161: The Biggest Media Interview Mistakes of the Month (and what we can learn from them).

A media interview or a livestream is not the time to be unprepared, off the cuff, or too cute by half.

What is the Granholm plan to increase oil production in America?

Oh, my God, that is hilarious. Would that I had the magic wand on this.

I don't know about oil prices, but I do know how to prevent and recover from that media blunder. Welcome to a podcast that uses current events and tested PR strategies for how to manage a crisis that builds an indestructible reputation. A confession. I love watching media death spirals. I do. It's not for the schadenfreude. It's, well, okay, sometimes it is. If I'm being honest, one of the examples in this episode is, is a little bit of that, because I feel that they deserve it. But my true nature is I'm looking for the lessons. In what ways can I prevent a media blunder from happening to someone else by watching a media blunder? Because after I watch it, I tap into my knowledge and my experience, and then I turn it around and try and find the lesson to deliver to listeners like you, members of my indestructible online community, my followers on social media, and also my clients. And I'm also, in addition, looking for ways to hone my perception skills in order to predict how people will respond to a crisis that they're in based on their past behavior, the human reaction. So while I'm fascinated by the reputational piece of it, I'm also fascinated by the human element of it as well. In this episode, we're gonna listen to a few examples. Well, more than a few examples. Thank you to my producer, Scott, for going through all these clips. I came across these media blunders over the past few weeks, and if you follow me on Twitter, Molly McPherson, you'll know probably a few of them that are coming ahead. So I'm gonna share with you the mistakes they made and how I would recover if I were the PR handler. What is my indest PR recovery tip if I was hired by that person, and what you can learn to recover if it happens to you. Now, we started the episode with the clip of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. Now, here's another confession that I have to make. 1. I was told about this clip in a workshop last week. I was traveling last week. I had not seen it on the Internet, and someone asked my opinion. His name was James. He was a participant. He wanted to know my thoughts on the. On this interview because it was a class on media response and media training. And I Had no idea what he was talking about. Okay, fair enough. There's a million clips. But then when he said it was the energy Secretary, my inner monologue said, who is the Secretary of Energy? I had no idea. And that is something I typically know. And I couldn't believe. Like, how did I miss this? But maybe it's because everyone is so caught up in the election itself between Biden and Trump that you don't spend any time with the cabinet or we picked. And irony. I was working in a workshop for the energy industry. It was for utility, for electric utilities. So I had to Google it and then I had to watch it. So here's my response. So she was in an interview with Bloomberg radio host Tom Keene, and this was last Friday, and he was asking her about oil production and increasing gas prices. Take a listen.

In Sturgis, Michigan, it is $2.89 a gallon. I guess that's better than in California. What is the Gran Home plan to increase oil production in America.

That is hilarious. Would that I had the magic wand on this. As you know, of course, oil is a global market. It is controlled by a cartel. That cartel is called opec. And they made a decision yesterday that they were not going to increase beyond what they were already planning.

All right, so not surprisingly, the headlines in this story that I saw online were a little rougher on the right side of the news. So all the conservative media outlets picked up on the story. Didn't make a lot of waves in the mainstream media. But after watching that clip, I felt that there was something there to work with. If you were a right leaning conservative media outlet, it did appear that she was guffawing in the faces of Americans who are struggling to pay increased rates in gasoline and heating bills. So do I think she was laughing at those Americans who were struggling with those increased rates?

No.

What I think she was trying to do was dismiss the question altogether, that it was a partisan question that she didn't even need to answer. And she was trying to project the ridiculousness behind the claim. But instead it appeared that she was dismissing the people who struggle. So the mistake, too cute by half. It did not work. I think it did not land how she wanted it to land. She wanted it to look as it appeared to be a nonsensical question, and instead it came across as cold and insensitive. So the indestructible PR response to help that recovery. If you're Secretary Granholm, you go back to the talking points that she was given, likely by the White House, that Americans should expect to pay higher costs to heat their homes this winter as a result of high gas prices caused by the coronavirus pandemic. There is nothing funny about the pandemic or people suffering from the effects of it. Granholm needed to keep her tone serious, and she needs to continue to do so. And the lesson there for everyone is don't try and laugh, especially over serious subjects. Now, another media blunder, possibly that made the news last week was from Vice President Kamala Harris. So someone from the same administration. And yes, I did know who the vice president was. She was mocked online for using heightened speech during a media stop. She appeared to mimic a French accent during a visit to Paris last Tuesday. She was touring a COVID 19 lab at the Pisteul Institute in Paris when she may or may not have emphasized a part of her speech with a French accent. Take a listen with us in government.

