The Media Interview

Here’s an interesting quote from Australian Health Minister Tony Abbott, speaking at a conference on the media on August 24:

These days, many of the most important and difficult debates don’t occur in parliament but in lengthy live media interviews where politicians are expected to have instant answers to every question and a single mistake can be disastrous.

I think what Abbott means by “most important” debates is that for a majority of any country’s population, what they see, hear, and read in the mainstream media is the extent of what they know about an issue - so being as prepared as possible for media interviews is vital if you’re going to get your message to people.