The Media Interview

English football manager Avram Grant gave a bizarre press conference after his Chelsea team’s win over Everton on April 17 - so bizarre that The Independent ran an almost complete transcript. I say ‘almost’ because it doesn’t give a full sense of the pauses and silences. Anyway, here’s part of the one-word wonder at work, not helped much by the reporters asking questions that lend themselves to one-word answers:

A deserved win Avram?

Yes

What particularly pleased you about the performance?

I’m pleased.

What in particular pleased you?

After an eight second delay: I don’t know.

Is it a relief to win here?

Yes.

You seem lost for words by the performance. Are you more satisfied with the performance or the victory?

Both.

You seem distracted. Do you have a problem?

No problem.

Is there an issue?

No. I’m ok. I have nothing to say.

Sometime later, the reporters walk right into one of the best cagey responses I’ve seen:

Is it [the one-word answers] a protest against newspapers?

No. Why?

Why else would you come in and refuse to answer our questions?

I answer every question.

For background and some commentary on the press conference, read this Independent article, which also includes a mini-history of recent bizarre press conferences in English football.

Part of a posting by Alex Zuffoletti, a graduate student in journalism, about her class’s trip to the IMG/Bollettieri Academy, which trains high-level athletes:

one talk that I did enjoy was with these two former actors. They led the “game on” aspect of the program, which basically teaches sports stars, or wannabe sports stars, to not bore everyone with their talk about their training, their sports performance, and their diet. They need to have “coins” (interests, personal qualities, something fascinating to say), so that people will want to be friends with them, and so that they don’t look like stupid jocks when the media interviews them.

I’m not sure about wanting people to be friends with you, but having “coins” to use during your media interview is crucial for connecting with your audience.

Wrestler Chris Jericho was on Fight Network Radio recently to talk about his new autobiography, A Lion’s Tale. I loved his response when asked if he was “sick of media interviews yet”:

I’m happy to talk to anybody. I just did an interview with a fourteen-year-old kid that has his own website. And yesterday I did VH1 … national cable news shows, all the way down to a fourteen-year old kid’s website. So, whatever it takes. I’ll come to your birthday party and do an interview for a hot dog and a glass of orange juice, similar to the match that I had in 1991 when I wrestled at a kid’s birthday party for the same payoff. No ketchup or mustard even!

Great attitude - you have to get out and talk to your audience! Thanks to F4Wonline.com for posting the transcript from which this was taken.

Detroit Lions wide receiver Roy Williams was out delivering pizzas for an afternoon recently - all because of a media interview.

Back on September 24th, during his weekly chat on WDFN radio, Williams said he never tips the people who deliver pizza. Doh! Despite trying to clarify himself on a later broadcast, the outrage poured in.

If you read this edited interview transcript (courtesy of the Detroit Free Press) it sure sounds like Williams is a tightwad:

On being cheap: I am cheap, I’m a cheap date. Get you some McDonalds, with some cheese on it and I’m just really cheap, man. I’m very low key, I like to stay home. I like to go bowling on Monday nights and I go to the casino every once and awhile. Other than that, you won’t see Mr. Williams out at all.

On what he plays at the casino: I’m a craps and blackjack guy. I like to throw the dice a little bit. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll take it to the cards.

You do tip the pizza guy? There’s no such thing as a tip. But I am really polite and I say ‘Thank you sir.’ … The pizza man knows, when he comes to my address, he’s coming for free.

If you’re on a date and she wants to go to a nice place, what do you do? I might just take her to the casino and get her a free buffet. If I did take a date out to a nice place, I’d take her to a nice place, like a Red Lobster or something. It wouldn’t be Morton’s or nothing like that.

But now, listen to the recorded interview (if it’s not available, try here). With the full interview and with tone and inflection thrown in, it’s seems much clearer that Williams is playing it for laughs.

Tip of the day: what may sound funny in a conversation can easily be taken out of context, especially in transcribed form, so don’t assume that throwaway lines said in jest are going to be taken that way.

How’d it all end for Williams? It actually turned into a PR dream. A local Pizza Hut challenged Williams to deliver pizzas for an afternoon and they would give $5,000 to charity, if he’d match the amount.

What happened in Arizona stayed in Arizona… until the internet came along. The chances of a local mistake going national or international just grow and grow.

Arizona State quarterback Rudy Carpenter apologized Monday for swearing during a live radio interview after the Sun Devils’ victory over Oregon State…

The interview was posted on YouTube, and as of Monday afternoon the audio clip had been played more than 1,100 times.

Thanks to CSTV for posting this AP story of September 24, 2007.

Found this on the WNDU sports blog, from South Bend, Indiana:

It was already past 8pm when Evan Sharpley [Notre Dame quarterback] walked into the media room on Tuesday evening.

Practice ran about 25 minutes longer than usual.

Sharpley was jokingly asked, “Is this the best part of your day—when practice is finished?”

Sharpley answered that the best part of his day is when he’s done with media interviews. But it’s not because he hates dealing with the media. It’s because he’s starving.

Can’t take credit for the title of this piece - it’s a phrase I found on Ike Pigott’s old blog Accentuate the Positive (the new and improved Ike is at Occam’s Razr) and I think it’s a perfect name for those situations where a loose cannon needs media coaching to get reigned in. Here’s the link to the article that Pigott was referring to when he coined the term.

The days of hiding behind the microphone in a radio studio are long gone, at least for anyone in the public eye. Either the video media is covering the interview, or the station itself is making a video, or it’s even being simulcast over the web or some TV channel. Just look at the number of videos on YouTube that were shot during a radio interview.

So, what do you do? First, always ask whether an in-studio radio interview is going to be on video. If it is, dress for TV and not for radio. Still talk to your radio listener and don’t talk to any cameras. It’s always important to assume the microphone is ON while you’re in a radio studio - now you have to assume that the cameras are always rolling too.

I have no idea if there’s anything to this post on NASCAR North, but it raises an interesting point about how organizations could use the timing of media interviews to try and influence how their spokespeople will respond.

NASCAR has gone hollywood or perhaps more accurately it’s gone WWE. So much of the spectacle that is a NASCAR race is fueled by media interviews, often held at the height of emotional vulnerability on the part of the drivers almost begging them to lash out and be controversial.

I wish the writer had fleshed out this comment a lot more. Normally, of course, organizations try to protect themselves and their people from interviews when they’re “at the height of emotional vulnerability” precisely because you can’t predict what the interviewee might say. But if you’re trying to stir the pot, then that’s the “best” time; a kind of reverse crisis management.

All recently released WWE wrestlers have been told that they are not allowed to do media interviews until their non-compete clauses expire.

- on Wrestling Confidential, February 8, 2007