Post Debate Spin 2nd Presidential Debate, NBC Problems

Speaking with TJ Walker, the show where we dissect how and what world class leaders communicate.

It's now been nearly 20 hours since the second presidential debate of 2016 started. Public opinion is congealing. I called it at the end of it, and believe me, it wasn't a brilliant call. Most other people did, too. I thought it was easy, but I thought that Hillary Clinton won the debate. Donald Trump didn't do anything especially awful by his standards, but the challenge he had was much greater. He had to somehow get people to think that he was sincere in his apology about the wildly offensive and I won't say sexist comments, the predatory endorsement of, of sexual attack statements that came out of him from the bus with that old Access Hollywood video. He needed to do something to get people to feel that he was at least contrite, that he realized that he did something just beyond the pale. Forget candidates. Just beyond the pale is what a decent human being would do. He said nothing that changed anyone's feelings on that. If you love Donald Trump and you're with him no matter what and you hate Hillary, then a videotape like that presumably doesn't really bother you. But for everyone else, it's just jaws drop on the floor. There's nothing that happened to Trump in the debate that allowed possible independent voters or undecided voters to pick their jaws up off the floor. And that's why I and most commentators said Hillary Clinton. Now, there's a backdrop to all of judging any debate. You have to look at the immediate political context. The context was Trump in his campaign was imploding. The Republican Party was in vast, vast disarray. There's utter chaos. You had people like Michael Steele, the former Republican Party chairman, tweeting during debate saying this is what is going on in the Republican Party today. And he just put up a picture of a mushroom cloud. Things are that bad. So that's why I kind of take issue with some of my colleagues in the presentation skills industry sitting there critiquing one candidate or the other on their body language at some point. And we will talk about body language today. But at some point, your body language doesn't matter if the whole world has seen a video clip of you every two minutes for the last 48 hours saying you're going to grab women's genitals anytime you feel like it. Only the word isn't genitals. It's something most people don't say in polite conversation. It just doesn't matter what your body language is. The message of the previous video is so overwhelmingly powerful. Now here we are as I record this on Monday afternoon at 4:26pm Eastern Time. The latest polls have come out from Wall Street Journal's news organization in conjunction with NBC. But let's not forget Wall Street Journal is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Not exactly anybody's idea of a bleeding liberal using his perch to spin or skew polls to help a Democrat or a liberal. So you've got the Wall Street Journal with a poll showing that Hillary Clinton in a four way race beating Donald Trump by 11 points. Now folks, nobody's seen anything like that in the last 30 years. You really have to go back to Reagan, Mondale era and almost Back to Nixon, McGovern era for landslides of such proportion. Now it gets even worse when you narrow it down to just Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump. Then she has a 14 point spread. Now it is true most people will have the option of voting for Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, other third party candidates. But as a practical matter, the closer you get to election day, I'm not saying this is right or wrong, but as a practical matter, most voters do in fact narrow their choice to one of the two major party nominees. Traditionally you do in fact see third party candidates support dwindle as you get into the final 30 days, not go up. That's why it's not wrong to focus more on the two way spread as opposed to what the raw numbers are with four candidates into the mix. So from Hillary Clinton's standpoint, last night was a huge, huge win because all she needed to do was not change the fundamental dynamics of the campaign. The fundamental dynamics right now are there's a complete implosion on the Donald Trump side. The Republican Party is facing absolute chaos. Are there a few Bernie Sanders supporters who are not that happy or excited about Hillary Clinton? Sure. But comparatively, the Democratic Party is an oasis of calm and serenity and unity compared to what's going on in the Republican Party right now. And when you're trying to coordinate get out the vote efforts, coordinated campaigns between Senate races, governor races, congressional races, this is a, sorry to use a Trumpian word, this is a huge, huge benefit to the Democratic Party and to Hillary Clinton. So when you factor all of that, how will history judge this presidential debate? Well, I think they're going to judge it by saying it was sort of the nastiest, most bizarre and kind of weirdest debate. But ultimately it's not going to be seen as having much of an impact because so many larger factors were at play. Again, there's simply no precedent to a major party nominee. A month before the election, having a video be released where they talked about, hey, I'm a star, I can sexually assault women at will and get away with seems so quaint. Four years ago, to think that many people were concerned about Mitt Romney saying that, you know, 47% of Americans were essentially takers and not makers and not taxpayers. That seems almost quaint. And eight years ago, when Barack Obama was caught on audio claiming that there are people out there who clung, who cling to their guns and religion, and that was a big scandal. Or going back to 1992, 24, a quarter of a