Canadian Government Executive - Volume 23 - Issue 02

I f you want to learn from mistakes in how to handle an interview, you could take a lesson from Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, Edward Kennedy, and Alexander Haig. The three pub- lic figures all had celebrated careers. But each also had one moment when they badly flubbed an in- terview. Jimmy Carter admitted to Playboy he had lusted in his heart, the equivalent in his mind to adultery. Henry Kissinger was skewered by rapier-like in- terviewer Oriana Fallaci, comparing himself to the mythical, romantic American cowboy. Edward Ken- nedy was stumped when CBS congressional corre- spondent Roger Mudd asked a softball question: Why did he want to be president? And U.S. Secre- tary of State Alexander Haig, in the moments after President Ronald Reagan had been shot, rushed into the press room to attempt to calm the waters by announcing, “As of now, I am in control here.” Those are some of the communications disasters that Bodine Williams – a former NBC, CTV and Global reporter turned Toronto-based communica- tions consultant – gathers in her book Game Face . For each (and the other 15 selections) she combines a description of the encounter with a lesson that government executives could use. And beyond that, she includes more specific tips beyond that overall prescription, many you may know but enough that you probably don’t to make the book worthwhile. The lesson to draw from Jimmy Carter: Inter- views are not time for original thinking. “An inter- view is a time for facts, arguments, and considered opinion. It is not the occasion for out-of-the box thinking on any subject. Nor is it the time to deal with hypothetical questions – or anything else you have not thought of before,” she advises. Carter, then a presidential candidate, had pro- voked concerns about the influence his strong re- ligious beliefs might have on him. The interview was actually over but at the door Carter was asked one parting question, which the journalist asking viewed as casual, whether in the interview the can- didate had reassured people about his religious ties. As he answered, the journalists indicated they were recording, so he knew he was talking to Playboy’s readers. And as he talked about pride and lust, he was about to make headlines. Williams counsels to not assume the interview is over because the reporter closes his notebook or turns off his recorder. Interviewees get in trouble making comments they think are off the record while standing at the elevator, at the door, or even in the washroom perhaps because they are so re- lieved their ordeal is over they let their guard down. “But the interview is never over for the jour- nalists while you are in their sights,” she warns. Carter was hurt by his mouth and mind, not the tape recorder capturing his words. She advises you to allow tape recorders if reporters request one, since it offers more accurate note-taking. “There is nothing sinister about this. It underscores the need for interview subjects to stay on the point,” she says. Don’t waste time thinking of everything you could be asked. Prepare for the first half-dozen most difficult interview questions and then the six most obvious. And in your responses, she urges you to “resist a show of vanity of one-upmanship,” which was Carter’s other sin. Vanity also did Kissinger in. He rarely gave in- terviews and had a horrendously busy schedule. Indeed, he later said that he agreed to the request from Fallaci “largely out of vanity. She had inter- viewed leading personalities all over the world. Fame was sufficiently novel for me to be flattered by the company I would be keeping. I had not both- ered to read her writings; her evisceration of other victims was thus unknown to me.” Talk about un- prepared. William F. Buckley Jr., when asked once why Attorney-General Robert Kennedy resisted appear- ing on his TV show, quipped: “why does baloney re- ject the grinder?’ Kissinger in this case was the ba- loney, like many of Fallaci’s subjects, as she led him through the issues. But he eviscerated himself (or at least made a fool of himself) with these words expressing his vanity: “Americans like the cowboy who leads the wagon train by riding alone on his horse…. All he needs is to be alone, to show others that he rides into the town and does everything by himself. This amazing romantic character suits me precisely because to be alone has always been part of my style.” Journalist Mary McGory suggested Kissinger suc- cumbed because at the core Fallaci “asked the ques- The Leader’s Bookshelf Harvey Schachter No Candid Camera Game Face By Bodine Williams Q&A Books, 218 pages, $22.95 24 / Canadian Government Executive // February 2017