Ep 96 Is It Smart for Donald Trump to Ban Reporters Who Write Negative Stories - Media Training April 5

Is it okay to retaliate against the press if you don't like how they've covered you in the past?

Speaking the show about effective speaking in public to the media, at work and in Life. Speaking with TJ Walker.

So, folks, I'm recording this podcast and this TV show in March of 2016. It's March 17th. And because I am trying to make it topical but have lessons that are evergreen, I've been talking about Donald Trump a great deal. Now there's some risk in this because who knows, a year from now he could be considered the biggest joke laughing stock in the history of the world. He might be the president of the United States being sworn in. I have my predictions, but that's not what this show is about. But I do think he is capturing so much attention. There are a lot of lessons to be learned. There's also a lot of things he's doing that work for him that are really not lessons to anyone else and that if people try to mimic that, it's going to get them into trouble. Case in point, just the other day, Donald Trump's organization retaliated against a particular reporter. The reporter is Ben Schreckinger. He had written a very critical story about Donald Trump's campaign manager last week regarding the assault of a reporter from another organization. Now, this particular reporter, I believe works for Politico, was initially approved for press credentials to a major event earlier this week and then it was revoked. He was forcibly removed from the press conference. And it's quite blatant. The Trump campaign just didn't like a particular story. Can you get away from this? Now, if you're Donald Trump, a part of your whole mystique, a part of your brand is being wildly confrontational, standing up, essentially being a bully, attacking anyone who attacks you. So I would argue that this is a smart strategy for Donald Trump for the people who already like him. The fact that he's willing to be contemptuous of a reporter actually makes Donald Trump more appealing. So there's very little risk in something like this for Donald Trump. Plus, most members of the media are so anxious to be around a top tier presidential candidate that they will take almost any humiliation, almost any degradation and let bygones be bygones, if they can get back on that press plane or get to ask questions again at a press conference. So I don't see a lot of downside for Donald Trump. However, and this is a huge, huge however, don't try this at home, folks. This is something that works in a very, very particularized Specialized context of Donald Trump's world. If you are a CEO of a publicly traded corporation, for example, if you do this, it's not going to turn out well for you. Generally, the reporter will still write scathing attacks. Many of the other reporters who you want to come to your press conferences or your ribbon cutting ceremonies or other things you're doing might not show up in solidarity with the reporter. If you are the leading presidential candidate of a major party, you have tremendous leverage because there's so many reporters, their careers are dependent on, on having access to you and being able to talk to you and create new stories. But for most people in the world, we simply do not have that leverage over people. And you might be a billionaire, you might be head of a very powerful company, but it's unlikely that any one reporter's entire career is dependent on access to you. So if you act like a jerk, if you act like an authoritarian thug, if you act like you have complete, total contempt for the media, for a free press, it's likely to poison your relations with everyone else in the media. And if everyone in the media hates you, it's going to be again, most of the time, harder for you to get your message out. Of course, there are exceptions, and it's not just Donald Trump. Other candidates of one particular party have been quite successful attacking the media, running against the media, not just to this election cycle, but in others. But it noticeably does not work for the candidates of another party. And more important, it doesn't work for most people in public life, whether they are head of a huge publicly traded corporation, a small NonProfit, a small one person consulting shop, bashing the media, attacking the media, being rude to the media. All it does is poison relations. And reporters, they're not quite as all powerful as they used to be. But make no mistake about it, folks, they do still have some power. They do have influence. And unless you have a huge, huge independent power base, you need to think twice about alienating them. Now, Donald Trump has not just 6 million Twitter followers, but he has such huge name ID by having his own primetime show on a major network for more than a decade. Beyond that, he's someone who has communicated with the public and done thousands and thousands and thousands of interviews for more than 40 years. This is someone who's used to being in the spotlight. This is someone who in 1970, as a 23 year old, was out cultivating the spotlight and promoting a Broadway show he'd produced. Now, it didn't particularly do well, but it helped him hone his showmanship. Abilities way back in 1970. So this guy's been at it for a long time, long time. And at least with respect to him communicating his messages, he knows what he's doing. Doesn't mean it works for you. So I do want to caution you on that. Don't ban reporters. Someone writes a nasty story about you. My advice, typically be nicer to them. Invite them to your next press conference. Don't keep them out. If you keep them out, they're going to dig harder to write dirt on you. If you're Donald Trump and 10,000 articles are being written about you every day, it really doesn't matter if one or two or dozens of articles are negative. But if you are anyone else, one or two articles that are really negative about you, maybe the only thing people see that can define you. And that's why the strategy of banning reporters who done something critical simply does not work for most people most of the time.

