The Media Interview

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 [...]

A good reminder from Pam Perry on the PR Distinction blog: taking media training does not mean you don’t have to prepare for each interview. She uses the analogy of exercise, which I’d like to apply in my own way here. Suppose that you learn a series of exercises to help you stretch before running. [...]

The worlds of US politics and journalism are still reeling from the sudden death on Friday of Meet the Press host Tim Russert. The 58 year old Washington bureau chief for NBC news had just finished taping The Tim Russert Show for CNBC and was working on voice-overs for Sunday’s Meet the Press when he [...]

Part of a posting by Alex Zuffoletti, a graduate student in journalism, about her class’s trip to the IMG/Bollettieri Academy, which trains high-level athletes: one talk that I did enjoy was with these two former actors. They led the “game on” aspect of the program, which basically teaches sports stars, or wannabe sports stars, to [...]

Wrestler Chris Jericho was on Fight Network Radio recently to talk about his new autobiography, A Lion’s Tale. I loved his response when asked if he was “sick of media interviews yet”: I’m happy to talk to anybody. I just did an interview with a fourteen-year-old kid that has his own website. And yesterday I [...]

Having finished a confrontational radio interview, Lowell Massachusetts school committee member, Jackie Doherty attends a breakfast meeting and is introduced to one of the radio station’s owners: We talked about whether radio had to be nasty to attract listeners. He said you can have “provocative” radio without being overly negative (wouldn’t that be something). The [...]

It always pays to know at least a bit about the reporter, the show, the blog, the station, etc. before you go into an interview. Here’s how internet marketing expert David Erickson prepped for a recent radio interview: Considering the topic, I did some online research about her and learned a great deal about the [...]

Finally got to see the much-talked-about Paris Hilton interview on Letterman last week. I’m no fan of Hilton’s public persona, but I felt for her to a certain extent. Letterman starts in with questions about her stay in prison, and never ever lets up. Even after 4 minutes, when Hilton says she doesn’t want to [...]

Anyone who’s been on a long media tour or simply didn’t get enough sleep before an interview will really feel for Israeli President, Shimon Peres, as he literally nods off on live TV.

Author Carolyn Hughley is doing her first TV interview in the morning and she’s having a bit of trouble sleeping… I crawled back out of bed and headed to the bathroom to take two sleep aids, thinking they might help. I no sooner swallowed that last pill when I suddenly began worrying that I’d sleep [...]