Selling Yourself in Confrontation and Media Interviews 117
- Be proud: You or your team has accomplished something
memorable, share it. Don’t hide it. - Smile: Show me you like me.
- Open your face: Show me you care.
- Gesture: Hug me from a distance.
- Finally: Don’t get angry. Don’t lose your cool. Don’t take
an attack personally. That’s playing right into the hands of
the tabloid reporter. It makes good copy for everyone but
you. Be the voice of reason.
Win the game.
Don’t deny—educate.
Don’t negate—inform.
Don’t fall into the buzzword trap—tell a story that relevantly
contradicts the error.
Interview traps
The well-trained interviewee looks at the media as the other
team in a game. Just as in any other game, there are strategies
involved. Taken to an extreme, you could call it a war. The idea is
to win or, at worst, to play to a draw. The media uses certain traps
or land mines. Here’s what to look for:
- Architecture
The first, foremost, and premier tactic involves the loaded
question. It’s built on negatives, accusations, and buzzwords. Those
are the building blocks. This is the trap I covered at length in
earlier. “Why are you part of a rip-off?” “Why are you contribut-
ing to the poisoning of the environment?” Reduced to its lowest
common denominator, your job is to eliminate these elements from
your answer. Don’t deny the accusation. Avoid the negative. Don’t
repeat the buzzwords. The intent here is to put you on the defen-
sive rather than to solicit information. And your job is to give
information.
- Rhythm
There are reporters who’ve developed a style borrowed from
some trial lawyers. First, they establish a rapport through a series