Tricky Customers and ‘Spin Doctors’

Although the advantages might appear to be on the side of the professional interviewer operating on familiar ground there is a common belief among journalists that the initiative is passing to experienced interviewees. Many of them know how to exploit the medium. Many of them are trained by experienced broadcasters and there is no reason why they should not be entitled to know more about the way television and interviews operate. They are coached and drilled to deal with certain questions. Advice is offered on dress, posture and delivery. An aide to a politician once asked a well-known interviewer how his boss could do better in his television interviews. ‘Tell him to just be himself. Be natural,’ was the advice. ‘That’s what I’m afraid of,’ was the reply. Successful politicians rarely complain about the media–they use it. There is the balance: the interviewee may bring pressure on the interviewer or editor to ensure he or she is seen in the best light, or it could all be interpreted as unjust and blatant news management.

The tactics, and ‘spin doctors’

Some pressures are simple and unsubtle. This usually consists of conditions laid down before an interviewee will agree to appear at all. To impose extra pressure the conditions may be imposed just minutes before the interview is to take place. This leaves the journalist with a simple option–agree, or face a last-minute walkout! Only the circumstances can answer that one–is the interview worth it?

The people who form the buffer, or link, between politicians and the media have become more subtle: background briefings to favoured reporters, double-edged comments provided strictly off-the-record, leaking policy just to test public opinion, and then denying it all if the public does not like it. These are only a few of the techniques being used in the looking-glass world of political policy, business and the media. The good news is that everyone involved usually knows the rules. The reporter should know what is really going on, and needs to distinguish between rumour, comment, gossip, and the real facts. Another technique is to actually keep off the screen anyone regarded as a poor performer or poor representative of the company/political party/pressure group, either because he or she is untelegenic, a poor speaker, or both, or just boring. A sad paradox is that some of the best minds on any subject may frequently be ‘unavailable’ when you contact a press office.

Difficult interviewees

It is quite legitimate for interviewees to lay down conditions before they agree to appear, although be on your guard against anything which smacks of news manipulation. In the end it depends on how badly you want the inteview. But once you have agreed to any conditions, stick to them.