Over the weekend, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney attempted to write new rules for interviewing.

The Georgia democrat’s communications aide granted an interview with the local Atlanta CBS-TV affiliate.  It was agreed that there would be questions about McKinney’s celebrated run-in with a Capitol cop a few weeks ago.  But before the interview was officially done, the congresswoman stood up and left, tired of talking about the incident.  Unfortunately, she took the lavaliere microphone with her and it was hot.  So was she.

Realizing that her angry comments were picked up by the camera, she returned to her seat and admonished the reporter, saying whatever had been overheard after she abruptly ended the interview would be off-the-record. 

Fat chance.  Congresswoman McKinney has been in the public domain long enough to know the rules.  You don’t make them up as you go along, especially after you’ve misspoken. 

Interviewing has two video representations of this story for you from Atlanta CBS affiliate WGCL-TV, and the other from Fox News Channel.

The Media Trainers™ Re-winder Reminder:  

4     Off-the-record can be rugged terrain.  It’s especially treacherous if you weave on and off the record during the course of an interview.  Inevitably, the reporter will make a mistake.

4     Unless you and a reporter have developed a level of trust over time, you’re better off sticking strictly with what you can say on-the-record.

4     If you are determined to be off-the-record at some point during an interview establish the rules ahead of time and make sure you both understand exactly what is for public consumption and what is reserved as background.

The Media Trainers™, LLC, has a Tough Questions eBook on our Web site that you can download free for easy reference.  We’ve defined eight question types:

4     Speculative questions

4     Built-in premise

4     Pregnant pause

4     Multiple questions

4     Interrupted answer

4     Negative questions

4     Third-party questions

4     Personal opinion