Rob Ford is on his way to becoming a one-term mayor. And one of the biggest reasons he'll lose any future election bid is his staggeringly awful handing of the media. Mayor Ford has shown on numerous occasions that he has little time or respect for the media (outside...
Read MoreLove it or hate it, American Idol has introduced the music-buying public to some very talented performers that, but for the show, might have remained in obscurity forever. At the same time, however, the popular show has served as a venue for some of the most hideous, offensive musical disasters ever to be seen on television...
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What's your 'must-have' tool when preparing yourself or a client for an important media interview? A laptop? iPad? BlackBerry? Skype? Video camera? As much as I love gadgets (and I do love my gadgets), I would gladly forsake all of these for the lowly index card...
Read MoreYou've finally lined up a media interview with that influential reporter you've been after for months. Rather than doing the interview over the phone, however, one of you suggests meeting for lunch (I've seen both clients and journalists initiate this idea). Great idea, right?
Read MoreMany spokespeople treat a media interview like a job interview. They sit there passively like a job applicant while the reporter asks question after question after question. The person being interviewed is like a human piñata, getting whacked with questions for 10, 15, even 20 minutes at a time. The result?
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Last November, Christine O'Donnell gave late-night talk show hosts a gift in her 'response to accusations of witchcraft' TV spot. Yesterday, she reinforced her inability to handle the media by walking out of an on-camera interview with CNN's Piers Morgan...
Read MoreIt seems the Mayor of Orillia, a city here in Ontario, has had enough of those bothersome phone calls from the media. Mayor Angelo Orsi announced yesterday that he is no longer accepting phone calls from the media. A memo from the mayor's office to the media stated that "all media questions are required to be in writing and e-mailed to Orsi". His rationale for the move? "This approach helps me keep track...
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In our media training sessions, we tell participants that 90% of the success of a media interview is determined before the reporter asks their first question. It's in the homework you do to prepare for the interview. It's finding out the focus of the interview, researching the reporter's past stories on the topic, developing strong key messages and anticipating the questions you'll be asked (especially the 2-3 nightmare questions you hope you never get asked).
Recently, we told you about the social media campaign we started to get former NHL
coach Pat Burns inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010 (Burns has
terminal lung cancer). Over the course of a few weeks, more than 70,000
people joined the group, helping to generate extensive media coverage
for the cause.
A big thanks goes out to all of the reporters across North America who supported this campaign from its earliest days and who took the HHOF to task for this bewildering error in judgment. I owe each of you a cold beer. Email me if you'd like to collect.
Burns
will be inducted some day. But instead of making the speech himself, it
will likely be his wife or one of his children. That's a shame. The HHOF missed a great opportunity to do the
right thing for one of their own. Here's hoping the former coach is
still with us in 2011 when we try again.
* * *
Note: This story is taken from our 'Manage your Message' e-newsletter. To get your own copy sent to your inbox each month, sign up here.
Preparation is the key to success for any media interview - whether you're being interviewed by Peter Mansbridge or the kid next door. Recently, high school student Keith Wagner interviewed Arizona State Senator John Huppenthal. During the interview...
Quick follow up to yesterday's post about the brain surgeon who attacked Don Cherry as a way to get his story about head injuries in hockey in the media. It has only been one day but the payback has started to roll in. Check out Bruce Dowbiggin's story today in The Globe and Mail.
And this link has an audio clip of Don Cherry refusing to do a radio interview on the topic. Warning - multiple expletives....
Coach's Corner should be more entertaining than usual this Saturday night.
Read MoreA Toronto brain surgeon has used a tried and true PR technique to get his story on the front page of one of Canada's national newspapers. And good for him. But you can rest assured the other shoe will drop this Saturday night.
On A1 of the National Post, there's a story titled 'A shot at Don Cherry'. At its core, this is a story about hits to the head and concussions in the game of hockey. In this case, the messenger is Dr. Charles Tator. His story is an important one. He's calling for the sport to better protect its players from hits to the head, which may lead to devastating long-term health effects.
And while the story might be important, it's also boring. Few journalists will feel compelled to write a story about something that has been happening in a sport for decades, and which may cause negative health effects years down the road.