century years ago. And Hillary Clinton lambasted for having the audacity to say, what do you want me to do? Stay at home and bake cookies? Well, baking cookies is pretty tame compared to grabbing women's genitals anytime you feel like it. And this is a big, big, big problem for Republicans right now. Now, part of the, part of the zeitgeist right now is that a lot of other people are getting tainted with this whole Trump scandal. One of them is NBC. Now, reports have come out that this footage of Donald Trump was, was in the possession of NBC executives since the previous Monday. They did nothing. Why is that? Because Donald Trump made all these wildly inflammatory, nasty remarks to Billy Bush, who is now one of the anchors for the Today show. And the Today show is sometimes number one. When it's not number one, it's number two in the ratings. It's a huge, huge ratings bonanza, cash bonanza for NBC. And this is one of their anchors. Now, admittedly, he's not the prime anchor. He is in their third hour, which is the so called softer celebrity news. But still, he occupies a pretty big piece of real estate at 30 Rock. And this is wildly embarrassing because he just seems so sycophantic, so unctuous, so oily. And initially NBC stood by him and then yesterday they announced he's gonna go on leave. Here's my prediction. I don't think Billy Bush is gonna be back on the air anytime soon on the Today show or on NBC News. Is there some entertainment show where they can put them on? Yeah, I guess. But this just confirms many people's worst suspicions about what an insider's game the media is. The media isn't really out there to tell you what's going on. It's there to protect insiders. And I'll tell you, NBC, I don't hate NBC. I don't think they have some left wing bias or right wing bias. But this is yet another example of, of how NBC seems to be the broadcast equivalent of the Skull and Bone Society. Those of you familiar with the secretive fraternity at Yale where so many wildly influential people, the Bushes and other aristocrats, go through these secret initiatives and they help each other throughout their whole career. I believe John Kerry was in it too, for that matter. So the problem with NBC is you've got Billy Bush, who's a part of the Bush family. You've got George W. Bush's daughter, who is given a cushy broadcast position with the Today show. It's a bipartisan problem now. It's not happening anymore. But for several years, Chelsea Clinton was given half a million dollars a year to be some so called special correspondent for NBC, never mind the fact that she never reported a day in her life or taken a single journalism class in her life. You've got Luke Russert, who gets a nice plum job because people liked his daddy. You've got Brian Williams, who's able to get his daughter on all sorts of primetime shows on NBC because, hey, he's an anchor and he's willing to scratch back. It just seems like one big old, old boys, old girls club at NBC, which is one reason, other than for a few hours last night on election night debate night, I really can't watch them. And it's not because of any perceived ideological bias. It just seems like a private little club and if you weren't invited to join, you're sort of a SAP. And I will say that NBC has been nice enough to have me. I've been to 30 Rock many times. I've been on MSNBC probably a hundred times, although nothing recently. Everyone has always been completely lovely to me there. But I mean, I've certainly never gotten on their payroll. Sorry if that sounds bitter. More important, from the perspective of a typical viewer or voter, I just think enough is enough. Now, the big issue is, are there all sorts of wildly inflammatory racist comments from Donald Trump in the vault of the Apprentice? Now that's another huge, huge problem that NBC has. We might not have this national nightmare of Donald Trump if NBC had not given Donald Trump the platform of primetime TV for the last dozen years? You can certainly make the argument that a network should have done its due diligence and not given away so much primetime space to a man who even 12 years ago is known to be a wildly boastful, dishonest demagogue. This is not a new thing with Donald Trump. This is not some brand new revelation that's come out in the last 90 days, that he makes up stuff. Lies, demagogues. This is something for anyone who's been a regular Trump watcher, who's followed his business dealings, his bankruptcies. He's known that this guy is a complete, utter fraud for decades. And for NBC to have propped him up, to have made him rich, as far as we know, the vast majority of of Trump's wealth actually has come from his salary from NBC. Now, I don't know, but we don't know that it's not. We hear all the time that he claims to be a billionaire. Nobody knows he's a billionaire. For all we know, his net worth is minus $1 billion. I've certainly been to Donald Trump's speeches where he bragged to one of his many ex wives that the homeless guy in the street had a higher net worth than he did because the homeless guy was worth nothing. And Donald's net worth was minus a billion dollars. I mean, that's public record, folks. So this is another problem that NBC has, that they are the ones who basically put Donald Trump on the national stage. They unleash this virus on the American people, and they don't seem to be paying any price for it. And it's striking. A lot of people is a bit rich. And now there's so many questions swirling around what did Donald Trump really say on camera and on audio? That's being covered up, that's being hidden. Those of you who are my age or older certainly remember the problems with Richard Nixon and his secret White House tapings. Now, this wasn't done on government property with tax dollars, but still, there are a whole lot of people who would