The Media Interview

Being prepared for a crisis situation is important for any organization, but in the case of nonprofits, it can be particularly vital. That’s because nonprofits often have a constantly fluctuating staff, low budgets for handling emergencies, and a crisis situation is one of the few ways to get in front of the media. Training an [...]

As I started to watch yesterday’s much talked about interview with Billy Bob Thornton and the Boxmasters on CBC Radio out of Toronto, I thought we were in for another Sigur Ros or Joaquin Phoenix stunt, when the interviewee simply clams up. Then, as host Jian Ghomeshi asked about Billy Bob’s musical influences growing up, [...]

Being the first standing US president to appear on a TV talk show has its rewards and its dangers.  The danger came in the form of an inappropriate remark about the Special Oympics which drew immediate criticism.  The reward came in the form of a lengthy, often substantive interview worthy of the Newshour watched by [...]

Bobby Jindal quoted by Stephanie Grace one month before his badly-delivered response to President Obama’s speech to Congress on February 24, 2009: Jindal said that, in effect, the GOP should stop fretting over the identity of its next standard bearer. “We have to not worry about the messenger, ” he said, “and start focusing on [...]

I was blogging about the use of Skype to economically bring in anyone to a satellite interview. Then the question is, who do you bring in? Sadly, it’s being used right now to bring us yet another “voice of the people.” Instead of bringing in more and diverse experts, we’re Skyping anybody who’s got a [...]

My neighbour is running for city councillor and his wife was telling me about the first all-candidates meeting he attended. She was shocked at how little things get magnified when you’re in the public eye. For instance, while her husband was listening to other candidates, he was grimacing and frowning, and she realized how that [...]

Dealing with the editing of media interviews is never an easy question. Take this post from a conservative blogger’s take on what happened to Alaskan governor Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential race: Her campaign staff fumbled her introduction to the nation. Her initial interviews were cut by hostile editors in order to make her [...]

In the final hours of the 2008 presidential election, third-party candidate Ralph Nader held a press conference at which he would only reply to questions with single-word answers. MSNBC.com’s Bob Sullivan reported the encounter at Washington’s National Press Club this way: The stilted question-and-answer session felt at times like a bad game of “Jeopardy.” Reporters [...]

If you have to cough or sneeze in the middle of an answer, or a loud truck rolls by in mid-sentence, it’s important that you be able to start again so that they have a complete sentence to edit. You also need to make it sound like you’re doing it for the first time. Pittsburgh [...]

There are three possible explanations for GOP Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s poor showing in her first two major media interviews: 1) she is receiving no media coaching 2) she’s receiving very poor media coaching or 3) she’s receiving good media coaching and is not yet able to implement it. What is even more startling than [...]