Lynn Espinoza is a broadcast news veteran with more than a decade of media, presentation and executive coaching experience. She has developed personal coaching sessions for Fortune 100 C-level executives, corporate communicators of all kinds, doctors, lawyers and leaders in non-profit.
Media Training Tip #1 - You are NEVER Off the Record
Posted on July 9, 2008. Filed under: Latest News
It’s spreading faster than the California wildfires this afternoon. Disparaging remarks made by Jesse Jackson about Senator Barack Obama. Reverend Jackson believed an interview was over, and the microphones were off. As is so often the case, Jackson was right on only one count. The interview was officially over. Jackson’s apology is plastered everywhere, but the damage is done.
Particularly problematic is that Jackson is a democratic firebrand, and the insult was picked up by a Fox News microphone. You would think that after decades of media exposure, and dozens of caught-on-tape Jesse Jackson faux paus, that he would know better.
This post serves as my formal invitation to Reverend Jackson to attend my next Speak! Communications Media Training session. He will learn:
Media Training Tip #1 - You are NEVER off the record!
- If you are dealing with broadcast, consider the camera ON and the microphone HOT until you see the reporter and crew leave the building.
- If you are dealing with print, you are on the record until the reporter is well out of earshot. I mean unquestionably out of earshot. (Another tip: Reporters tend to have exceptional hearing).
- As too many executives and other interviewees have learned - even if you ask to be off the record, that doesn’t guarantee you will be.
- When the reporter is ‘warming you up’ with casual conversation and niceties - consider that you are on the record. This can be the most dangerous part of the encounter, because you are more relaxed and your guard is down. Reporters know that.
- When the reporter says, “that’s the end of our interview”, that doesn’t mean the reporter won’t print anything you say after that. Again, your guard is down.
Whether or not Jackson’s guard was down, or he intended to do collatoral damage, will be debated for a few more news cycles. Regardless, don’t let it happen to you.
I have a call into Jackson’s “people” to see about scheduling that training session.
One Response to “Media Training Tip #1 - You are NEVER Off the Record”
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In addition to my good hearing, I’m also clairvoyant.
*just kidding*