say.

If the public health and safety are at stake, you’ll be expected to respond to reporters’ questions – or even volunteer information without being asked. And you’ll be expected to tell everything you know if it’s information the rest of us believe we need to know it.

Another rule of thumb: Answer a reporter’s question unless you have a legitimate reason not to – it’s propriety or private, for example. And it’s generally a good idea to give your reason for not responding if you’re not going to answer the question.

That my two cents’ worth. What’s yours? Next week: More mistakes people make during interviews.

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The Monday Morning Media Minute is now available as an eBook. My new eStore features five eBooks based on the Media Minute. To check them out, visit my eStore and buy early and often. The eBooks come as PDF files. You don’t need special eBook software to read them.