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Let's talk about something a little more positive and upbeat than banning. Using strong arm tactics, attacking reporters and kicking them out of your press conference. If I could be self indulgent for a moment, something that when I was single and didn't have kids, I said I would never do. But now that I'm married with kids, I'm now guilty of this. I'm going to talk about my kid. The reason I'm doing this is because I just saw a fantastic fundraising speech, a fantastic and successful fundraising speech presentation. And it was my daughter's and she was not yet 3. She was technically 2 years and 11 months and some days old and she gave a very successful fundraising presentation. Now, am I saying that because I've deluded myself into thinking my 2 year old is just so brilliant, more brilliant than yours? No, there's nothing she did that a lot of two year olds don't do. But the reason I want to call attention to it is I do think it's relevant to so many of us who are sometimes crippled with fear and insecurity. And don't make that initial ask when we're doing a fundraising prediction. Here's all that's happened. I don't want to make more of it than I should. I was sitting at dinner in my own home with a professional colleague from Europe talking about pretty presentation training issues. As you could imagine, my daughter has a new little piggy bank. Just a very cheap, inexpensive tin, round cylinder with a hole in the top. And I guess she had a penny in it. She came up to me with a big smile, shaking it, jiggling it, holding it, my face, not actually saying anything, but the implication was, give me some money and put money in my little piggy bank so it makes a louder jingle. And I told her, I said, honey, I don't have any money. I'm sorry. But here's what's interesting and here's why I thought it was an interesting fundraising pitch. Even though that's obviously dressing it up a little more than it was. She didn't get dejected, frown, pout, cry, lower her shoulders and walk away. She kept the smile on her face, took two steps around me, went to our guest in our home and jiggled the cheap, inexpensive tin piggy bank right at him. And he said, oh, I've got some money for you right here. And he pulled a couple of coins out and put it in. I was initially embarrassed. I said, you know, Russ said, don't be begging our guest for money. That's not polite. But the more I thought about it, I was actually kind of pleased. She wasn't afraid to ask. She did it with a smile on her face. She made it very simple for someone to contribute. She didn't say, generally, give me money and send it a month later. She wanted it. Right now she had a place for someone to put the money. When she was rejected, she didn't get upset or bothered or annoyed. She went right to another pitch and she didn't stop till she was successful, folks. That's what wildly successful fundraisers do. Whether they're doing a 2 billion dollar capital campaign fundraising for their university, whether they're trying to raise $100 million for their presidential candidate as a finance chair. That's what people do. You ask, you ask a lot of people. You ask with a smile on your face. You make it easy for people. You let them know when and how they can give you money. And the second someone says no, you don't waste any time, you just go to the next prospect and ask for money. Now again, I am having a little fun with this. I'm not really suggesting my daughter has any talents. Of course I think my daughter's wonderful, but I'm not really suggesting she is born with some innate presentation skills that make her superior to anyone else. But it's just an illustration that so much of good presentation, presentation skills, they're not particularly difficult. Even a two year old can do them. It's really quite often more a function of just deciding to do it, not letting a little rejection bother you, having a smile on your face, not being afraid to literally ask if you're coming up with a fundraising presentation. Those are rules that certainly served my daughter well even though she didn't know there are rules. But they will serve you well for your own presentations too, so hope you have some. By the way, I do have an online course on how to give effective fundraising presentations and how to ask people for money. Check it out at the website mediatrainingworldwide.com go to the online course section and you'll see that. As always, thanks for spending time with me and may all of your presentations in life be a huge success.

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