Interview with an Idiot

Yesterday, I found myself driving to Forth Worth before lunchtime, seeking out the local offices of a national television network affiliate. I had been invited there to be interviewed by a reporter, not for our local channel, but for a channel in a large city in Central Texas. The Central Texas station had wanted a representative of an association client to be interviewed locally. Try as we might (actually, it was our PR agency that tried hard, with a bit of help from me), we could not find a member who was willing or had the time to visit the Central Texas affiliate for an interview. So, our PR firm put it this way to me: either we can ignore the opportunity, or we can try to accommodate them. So, the accommodation was to offer me up to be interviewed locally and have the tape sent south. And so it was.

I was unfamiliar with the local station's location and had, in fact, assumed it was based in Dallas. Not so, I learned, and thus I found myself driving to Fort Worth. It was easy to find, thanks to Google Maps directions. I was there a good 45 minutes before the appointed hour, but I decided to go inside, anyway. That was a good decision, because they were ready for me much earlier than the 12:00 noon shooting schedule I had been looking forward to.

It was an interview without pretention. I was escorted into a room off of a wide hallway. The room looked very much like it had been, or perhaps still was, someone's office. The cameraman introduced himself, invited me to sit, and placed a clip-on microphone on the lapel of my jacket. After adjusting the lighting, he announced all was ready and told his colleague, who was to interview me, "tape's rolling."

My interviewer was a very pleasant young guy. He got right to it. Very simple questions, very innocuous, and completely unthreatening. You have to know that I've been on live or recorded camera a very few times before and, try as I might, I cannot control my nervousness, at least not as well as I'd like. Anyway, the guy helped by being so completely unthreatening. In very short order, we were done.

I have no idea how it came out, really, but I have a sense of dread that I cannot shake. I think I will look like an idiot. Oh well, that's the way it goes.

I'm not sure my client has the same attitude; the comment on media coverage can can make or break them, so it's importand that their media reps look good, sound good, and paints them as a needy but remarkably well-polishd media resource.