media interview

Don’t freak if reporter asks, ‘OK to record our interview?’

It starts innocently enough when you meet a reporter for lunch at a local restaurant.

You spend the first 10 minutes making nice, and then the reporter pulls a notebook and pen out of his pocket.

After the first few easy questions to put you at ease, he asks, “Is it OK if I record our interview?”

Don’t freeze up. Don’t freak out. Don’t walk out of the restaurant.

That question actually works in your favor because, with a recording, there’s no excuse for inaccurate facts or quotes.

If the reporter records the interview, you should, too, so you have a record of it.

Here’s a list of six voice-recorder apps for the iPhone. If you have a different type of phone, do a Google search for an app for your brand.

“Is it OK if I record our interview?” is one of 27 questions a reporter might ask you. I’ve included them all, explained how you should answer them, and noted which ones are trick questions, in my updated “Special Report #2: Questions You Can Expect Reporters to Ask During an Interview.” (I worked as a newspaper reporter and editor for 22 years and I know all the trick questions.)

The best surprise is no surprise.

Which of these author TV-interviews-from-hell is the worst?

I love showing you clips of TV interviews that are perfect examples of how NOT to act on camera.

This week, you get not one, but two videos. Each can best be described as, uh, a “teaching moment.” Both authors start stumbling, right out of the gate.

In the first video, author Uri Man’s comments are so inappropriate that he rattles FOX host Ainsley Earhardt. At the end of the interview, she turns to her co-host and asks, “Did that just happen?”

In the second video, the anchors start taunting author Karrine Steffans and things turn really ugly. Karrine’s response infuriates the anchors so badly that at the end….well, I’m not going to spoil it for you. But promise me you’ll watch to the bitter end.

Here’s the first video, from a recent segment on “America’s News HQ” on FOX News:

Thanks to Publicity Hound Jamile White of Bowie, Md., aka @EcommerceDiva on Twitter, for flagging us to this segment from GoodDaySacramento, the CBS station in Sacramento, Calif.:

Now, it’s your turn.

Which of the two do you think is the worst example of an interview-gone-bad? Are the anchors at fault? If you had been either one of those authors, how would you have responded?

Media trainers and book publicists, what would you have told these authors after the fact if they had been your clients?

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