love to know, what did Donald Trump say, for example, when he is commenting on the physical appearance of black women who happen to be on the Apprentice? There is certainly a lot of speculation that he used racial slurs. I haven't heard any yet, so I'm not going to state that he has said that. But a lot of people would like to know. And NBC is saying, okay, we're not a news organization. First and foremost, we're a business. We're a business about making money. And we don't want to be sued and we want to protect our relationships with outside producers like Mark Burnett. And so we're going to focus on our bottom line and our business and our relationships and our advertisers and our producers. All of that is a lot more important than giving voters information, news that they might want to know about. Someone who could have their finger on the nuclear button. And I understand the world is a complex place and there's conflicts of interest everywhere. Everyone has conflicts of interest. But with NBC, it's just getting a bit too rich. I mean, that was the problem with the whole Brian Williams thing is he seemed like he was so preoccupied with being on entertainment shows and being an amateur stand up comedian and cameos on 30 Rock that it just seemed as though and getting his daughter extra plum positions on HBO shows and primetime musicals on NBC, it just made you wonder, how does a guy like this have time to actually, oh, I don't know, report news when he's in such a bubble of celebrity? And this is the real problem for NBC. I don't really know how they get out of it. I don't know that I'm particularly interested in helping them get out of it because, hey, they're still making hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars. It's still a wildly profitable network and they don't necessarily want or need my suggestions. In other news and folks, by the way, I should point out, if you want to suggest topics or you want my opinions on things, all you have to do is write or send an email or a tweet and I will be happy to respond to you. If you have suggestions on future guests, you can let me know. And if you have questions that relate to speaking and presentation skills, I'm happy to answer those. One question that came in and I try to answer as many as possible. I apologize if we don't get to all of your questions, but this question came in from Facebook today from Junid, forgive me if I'm not pronouncing your name correctly. He's a regular follower based in Pakistan and he says, TJ, what's the best way to introduce myself in a meeting or in public? So many people have problems, they feel awkward introducing themselves. My suggestion is, first of all, put yourself in the shoes of the person who is listening to you and then say something that's interesting to them. We've all been to networking events or a chamber of commerce event or some kind of business event. And everyone's asked to stand up, go around the room and introduce themselves. And the problem is most people say something like, hello, I'm happy to be here. My name is TJ Walker. I'm a senior partner at do we cheat them and how? And we handle litigation and business law and commercial law, and if we can handle any of your legal needs, let me know, blah, blah, blah. And no one will ever remember that because it sounds exactly like what every other lawyer in the history of the world has said when introducing themselves. So my suggestion is, whatever you do, you've got to somehow stand out a little and make it interesting to the people you're talking to. So, for example, if I go to some kind of business networking event and I'm asked to stand up and speak, here's how I start. Imagine the New York Times calls you and wants to interview you about your business. Would you feel nervous? Would you know in advance exactly what quotes they're going to use to define you and your reputation? Hi, I'm TJ Walker and I prepare people for media interviews so they can get the exact quotes they want. If you would like a book of mine, at absolutely no charge on how to prepare you for your next media interview, just come up to me afterwards and give me your business card. That's it. Less than 25 seconds. And it's typically interesting to people, memorable. And guess what? Everybody comes up to me afterwards and gives me their business card so I can establish and continue a relationship with them. I'm not funny, I'm not emotional, I'm not telling some great story. If it's just a quick introduction, you can't do that. But you can still focus on one thing. To be interesting to people and give them a reason to remember you and to ask for your business card or to give you something so that you want more. By the way, I try to practice what I preach here on the show. So if you are preparing for a media interview or a speech, I'll not only send you one of my books, but I'll send you access to one of my online media and presentation training courses. All you have to do is go to the Show Notes and click on the link for the free online courses. Or you can send me an email directly. TJ mediatraining worldwide.com thanks so much for being by the way, I apologize. I somehow bungled and uploaded the wrong version of my show yesterday. I was so embarrassed I clicked on it just to check this afternoon and I heard myself say testing without the opening music. Now, I was putting the show together after the debate last night around midnight, and I thought I did everything just right. But apparently I was not at full capacity and I messed up. So apologies for that. I hope you still found the substance, the meat of the podcast, insightful and useful. But I'm trying to get better and better with the production side as well. I'm TJ Walker. Thanks for joining me. See you tomorrow.

Thanks for listening to Speaker 1 speaking with TJ Walker.