We campaign with the plan, uppercase t, uppercase p, the plan plan. And then the environment is such that we're expected to defend the plan.

If your reaction like mine was poi, what's the big deal? Well, evidently, a lot of other people felt the same way. It wasn't a big news story, but not surprising. A number of conservative outlets, especially on social media, commented on it and said that she was mocking the French Sacre bleu. So by Wednesday, you know, this video, you know, went viral in those circles. And the question of her saying the. Or the, was it meant to be mimicry? My feeling, my nonpartisan take, because truly, I'm an independent. I am nonpartisan. It's nothing. I feel that she was just emphasizing that word differently. I mean, look at what I just did. I'm reading a story about Paris, and I could not help but fall into a high school French accent. So instinctively, you just go there naturally. I don't even know that she was trying to do that. I think she was trying to emphasize something, and she just happened to be, you know, in Paris. So when in Paris, say bon pour moi, it's fine with me. So what is the indestructible PR response to help the recovery? If you're accused of something of that nature, you want to leave it. You don't need to make it worse and fuel the fire. But you want to end on a high note if you can. She's still on her tour this there. So what she was saying in her subsequent media stops, one that was in when she was honoring the 2015 Paris terror attacks, the victims of the attack. She had this to say in Terms.

Of what we believe will actually address, again, a topic of conversation. The topic of conversation on the main.

Stage yesterday, again, it was serious in tone. She was using that same inflection, but she was moving on. All right, next, we are going back to the well with a person who seems to just keep giving Alec Baldwin, in episode 158, how to respond publicly to a tragic event of your own. 10 Steps to Control the narrative. I laid out the response, the immediate response that Alec Baldwin used in response to the death of the cinematographer on the film Rust, where he is not only the actor, but the producer. The cinematographer was killed, the director, assistant director was injured, and Alec Baldwin has a massive reputation problem on his hands. I had tweeted this a few weeks ago. Alec Baldwin, while up in Vermont with his wife Hilaria, and their family, all their kids, their gaggle of kids, they've been staying in Vermont. And we know this because they are on social media almost every day, and the paparazzi is following. I can understand the frustration if the paparazzi was always following you to get a story, and we were getting, you know, pictures and video of this family. So I will give them that. However, it was a Saturday morning. Alec decided to take matters into his own hands. He pulled over off the side of the road and decided to walk up to the press and start speaking. Take a listen.

What do you want to know?

All right, Ali, what's the current state of what's going on with the case?

I'm not allowed to make any comments because it's an ongoing, ongoing investigation. I've been ordered by the sheriff's department in Santa Fe. I can't answer any questions about the investigation. I can't. It's an active investigation in terms of a woman dying.

Now, if listening to that clip, if you get nervous, that's good. That's a good sign. That means that you have the right level of risk, as if you're a communicator listening to this, to know that you should just not amble up to the press unprepared for an interview. And not just an interview. What he was doing on the side of that very busy road in Vermont, which was also dangerous, by the way. He was giving a press conference. Take a listen to his next question.

What are the questions that you have.

Other than that you met with the. I'm afraid I forget her name in the moment. But you met with her family.

Yes.

If you're spending this much time waiting for us, you should know her name. Her name is Helena.

Helena Hutchins. I met with her husband Matthew and her son.

And how did that meeting go?

I wouldn't know how to characterize that. They're mortified.

You guys, you know what? No details.

Do me a favor, I'm gonna, I'm.

Gonna answer the question now. That part of the clip is my favorite part of the clip because that's when we first see Ellaria come into the picture. She, you know, is dying to get back into the spotlight after her media blunder of being found out. Well, multiple media blunders have been found out that she was trying to appropriate Spanish culture into her brand by stating that's where she is from, when in fact she was born in Boston, she grew up in Boston, her parents lived in Boston and only moved to Mallorca, Spain once they were retired. And at best she's a tourist. But she has been appropriating an accent ever since. Huge blow up. So naturally she's had to lie low since then. But. But Hilaria could not help herself so she got involved. I loved that Alec. Hot tempered, hothead Alex, when he said, do me a favor, ask a question, you gotta watch the video, he's just pushing her aside. All right, so now the next part of this clip, which is interesting because again it's, as I mentioned in the beginning, I love watching the human behavior and what they're trying to do now here Alec, I am convinced he's working with a PR team. He has handlers and the same ones who likely worked with Hilaria that are helping him navigate this mess. Because he's still waiting on the sheriffs to decide if charges will be filed against him. And what is going to be filed against a production company. And also what are the other legal implications? Likely there's going to be lawsuits from the cinematographer's family as well. All right, so let's listen to a PR strategy taken on by Alec Baldwin.

