“How Not To Do An Interview”

Posted by Matthew Schwartz, a Four time Emmy Award winner and now director of Public Relations for cPR.

I’ve spent more than 30 years as a television journalist, mostly as an investigative reporter in New York City. I’ve conducted thousands of interviews. Some were memorable: One was in an upstate New York prison with the “Son of Sam” serial killer David Berkowitz. He preferred to discuss religion over why he did what he did while I preferred to focus on the murders.

Then there were interesting chats with mob boss John Gotti, Dwight “Doc” Gooden, the parents of missing baby Sabrina Aisenberg, presidents and former presidents (Jimmy Carter while he and Roslyn were building a house) and then New York State Attorney General (and now former disgraced Governor) Elliott Spitzer, who was once known as being tough on law and order.

I have no problems remembering those interviews. But I do have trouble recalling the really bad, boring ones. Maybe I’ve intentionally forgotten them. But there are some common elements to why they were so bad that anyone can learn from.

The worst interviewees are those who have no focus and tend to run all over the place. They go off on tangents rather than sticking to a single point. They might have pre-determined notions of what they want to say, but answer one question only to ramble on with things unrelated to the question. And sometimes they answer the question with something totally unrelated.

When interviewees mindlessly answer questions with long responses, they are leaving it up to the reporter to edit the comments to get their desired key points on the air. If the interviewee is a spokesperson for a company, trying to improve the business, they just blew a golden opportunity. Why leave it up the reporter to ascertain what is your key message and what is not?

And if the reporter is there because of a company crisis or any negative issue, the worst thing the rep can say is, “No comment.” In those two words, you’ve just convinced almost all of the audience that you’re guilty. Might not be fair, just true.

Lesson learned: be prepared, be short and sweet in your response, be clear in your answer and be open and honest with your response.

Media training can do a lot with most spokespeople. Some need a lot, others a little. But a high percentage of company reps who I’ve interviewed could use a host of pointers. I believed this long before I moved into public relations.

Remember, one bad interview can cost your company a lot of business. And one good interview can change its fortunes.