Christine O'Donnell breaks 3 media relations rules in 60 seconds

Last November, Christine O'Donnell gave late-night talk show hosts a gift in her 'response to accusations of witchcraft' TV spot (which I addressed in this blog post). Yesterday, she reinforced her inability to handle the media by walking out of an on-camera interview with CNN's Piers Morgan.

O'Donnell was on the show to promote her new book, Troublemaker. But while she was happy to receive the free publicity, she clearly wasn't interested in answering any of Morgan's questions. The host quizzed her on a number of topics, including last year's 'witchcraft' flap. The question that made O'Donnell snap, however, was about her stance on gay marriage. By that point, she was becoming visibly frustrated and had accused Morgan of being "a little bit rude". She then looked to her PR handlers and bailed out of the interview, saying "I'm being pulled away...we turned down another interview for this." One of her people then stands in front of the camera to obstruct the view. Then, O'Donnell takes off her microphone and leaves.

The most revealing part of the interview occured just before O'Donnell pulled the plug, when she said to Morgan, "Don't you think as a host if I say 'This is what I want to talk about', that's what we should address?"

So...in less than 60 seconds, O'Donnell managed to break three important media relations rules:

1. She told the reporter how to do his job ("This is what I want to talk about"),

2. She attacked the reporter ("You're being a little bit rude"), and

3. She walked out of an on-camera interview.

If you haven't seen it yet, you can view the clip of her walk-off here.