There are incidental accidents on film sets from time to time, but nothing like this. This is a one in a trillion episode. It's a one in a trillion episode.

So that's the framing there, folks. Again, what he's trying to do is play down as much as he can the accidental nature of the accident. He wants to frame this one in a trillion event that had happened as fluke because guns are used in movies all the time and we've seen them many, many times. Which is true, 100% true. However, people don't get killed from them. That's not as common happened to Brandon Lee, not many other than that. So, Alec, you're in an audience of very few people there, but here's the next half of his framing.

We're eagerly awaiting for the sheriff's department to tell us what their investigation has yielded. What else do you have?

He has to show care and concern. He has to be involved. This is what he's trying to do to show involvement.

Would you ever work on another film set that involves firearms of that nature?

I couldn't answer that question. I really don't have any. I have no sense of that at all. I do know that an ongoing effort to limit the use of firearms on film sets is something I'm extremely interested in. I don't know where you. But remember something that I think is important, and that is how many bullets have been fired in films and TV shows in the last 75 years?

So that last question again. Would you ever work on another film set? I think the reporter there is grasping for more questions because he is shocked that Alec Baldwin got out of his car and started answering questions. And so that reporter was thrown a little off balance there and was trying to come up with as many questions as they could. And to Alec's credit, he's ready. But what is the indestructible PR response to help in the recovery of Alec Baldwin? And I'm going to throw his wife in there, too. Shut your mouth. He needs to be quiet. He needs to stop speaking. He needs to keep out of the press. Granted, they're running around Vermont and chasing him around, but also they're putting themselves out there as well. They could easily go back to their home in Long island where no one can come onto their property and no one would see them. So there's that Hilaria also, she needs to put her phone down. She needs to stop posting to Instagram about how sad and the impact to her family and to Alec. And she. She also needs to shut her mouth. Something that someone said in the workshop that I had mentioned earlier, had said in this course, which I loved. You can't quote silence. Isn't that a great quote? Stop talking. All right, the next person who I want to mention, who is the person on this list that I am the most fascinated by, and that is Dave Hollis. You've heard me mention the Hollis family before. And the reason why I keep talking about them is because they're in the news. People know. Know who they are, but they're still like real people. Like, they're not handled by super expensive, well tested PR handlers. They are doing the work on Their own. And so their downfall that is happening has been a bounty of crisis PR lessons. Because I had mentioned this in a subreddit, because I'm following this intently. We are watching a crisis play out in the raw. And what I mean by that is we're watching people acting in real time with their real emotion. Now, Dave Hollis is the ex husband of Rachel Hollis. They're both self care influencers. They're all about the toxic positivity. His former wife Rachel started as a lifestyle blogger and then she turned herself into a motivational speaker and she wrote a book called Girl, wash your face. It came out a number of years ago, wildly pop. And I learned this on Reddit, sold over 2 million copies. So it was a huge success. And the upshot of the book is, or her whole brand is, hey girl, if you just wake up at 4 and you just try a little bit harder and you just keep working and working and working, you can succeed just like me. But the problem with Rachel is her husband Dave at the time also for a number of years worked for Disney in distribution. He made likely millions of dollars. So he was bankrolling a big part of her success. That's a different message to the stay at home mom who's trying to sell multi level marketing products to her friends and people in the church or the military mom. And they're not making a lot of money. It seems more predatory. And that's been the issue. She's had other books that have come out since then and each one has less and less success. Now Dave Hollis came on as the CEO. We found out that he kind of bullied his way on there. He made his wife make him CEO once he left Disney and he wrote, he's written two books. The first one, moderate success, I think it was 60,000 copies it sold compared to, you know, Rachel's first book, which was 2 million copies. Now Dave, update on Dave. He is living in the family house. He made Rachel leave the house. They have four kids, one adopted daughter. A suspicious, we're not quite sure the timeline Dave has picked up with his girlfriend, Heidi Powell, who's formerly married to Chris Powell. The two of them were on an ABC television show called Extreme weight Loss. I believe they're both, you know, fitness influencers. Heidi, as expected, hot blonde. You never see her eat food. All she does is drink nutrition drinks and eat candy. So we think she has disordered eating. But the two of them are constantly shilling products, her and Dave now. And they're caught between deciding to we want to be fitness influencers or do we want to be self help or do we want to be both? You can imagine by my description it's not going well. So that's why the Reddit thread has been, the subreddit has been growing tremendously because so many people in this world are following them. So anyway, two weeks ago on a Saturday, Dave Hollis went on Instagram live to promote his book. The last book that he had, he was on Good Morning America. He had a big launch team because he was still married to Rachel and and that was all pulled for this book. So he had to scrape the whole book tour together. He and Heidi traveled around to a number of cities, maybe five cities with a pop up table and Instagram to promote these events. And by the time they got to the last stops, hardly anyone was there and they weren't even posting. It was kind of sad. But two weeks ago, Dave Hollis went live in Instagram livestream. He livestreamed for two hours to talk about his book. So it started with here I am on my patio piece which is his backyard with his house funded by all their money and he started to spiral quickly. So picture middle aged man looking a little rough for the wear up very early. And he's now facing a lot of people on online who are calling him out. But also he likely is reading this Reddit thread about himself, his girlfriend and Rachel Hollis. So take a listen to the first clip.

