Monday Morning Media Minute

One of the most common mistakes people make when talking to reporters is trying to say too much. It happens in a couple ways:

Too many messages: If you have more than three messages for an interview, you’re not focused enough. You won’t get more than three messages into a story. Usually, you’ll be doing good to get one or two messages into the story. If you throw too many messages at a reporter, s/he may choose one of the ones you don’t care about. And no one, including the reporter, will remember them all. Say too much and your message will get lost.

You should have a primary message — your “headline” — and at most two secondary messages. Focus on your headline. That’s the one thing you want the reporter to hear if s/he misses or ignores everything else you say and the one thing you want people who see the story to hear, understand and remember.

Opening too many doors: I like to think of interviews as happening in a room with a lot of doors. Your job is to open the door that leads to your story. Every time you answer a question, you potentially open another door. If you open too many doors, the reporter may find a find a more interesting story behind one of them than the one you want to tell. Try not to open any doors except the one that leads to your story. Then make it interesting enough that the reporter will be willing to stay there.

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.

Preparation is the key to successful media interviews. That’s a message I’ve preached for years in media training and conversations with clients. But can you be over prepared? And, if so, what does that look like?

As I see it, the issue is being misprepared rather than over prepared. There was a time when I told media training clients that if a reporter asks you what day of the week it is, you shouldn’t just say it’s Monday; you should also work your message into your answer.

In fact, a lot of media trainers will tell you that. And sometimes you should. If you’re doing a one or two minute live broadcast interview, you need to get to your message right out of the starting gate or you probably won’t get to it at all.

Even if you’re doing a taped interview, you may only get one soundbite into the story. If that’s likely to happen, you’ll want to get your message into every answer, if you can, because only one of your answers — or part of one of your answers — will make it into the story.

But most of the time, there’s more give and take than that during an interview.

Being well prepared means you’ll be able to deliver your message clearly — and make it interesting enough to get into the story. But overselling your message can be as bad as not having a clear message. If you oversell your message, you’ll lose credibility and likeability. Instead of selling your message, you may have exactly the opposite effect. You’ll be like any other salesperson who doesn’t know when to back off.

So, be prepared to deliver your message whenever you can. But be realistic about it. And don’t oversell your story.

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

I’ve always thought of Tim Russert as a perfect example of why media training is so important.

Russert always prepared for his interviews. He prepared for Meet the Press by researching the positions of his guests and then taking the opposite side with his questions. His goal was to elicit information while pressing his guests hard enough to expose weaknesses or contradictions in their positions.

Successful media interviews come from good preparation — knowing what your message is and delivering it clearly enough to be heard, understood and remembered. You also have to know what your vulnerabilities are and how you’ll deal with them.

Tim Russert was an exceptional journalist. You won’t run into many like him. But if you prepare for a Tim Russert, you’ll be ready for whoever is asking the questions.

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?

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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.

Foot-in-mouth disease. It can hit anyone who talks to reporters.

Hillary Clinton fell victim to it last week with her now-infamous reference to RFK’s assassination.

The first news reports about Clinton’s comment made it sound like she was saying one reason for her to stay in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination is that Barack Obama might be assassinated. That’s not quite what she said, of course. But the damage had been done.

What do you do if you find yourself in a similar situation? That depends.

If your verbal faux pas will disappear from the media after a single news cycle, you may just want to take your lumps and move on — especially if anything you say will keep the story alive another day.

If the issue’s likely to stay in the news for more than one news cycle — or, if it’s serious enough that you feel an explanation is necessary — then you’ll probably want to do what Clinton did: Clarify what you meant (or acknowledge you made a mistake), apologize if appropriate and then move on.

Your objective: Limit the damage by limiting the amount of time the issue remains in the news.

Last week’s incident is also a good reminder that it’s important to be careful what you say around reporters. The best way to do that is to know what your message is before you talk to reporters and stick to it. Any time you answer a reporter’s question that you haven’t prepared for you run the risk of suffering from foot-in-mouth disease. So, think before speaking.

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?

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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. Want to read and comment on back issues of MMMM? Check out the MMMM blog.

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What this is: An idea you can read in a minute or so and use to make your interactions with the news media more successful. More Monday Morning Media Minutes.

