Monday Morning Media Minute

Rosanne Gain of Colorado Springs sent me a link to a blog entry last week encouraging speakers not to emulate Barack Obama.  Not because he’s a bad speaker.  But because he’s good enough to get away with things the rest of us shouldn’t do.

“If Barack Obama is indeed elected President, he will turn out to be one of the most articulate Presidents ever,” says Blogger Jon Greer.

But, Greer notes: “Since he’s so articulate, he can get away with things other speakers can’t and shouldn’t try.”

That’s good advice when it comes to working with reporters, too.  Some people are better at pitching stories and doing interviews than others.  If you have a choice, pick the person who will do the best job of telling your story.  Sometimes that’s the CEO or the executive in charge of whatever your story is about.  But not always.

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

———

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.

Remember Sarah Palin?  The one running for vice president.

After delivering an acceptance speech that turned her into something of a political rock star, Palin’s largely disappeared from public and media view.  And the few interviews she’s done have been – to put it kindly – less than rousing successes.

From outside, it looks like the McCain campaign has put their VP candidate under wraps because they’re afraid she’s not ready to handle questions from the media.  Understandable at first since she hasn’t been on the national political stage before.  But at some point it becomes an issue.

I’ll leave it to you to make up your own mind about Palin and whether she should be talking more often to reporters.

But the media fortress that’s been built around her reminds me of a problem I see too often within companies and agencies who see themselves as besieged by a hostile media.  They simply quit talking to reporters except when they feel they have no choice.  And they go into the few interviews they do with a chip on their shoulder, assuming the reporter’s only there to do them harm.

The problem with this kind fortress mentality is that it fosters the kind of negative coverage it’s designed to protect against.

Some reporters do practice gotcha journalism.  Most don’t.  But reporters are human.  And, like all of us, they draw conclusions about the people they come in touch with based on how those people react around them.

Most of us assume that people who are constantly on the defensive have something to hide.  Reporters do, too.  And they’ll reflect that in the stories they write.  Most of us assume that people who defend the indefensible or say things that are misleading or untrue are untrustworthy.  Reporters do, too.  And they’ll reflect that in the stories they write.  And that’s the very behavior that seems to go with a fortress mentality when it comes to dealing with the media.

You don’t have to answer every question a reporter asks – or even agree to every interview.  But if you’re too evasive at some point it becomes an issue.  And if you have a chip on your shoulder every time you do an interview because you assume the reporter’s only out to “get” you, you’re not going to like most of the stories written about you.

Talking to reporters is different than talking to your neighbor.  You need to understand how to tell your story effectively and stay on message.  That’s one reason why good media training is so important.

But if you know the rules of engagement, have a solid story to tell and tell it clearly you’ll do just fine most of the time.  Or at least that’s been my experience.

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

———

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.

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?

Like what you read here? Then visit my eStore. It’s open for business. Buy early and often.