We often find at the start of our media training courses that delegates have a fear of saying the wrong thing, being asked something they don’t know or being made to look silly when they are put in front of the cameras.
These are all perfectly natural fears.
And they are especially easy to understand if you consider that one spokesperson found an interview she had given several years ago suddenly resurface after she was promoted last week.
As soon as Suella Braverman had been appointed as the new Attorney General in the unprecedented cabinet reshuffle, people rushed to social media to post clips of an interview she gave in 2017.
And those posts were not exactly complimentary about her performance on Channel 4 News
I’ll be honest, it was an interview I hadn’t seen before, but having watched it now, I can see why it stuck in the memory for some.
Ms Braverman was speaking about her role in the pro-Brexit group within the Conservative Party, known as the European Research Group (ERG), when then wheels began to fall off.
Presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy wanted to know how many ministers were in the group which used public money to fund its research.
Here is the key exchange:
Guru-Murthy: How many ministers are in it?
Braverman: I’m not going to say how many Government ministers are in it because it is…”
Guru-Murthy: It is a secret society is it?
Braverman: It is not a secret society, it is…
Guru-Murthy: So why won’t you say how many ministers are in it?
Braverman: It is a group of MPS who have supported the Government to deliver a Brexit which works for everybody…
Guru-Murthy: So why can’t you tell us who is in it? We pay for it we ought to know who is in it.
Braverman: It is a group of MPS who are committed to support the government’s agenda…
And so it went on, with Ms Braverman insisting that the list of members was on the public record but refusing to say who or how many.
Has there ever been a funnier TV interview than the actual new attorney general attempting to describe the group that she at one point chaired pic.twitter.com/sm8U30aflF
— Alan White (@aljwhite) February 14, 2020
Has there ever been a funnier TV interview than the actual new attorney general attempting to describe the group that she at one point chaired pic.twitter.com/sm8U30aflF
— Alan White (@aljwhite) February 14, 2020
New attorney general Suella Braverman gave this car crash Brexit interview and people are making sure we never forget https://t.co/YLxbi3P80m
— The Independent (@Independent) February 15, 2020
Now there are clear media training lessons here, notably the attempts to ignore the question being asked and repeating the journalist’s negative language.
But do spokespeople need to fear interviews they have given in the past coming back to haunt them?
Well, if you are a politician then the answer is yes. This isn’t the first time an interview with a high-profile politician has suddenly resurfaced on social media sometime later.
A similar thing happened with Liz Truss last August when an interview she had given to LBC five months earlier (an interview we had featured in this media training blog) went viral again.
But this should not put off other spokespeople from giving interviews, because away from the divided and heavily scrutinised political world, it takes a real foot-in-mouth moment fto do long-term reputational damage or live long in the memory of the public.
It would have to be something on the scale of Tony Hayward’s ‘I’d like my life back’ comment during the Gulf of Mexico disaster; Jeff Fairburn, the boss of Persimmon Homes walking out of an interview when asked about his pay; or Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe being caught singing ‘We’re in the money’ ahead of an interview on plans to buy Asda – a clip that incidentally resurfaced when it was recently announced he was quitting his CEO role.
The reality is it is rare for a media interview to come back to haunt you or threaten your career
In fact, most spokespeople, who have had the right media training, tend to climb the corporate ladder faster than those who don’t give interviews because they are seen as being brave, ambitious, an expert in their field and someone who is willing to speak out.
Could you handle the tough questions in a media interview? Our media interview preparation eBook will show you how to anticipate and prepare for those challenging questions.
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