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© 2008 Jerry Brown

Sometimes it’s a good idea to own up to a really bad mistake before your critics can point it out for you.

Like Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony’s assessment of his team’s embarrassing 102-84 loss Saturday to go 0-3 in their NBA playoff series with the Los Angeles Lakers: “We quit. Everybody. From the coaches to the players, we quit. And I said it.”

Anthony’s criticism of his team worked because it was undeniable and because he included himself: “I’m not blaming anyone. I’m not pointing the fingers at nobody. I didn’t play worth a damn . . . and I can accept that. But as a competitor, there’s no way that I should lay down and quit and lay down on my team like we did tonight . . . We all just gave up.’’

Contrast that with teammate Allen Iverson’s complaint about being pulled from the game early: “To not go back in, I don’t understand that. And (Coach George Karl) didn’t even say nothing to me even afterward . . . I played every game with a broken finger and all. I always came to play, every game we had. So why not tell me nothing?’’

Unlike Anthony, Iverson pointed the public finger of blame at his coach while ignoring his own lousy performance during the game. Iverson’s lucky that Anthony’s quotes got top billing in the media. His comment was divisive and made him look like a whiner. It would not have played well as the lead of the stories about the Nuggets loss.

Here’s the lesson for the rest of us. If you screw up in a way you know will be noticed (and sometimes when it wouldn’t be noticed), your best PR strategy may be to own up to it yourself before you critics do it for you. And almost always, pointing the finger of blame at yourself when it’s deserved will serve you better than trying to find someone else to pin the blame on.

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?

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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. Want to read and comment on back issues of MMMM? Check out the MMMM blog.

Senator Obama’s a brilliant orator. But he could use some media training.

I’m one of those who think the questions that dominated the first 45 minutes of last week’s debate between Obama and Hillary Clinton were silly and trivial. But, given the tenor of the coverage of the Democratic primary the last few weeks, they shouldn’t have come as any great surprise. And there wasn’t a single question on the list, silly as it was, that he shouldn’t have been able use as a bridge to talk about the things he wanted to talk about.

Obama made the mistake too many articulate professionals and executives make. They assume they can “wing” it when talking to reporters because they’re able to do that so much of the time.

Don’t make the same mistake – or allow anyone who talks to reporters on behalf of your organization to make it.

You can’t wait for reporters to ask the “right” questions to begin delivering your message. If you do, you may never get to your message.

That’s why I encourage everyone who talks to reporters to get media training – and regular refresher courses. Unless you talk to reporters often enough to keep your interviewing skills well honed, being media trained once isn’t enough.

Remember: The reporter’s in charge of the questions that get asked and the story that gets written. You’re in charge of your answers.

Obama was unhappy because he didn’t like the questions that were asked. But he wasn’t in charge of the questions. He was in charge of his answers. And he didn’t do a very good job of taking charge of his answers to deliver his message.

Don’t make the same mistake when you’re talking to reporters. Take the time to figure out what questions you’re likely to be asked, what your message is for the interview and how you’ll deliver it – even if the reporter doesn’t ask the “right” questions.

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?

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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.

Bill Clinton and Mitt Romney found themselves in confrontations with reporters last week. I’ve been there a few times myself. Maybe you have, too. It’s generally a bad idea. But not always.

Romney got into it with an AP reporter in South Carolina who challenged his claim that “I don’t have lobbyists running my campaign.” Clinton went after a TV reporter who suggested his wife’s campaign was behind a lawsuit by the Nevada teachers’ union concerning participation in the state’s political caucuses.

When he’s on, nobody’s better at telling his story than Clinton. But he’s been tangling with reporters a lot recently – enough so that some other prominent Democrats and people connected with his wife’s campaign are urging him to chill out a bit. That’s good advice.

One of the most common mistakes people make with reporters is developing a fortress mentality because they assume reporters are out to get them. It can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You don’t have to like the reporters who are covering you. But you do have to work with them. That doesn’t mean you should ignore mistakes or biases by reporters. But picking fights whenever they ask a question you don’t like – as Clinton did in this case – is asking for bad coverage.

