Monday Morning Media Minute

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.

Some years ago a very successful and seasoned product publicist regaled me one afternoon with stories about some of the biggest successes — and a couple notable disasters — of his long career.

His point: He had made many good products more successful by raising their visibility with the media and the buying public.

But raising the visibility for products that flopped made the failures all the more painful because everyone was watching. There’s nothing worse than falling flat on center stage with a sellout audience.

Hillary Clinton has gotten two lessons along these lines in the past few weeks.

Her 3 a.m. ad was remarkable for breaking through the clutter of the campaign rhetoric. It got noticed in a big way. Even so, I think it probably hurt her at least as much as it helped.

Barack Obama responded quickly with his own version of the ad, which appeared to be as successful as hers. And cartoonists and comedians had a field day with Hillary’s ad – a lot of them recalling the sexual escapades of her husband.

In the end, I’m not sure America’s answer to who we would want to answer that call at 3 a.m. was as heavily weighted in Hillary’s favor as she had hoped.

And her relentless effort to position herself as the candidate with “experience” — the point of the 3 a.m. ad — backfired in a big way more recently when it became clear she’s been lying in describing how she came under fire in Bosnia. Because of network videotape footage showing just how far her version was from what happened, the Bosnia story always had the potential to blow up in Hillary’s face.

But in the wake of the 3 a.m. ad and Hillary’s strong reliance on experience as a key message, the Bosnia story got more visibility than it might have otherwise. And it did more damage.

The moral of the story? We all want to promote our stories. But it’s important to know when you have a story that will help you and when you have one that may do you harm. If the latter is true, you may want to think twice before telling your story. Sometimes silence is a valuable tool for public relations professionals and our clients.

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.

It’s good to have friends who can help tell your story and support your case.

Eliot Spitzer learned that lesson the hard way: He didn’t have any when he needed them.

Would Spitzer have kept his job if he had more political friends? Hard to say. But he would have had a better chance of surviving or, at least, leaving office with more of his dignity intact – and a better chance of making a comeback someday.

The lesson for the rest of us? Make friends, even when you’re in a strong position. If you make friends when you don’t need them, they’re more likely to help you when you do. And failing to make friends because you don’t think you need them means the smallest stumble can be fatal.

One good thing about having friends is that, often, they can tell your story or advocate your case in ways you can’t. But pay attention to what they’re saying on your behalf.

Several of the presidential candidates have learned that lesson during the campaign. Nearly all of them have experienced friends or spouses saying things that hurt or embarrassed them.

Last week’s incident with Geraldine Ferraro saying Barack Obama “would not have made it this far if he was a white man” is particularly intriguing. It’s either a good example of using a third-party to deliver a message you can’t deliver on your own or a case of a friend doing damage by speaking out of turn.

Was Ferraro acting with the approval or even at the suggestion of the Clinton campaign to say out loud what many blue collar white voters in Pennsylvania feel? Was the Clinton campaign using her to play a race card Hillary couldn’t do on her own?

Or did Ferraro step out of line and inadvertently embarrass her candidate? If so, she certainly wasn’t in any hurry to stop the damage. She kept the story alive at least one day longer than it would have lasted on its own by continuing to defend her comment during repeated TV appearances even after Clinton had “repudiated” it and Ferraro had resigned from Clinton’s Finance Committee.

Either Clinton was making use of Ferraro in a very calculated and cynical way to play a race card she couldn’t do on her own or Ferraro was freelancing in a way that was simply out of bounds for a third-party advocate. Either way, what she did is a good example of the power and limits of using third-party advocates. If they stay on message, they can be very useful; if they get off message, they can do a lot of damage.

Make as many friends as you can. Use them, when appropriate, to help tell your story. But pay attention to what they say.

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 and Hillary Clinton appear to have made a major miscalculation last week. They oversold their “feud” with Barack Obama. And they did it in a way that didn’t play well with their audience.

That’s my take on the lopsided results for Saturday’s vote in South Carolina. Will it hurt Hillary’s campaign beyond South Carolina? I have no idea.

Here’s the bottom line for you and me. We all want to sell our stories. But “overselling” them is a mistake that can actually do you harm.

Push too hard on a story that doesn’t interest reporters and they’ll see you as a nuisance. Push too hard on a story that doesn’t interest reporters and that they don’t believe is true and they’ll see you as dishonest. And that means you’ll lose their trust.

The Clintons oversold a story that made them look dishonest. Don’t replicate their mistake.

That’s my two cents’ worth. What’s yours? — Jerry Brown

There’s an old rule in journalism:  Don’t get ahead of the story.

Reporters and pundits covering the New Hampshire primary last week forgot that rule in spades with stories before and during Tuesday’s voting giving Barack Obama a double-digit victory and suggesting Hillary Clinton’s campaign was in trouble – or done.

One problem for the pundits:  The voters didn’t do what they were “supposed” to.

Blame it on the pollsters, if you want.  Many of the pundits who got ahead of the story will do just that.  And the pollsters clearly got it wrong.

But poll results notwithstanding, the journalists got it wrong, too.  They got ahead of the story by assuming the polls were the final word on what would happen.  They weren’t.

You can’t keep reporters from getting ahead of the story when they’re covering you.  But you can avoid getting ahead of the story yourself.  No matter how sure you are of what’s going to happen, making predictions is risky business.  If you get it wrong on a story that’s generating news, reporters will remind you and everyone else of your mistake.

And when reporters get ahead of the story?  They’ll look for someone else to blame.  If they got ahead of the story by following your lead, guess who that’ll be.

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