TJ Walker shares how he got fired as a press secretary for calling a congresswoman's bill "unclear" to a reporter, who quoted him directly. He uses the story to warn that repeating an interviewer's negative framing creates a damaging soundbite you can't control.
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Some of you have been nice enough to write to me and say, wow, TJ So much good information here. You're brilliant. I love your brilliant insights. Here's the thing. I'm not brilliant at all. I have learned the hard way. I've learned by doing these things the wrong way. 25 years ago, I was a press secretary for a member of Congress in Washington, D.C. i was working in the Capitol. One day, all of a sudden, the phone rings. It's a reporter from a newspaper, the Hill. It follows all the legislation and inner workings of Washington and politics. And the reporter said, TJ got a couple questions for you to have a minute. Sure, T.J. i'm unclear about the congresswoman's legislation. H.R. 1400 is unclear to me. And I said, yes, H.R. 1400 is unclear. It's being cleared up in committee. And when it does, you realize it does X and Y and Z and I assume, simplified it. Reporter was very pleasant, thankful, appreciative, said, ah, thanks so much, T.J. you're a professional. Really appreciate you getting back to me quickly clarifying this issue. Thanks so much. Hung up the phone and thought, wow, I am good at my job here, aren't I? This is great. Went home that day, packed my suitcase, because the next day I'm going to Hawaii. Beautiful place. I'd never been there. And. And I was going to go. Taxpayer expense because I was working for a Hawaiian member of Congress. So I go in, I packed my bathing suit, my Hawaiian shirt, sunglasses, suntan lotion, come into the capital the next day, carrying my suitcase. There on my desk was the newspaper. There on the front page was the story. Skim down a paragraph, there's my name. According to press spokesperson TJ Walker, HR 1400 is unclear, end of quote. Page D27. This is back. Still in their actual newspapers, not online. There's a few more quotes of me, but it was on page D27. Nothing bad, but there on the front page is a quote from me saying my boss's legislation was unclear. Sit down a few minutes. Buzzer rings on my phone. It's the chief of staff. TJ why don't you come on in? Got good news and I got bad news. The good news, you're all packed. That's great. The bad news, you're not going to Hawaii or anyplace else. You're fired. Get the heck out of here. Kicked out of the office. That was the end of my career in that office. So what had happened? I violated the fundamental principle. I used someone else's negative words. I rebutted the premise and I used negative words. When I set HR 1400, the name of the legislation was unclear. That's an attack. Unclear was the reporter's word, not mine. But I said it so it was perfectly legal, ethical and justified for the reporter to use it. And it's my own fault. That's what got me fired. So for people who are nervous about dealing with the media, it's perfectly rational to be nervous. People can lose their careers, they can be fired. So I rebutted the reporters premise. I used the reporters words. I had negative words, attacking words, which made it a sound bite. So it's not just that I was off message, I was off message with a soundbite and it was only a couple of words. But that's all it takes. So that's why I'm glad you're here. Because smart people don't learn from their own mistakes. They learn from other people's mistakes. So I'm glad you were here to learn from my mistakes because I certainly hope you never have anything like that happen to you. I'm hoping that you always get the exact message you want, the exact sound bite you want. Do that and no one's going to be kicking you out of the office or firing you.