To make a story like this appealing to a reporter, Dr. Tator had to hang it on one (or more) of the three drivers of news: change, controversy or human interest. He chose controversy, opting to attack one of hockey's most recognizable personalities, Don Cherry.
"I think he (Don Cherry) is a negative influence because he applauds aggressive hockey," Dr. Tator is quoted as saying in the article.
The tactic worked. A story pitch that should have ended up in the 'deleted items' file instead wound up on the front page and will surely generate coverage in radio and TV throughout Canada this week. Given that he is a brain surgeon (let's face it, there's a certain degree of intelligence implied), Dr. Tator is undoubtedly aware that he will be in Mr. Cherry's crosshairs at approximately 8:00 pm this Saturday night during Cherry's 'Coach's Corner' segment on Hockey Night in Canada.
Don Cherry does like aggressive hockey. But he also preaches the need for a return to the type of respect that players had for one another in the good ol' days. Cherry has long been a supporter of safe play in the game of hockey. He is the driving force behind the 'STOP' decal program that gets young children to think twice before hitting another player from behind.
Dr. Tator refers to these efforts as "window-dressing" that won't lead to a cultural shift.
If the good doctor wanted to truly effect change in the way the game is played, he might have been better served to call NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to the carpet. In this case, however, he simply wanted to get his story on the front page. And by taking a pot shot at one of Canada's most popular and beloved senior citizens, he has succeeded. But there is a price to pay for draping your boring story in controversy at someone else's expense. We'll just have to tune in to Coach's Corner this Saturday Night to see what that price is.
Read MoreIn his column in the Globe and Mail this morning, Rick Salutin reveals a serious bias against the PR industry. What's that, you say? A reporter who's got an axe to grind against PR?
Everyone (particularly a newspaper columnist, who's paid to fan the flames of controversy) is entitled to his/her opinion. On that note, here's mine. This column is an unwarranted cheap shot at the PR profession.
Salutin uses the Michael Bryant affair as his platform (the recent case in which a former Ontario politician, in the car with his wife, was involved in an altercation with a bike courier which resulted in the courier's death). After noting that the media coverage of the event has served the public well, Salutin writes, "But there's one element that irritates me severely. It's the presence, since very early, of a public-relations firm aiding Mr. Bryant."
The rest of the column doesn't seem to have a clear point. It just rehashes journalism's old disdain for PR. He also suggests that the other problem at play is that many journalism grads end up in public relations. And that a "depressing quantity of news stories, especially in areas such as medicine, now come from well-produced PR packages sent on behalf of pharmaceutical firms and the like."
He bemoans the fact that PR people "may put words in client's mouths, vet their ideas and advise on whether to speak at all".
Is this guy for real? Salutin has been at this game a long time. His feigned naivete on the role of PR comes off more like a columnist's device than genuine concern. If a prominent public figure gets tangled up in a situation like Bryant did recently, their first two phone calls should be to their lawyer and a PR firm. The man's career, reputation and freedom are on the line. And given the media's love of 'David versus Goliath' stories, the bicycle courier starts out as the clear favourite in the court of public opinion, even though the truth has yet to emerge. Bryant likely has a million things going through his mind. Hiring experienced professionals for council on how to handle his one shot when the TV cameras are shoved in his face is not shocking, insulting, or devious. It's common sense. And if Salutin happened to be the unfortunate individual in the car that night, I'll bet he would have the Globe and Mail's PR firm (that's right, the Globe and Mail has a PR firm) on speed dial - pronto.
Read MoreEarlier this week, Danny Williams (Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador) called into a live radio show and got into a testy exchange with host Randy Simms. Williams called in specifically to criticize Simms for being 'too negative', just hours after the announcement of the approval of a multi-billion dollar offshore oil project.
Williams was apparently angered when the host asked what the Premier was going to do for the province's troubled forestry and fishing industries.
"It's irresponsible and reckless," Williams told Simms on air. "We don't need that kind of crap and pessimism coming out of your mouth. I refuse to listen to pessimists like you and we are going to move forward despite you."
The call ended with Williams hanging up on Simms.
This on-air blowup is getting a lot of play in the Canadian media. It also defeats one of the most basic principles of conducting effective media interviews: "Never get into an argument with a reporter." Not only did Williams get into an argument, he made a special phone call specifically to get into an argument with the on air host.