Why do you follow me if you haven't bought my book? Why do you follow me if you follow me and haven't bought my book? Unfollow me.

So right there Dave is speaking to his critics. He and Heidi call them the Internet villains. But we're setting up for a very scary, manic type of a live stream. So listen to the next clip.

I've written a book for you. It is 18American dollars. It is 18American dollars. And I'm just telling you right now 100%, it'll change your life.

His book is going to change your life. Now this book, I have not read this book but so many people online have picked this thing apart and it not a great book, it's just not good. Apparently where one would ask or one would suggest that it would change a person's life. We all write books and I know I can speak from experience. Writing a book is not easy. Writing a book is a challenge. Getting every word to be spelled correctly, like you never know. Even in my book I found out a word that was spelled correctly on the manuscript. Somehow I think on a spell Check. When it got to the editor was wrong. I mean, things happen, okay? And they happen to him as well. But listen again to what he needs from his followers.

It will change your life. Will it really change my life, Dave? Yes, it will change your life. I wrote this book. It's called Built through courage. It's $18. We're going to start a book club on Wednesday. You're all invited. But you know who I only want to show up? People that invested in themselves. $18 worth. $18 worth. Because I am 100% certain I'm gonna wake somebody up in the Hollis house. It's so quiet here. Please, Dave, don't yell. $18. Let's get back to peace for a second. $18.

So at this point, when you're keep. When you still watch this and you continue to watch it, which is what I was doing, I was getting ready to go to my daughter's hockey game. So I had some time to watch this. And every time I put the phone down and I would pick it up again, he was still on. So you can see this is the making of a PR crisis. So one more clip.

I may in fact have gotten up just a tiny bit early. My mouth is just a tiny bit dry right now. So you might be hearing my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth. It's because I'm fired up. Why are you fired up, Dave? It's Saturday morning. You're wearing American flag socks. We know that American flag socks make you happy. And you're on your patio of peace. I thought that your patio piece is where you conjured peace. Is it on audible? Darn right it's on audible. I read it and I read it in a tone that is far calmer than the one that I am trying to encourage you to buy right now. Dave, you're talking about peace, aren't you? No, I'm talking about buying my book.

