Meet The Press

By Michael Willard and Olga Willard

Henry Kissinger, the celebrated diplomat, walked up to television cameras at a news conference and quipped to the media: “I sure hope you have questions for all my answers.”

It’s an old story told by media relations specialists. The central character is interchangeable. Instead of Kissinger, it could be Biden, Clinton, Branson, Bezos or Musk, anyone with a public profile of newsworthy attention.

The primary point demonstrated during message training is simply this: It’s your show. Not the media’s. The newsmaker is there to deliver his or her messages, and to, hopefully, make news.

We have used the Kissinger story — the person we first heard identified with it — on occasion in training spokespeople, though we localize it to whichever politician is the flavor of the day in the particular country or state we are holding forth.

Having worked both in the public relations and the journalism worlds, we outline here just a few of the myths and truths associated with the interaction of legitimate news gatherers and well-intentioned newsmakers:

• “They only asked bad questions at the news conference.” This is a common complaint when an interview didn’t come out as well as expected. One of the first things a message trainer will tell a client is that there is no such thing as a bad question, only bad answers.
• “All that reporter cared about was selling newspapers.” Journalists rarely make the connection…