Surprise Interview Flub: Match Unfit
Rhetorica Update Vol. 4 Iss. 2
Boris Johnson is an experienced and normally solid media interviewee. Not this time. In this post Boris Johnson shows how to botch your media interview.
London mayor Boris Johnson is a media magnet. Position, brash charm and crazy blond hair have bestowed on him momentary, dubious benefits of celebrity.
Fans see BoJo as a future PM if not world king. Critics see a buffoon. Commentators agree his recent BBC interview with Eddie Mair was a flubbing shocker, furthering doubts about his credibility and competence.
It’s not hard, from our removed positions of comfort, to reflect on what went wrong and what might have averted interview knockout.
Were Mair’s questions so forceful as to be unanswerable? No, though Johnson made them seem that way. Maybe he and his team underestimated Mair’s journalistic intent. (Mair’s regular column is a lighter affair.) Journalist Adam Bienkov says BJ has “gone soft”, overprotected by minders who don’t shunt him into tough interviews.
Mair’s manner was genteel, though the line of questioning was tough. Johnson looked and sounded underprepared, under pressure and incapable of effective parrying.
The poorest responses to attack-style questions come in two common varieties:
1. Flight: “Can we talk about something else?” Avoidance comes across as defensive and guilty. Explicit evasion is amateur and it was surprising to see Johnson perform at this low level.
2. Fight: Johnson, himself a journalist, knows criticising a journalist in interview is entertaining but pointless. It usually boosts the journalist’s career. Johnson squirmed, but wisely stopped short of attacking Mair (who since suffers promotion speculation).
The keys to successful media interviews are fourfold: prepare, prepare, prepare and prepare. First to anticipate the obvious questions. Second to articulate responses. Third to road-test them in simulation together with messages. Fourth to embed words and phrases into memory for natural and expressive delivery.
Australia’s Laurie Oakes says interviews are like jousts. Toothpicks are insufficient weapons. Proper prep for tough interviews equips interviewees to pause, breathe, listen, concisely acknowledge questions and transition to vital content. Experts make it look easy.
Postscript
The day after the above interview, Johnson said, “Eddie landed a good one. He did a splendid job. If the BBC can’t bash Tory politicians, what is the point of the BBC?” A gracious recovery, but limited and late.
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