Okay? Now imagine that going on for another hour and 50 minutes, I kid you not. What it spiraled into is his kids came out, his young kids. He has a five year old daughter and she wanted pancakes. And he basically, no, not basically, told her. He told her to get a life. He was getting very frustrated with her. His son came out as well. It was, as I mentioned in the beginning, it was a PR crisis. In the raw, you were seeing something happen in real time. And the lesson there is not just the response, but what is going on in Dave Hollis's head before this happened. Now, I happen to know, just from following this couple, the two of Them are incredibly self involved. They are incredibly filled with extreme admiration for themselves. Some may call that narcissism. Some may call it just being selfish. Some may call it being, you know, too hot to trot. Whatever it is, they believe their own hype. And a lot of people, and a lot of women especially, who've invested thousands of dollars in this couple, they're starting to speak up and they're starting to speak out. This is what happens in social media. The hand that feeds you is the hand that bites you. They found their fame at a time when the Internet was a little more of the wild West. And you could become a mega influencer a lot easier then than you can today. The algorithms just aren't in your favor unless you are buying ads or you're throwing a lot of money at your business. But they were able to do it a lot easier because of one viral post from Rachel Hollis about her stretch marks in a bikini, which she called her stripes that she earned. That went viral. Then they went viral. But what's happening now is you're seeing this arrogance play out in real time. So whether you're an influencer like a Dave Hollis, who some of you may not have even heard of, but this type of behavior is everywhere. It is in politics, it is in business, it's in government. I mean, look at Governor Cuomo, who is back in the news right now. And I read this morning, the day that I'm recording this, that it has been reported, allegedly, that he was caught making out with his senior aide, Melissa DeRosa, who also had to resign. So it turns out he abused his power to his aide, who abused his. Her power to the people in the state of New York. See, that's how it works. Look for the behavior. So Dave Hollis, I feel the Hollis brand, it's over. It's finished. Definitely is finished. That's my prediction. They may meddle around in the world of, hey, click this link and hit the code Dave for 10% off this beef stick or this tooth whitener, but they're not coming back to the same level ever again. So if I were a PR handler working for Dave, Dave Hollis, which I don't think he has right now, or if he does and someone who's just doing it on the side because they're not giving him very good advice. But he needs to. I mean, obviously he needs a staff line, and that's what he's been doing. He's been doing a book club for this, this wretched book for 40 days. The nod, of course, to Christianity. Ugh. People who use the Christianity to be a self help influencer, to make money off the backs of people. It makes me sick. But I think this whole online marketing industry is changing. But he followed that advice where he's not online as much, berating his kids and spending time with the girlfriend. But what Dave Hollis needs to do is he needs to find a new line of work. I mean, seriously, one, he needs to get healthy, he needs to get therapy. But then from a PR perspective, he needs to find his next step. He needs to go to another area that he appears less arrogant and less selfish. All right, next. Last one is from Andrew Ray. I have to admit I was not familiar with this guy until I noticed it online and now I'm following him. So this one. Spoiler alert. This didn't really hurt this guy. But he was on the Today Show. He's a YouTube Instagram influencer around cooking. So he has a channel called the Babish Culinary Universe. And he just started cooking on his own, like during the pandemic. He was just following along. I think he said he was watching the Office one day and he was following along about how they make a certain burger, decided to create his own channel. He's a huge success and now he's on the Today Show. Ray was on a cooking segment for the Today show and one of the items that he was creating was called a garbage plate. Take a listen.

You're from Rochester, New York.

This we're about to make is. What's a garbage plate?

This is the pride of Rochester, New York, me, Kodak.

You say that with pride too. The problem with the segment, in addition to being incredibly awkward, I'm sorry, morning television is really painful to listen to sometimes. But take a listen to a local Rochester news station when they did a follow up story on the piece.

Except that exact dish is trademarked by Nick Tahoe's current owner, Alex Tahoe.

NBC had somebody doing garbage plates that wasn't us. So they didn't obviously check to see what garbage plates were or who owned the trademark.

After seeing the video, Tahoe said he felt a range of emotions from being upset to disgust to disappointment. He criticized Ray for not knowing the over 100 years of history of the restaurant, calling the restaurant closed when it isn't. And for Ray's comment that some of the ingredients were made in an unsafe manner.

Wah. Wah. What this means is the Today show had to do some cleaning up. So one I noticed they edited the clip. So they took out the misinformation and also added an editor's note. The guest mistakenly stated that Nick Tahoe Hots, the Rochester diner famous for its garbage plate, was closed. It is still in business. Also, Andrew Ray sent a tweet out, naturally an apology tweet saying I am so sorry to Rochester's own since it was the same town where he's from for Ms. Speaking on the Today show thinking you were closed. Nick's is open and I hope to be welcome back someday. I doubt it. They're also providing meals for essential workers I've just donated to their GoFundMe page. And this was after a response where the restaurant went on Twitter as well. So two indestructible PR moves by the restaurant owner, but also Andrew Ray So the indestructible tip here is get your facts straight. If you are going to go on a show and you are going to talk about an item or a service or even if you're writing, you need to watch for plagiarism. You need to watch if you are flat out stealing someone else's content or garbage plate. So make sure that your work is your own. All right. Every single episode I always follow up with an indestructible tip. Here it is for all of these incidents that we talked about. When it comes to media blunders, I would say whenever I see the biggest mistake happening in media blunders is when someone is reacting as opposed to responding. All of those clips that I presented, from the laugh to pulling over on the side of the road to Dave Hollis melting down on his patio of peace, those were all reactions that landed online. You want to work towards a response. The response is clear headed, the response is planned and it's prepped. So one of the best ways to prepare for a media interview is to always respond with planned comments. Remember, respond, don't react. That's all for this week on the podcast. If you would like your PR crisis response checklist you can head over to my website mollymcpherson.com checklist for the free download. And remember, you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram and you can follow along on my indestructible tips for these types of crises in real time. I add three indestructible tips from each podcast that I share on Twitter every week. Thanks so much for listening. Bye for now.