Romney made a different mistake. The reporter who challenged his no-lobbyists-running-my-campaign claim injected his own point of view into their exchange. But Romney would have been better off moving on instead of engaging in a debate. The exchange was captured on video and played on TV. And it was pretty clear by the time it was done that Romney was making a distinction that won’t matter in the minds of many. The fact is he has several lobbyists serving as high-level advisers, although they’re not “running” the campaign.

Here’s the bottom line: You’re entitled to express your point of view, whether reporters agree with it or not. You’re also entitled to point out mistakes to reporters. And you’re entitled to defend yourself against unfair accusations.

But, with some exceptions, you’re almost always better off staying factual and avoiding emotional, heated exchanges. You won’t win those. And, when all is said and done, the reporter’s the one who writes the story.

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?

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An update to last week’s MMMM, thanks to several readers. Here’s what I said:

Huckabee’s answer was characterized by several pundits as evidence he doesn’t know enough about foreign affairs to be president – although I didn’t see anyone challenging the accuracy of his comment about the number Pakistani’s sneaking into our country. I have no idea if he’s right.

Well, it turns out Huckabee got it wrong, very wrong — as Steve Lang points out in the comment he posted on the MMMM Blog and as several others pointed out in e-mails to me. Thank you all.

Here’s a link showing the real figures, provided by Jonathan Bernstein of Bernstein Crisis Management.

Here’s the bottom line: Assuming he doesn’t know enough about what’s happening in Pakistan to comment intelligently on the situation there, Huckabee did the right thing by changing the subject. But he blew it by making up an answer that wasn’t even close to being true. And I should have done a little more research so I could have called him on the inaccuracy the first time around.

– Jerry

I’m back. I hope your Christmas or whatever you celebrate was as good as mine. And let me be among the last this season to wish you a happy new year.

A couple thoughts about the presidential campaigns. No, not a prediction. That’s way above my pay grade. Instead I want to focus on a couple comments by my fellow Arkansas natives Chelsea Clinton and Mike Huckabee.

Chelsea took some heat over the holidays for refusing to answer a question from a “kid reporter” in Iowa. She was quoted as telling nine-year-old Sydney Rieckhoff: “I’m sorry, I don’t talk to the press and that applies to you, unfortunately, even though I think you’re cute.”

AP carried the story, with a lead kicking Chelsea in the shins: “It’s one thing for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign to turn down interview requests for the candidate’s daughter, Chelsea. But can’t a 9-year-old reporter catch a break?” CNN took a similar tack.

Like the other candidates, Huckabee found himself being asked about the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Unlike the other candidates, he responded by talking about illegal immigration in the United States.

“The fact is the immigration issue is not so much about people coming to pick lettuce or make beds,” Huckabee told reporters. “It’s about people that can come with a shoulder-fired missile and can do serious damage and harm to us.” He went on to claim “more Pakistani illegals (are) coming across our border than all other nationalities, except those immediately south of the border, and in light of what’s happening in Pakistan, it ought to give us pause.”

Huckabee’s answer was characterized by several pundits as evidence he doesn’t know enough about foreign affairs to be president — although I didn’t see anyone challenging the accuracy of his comment about the number Pakistani’s sneaking into our country. I have no idea if he’s right.

The answers by Clinton and Huckabee weren’t perfect. But I think both of them did more or less the right thing.

Chelsea’s clearly been told not to talk to reporters. I know a lot of executives and others who would do well to demonstrate the kind of discipline she did. I’m not advocating people avoid reporters. Far from it. But you don’t have to respond just because a reporter asks you a question.

As for Huckabee, let’s say the pundits were right, which may or may not be true. Not responding to the question about Bhutto’s assassination wasn’t a realistic option for him. If he really doesn’t know enough about Pakistan to comment on what’s happening there then wading into that thicket by winging it would be dangerous indeed. So, he changed the subject to talk about somethinghe knows about. Good for him.

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours?

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If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve already figured out the Monday Morning Media Minute is now a blog. I hope you’ll offer up a comment or two from time to time. I’ve also added a second blog, Jerry’s Two Cents’ Worth, also available through my website. How will it differ from MMMM? I don’t know yet. We’ll find out together.