A short live-stream segment where TJ Walker answers a viewer’s question about how to decline media interview requests while preserving goodwill with reporters. He distinguishes between declining non-personal industry stories (call back promptly, decline politely on background) and declining interviews about negative stories concerning you (usually a bad tactic), and emphasizes never ignoring a reporter’s request.
Chapters
Darlene writes in with the following question. TJ what is the best way to turn down a media interview? This is a question I hear from time to time, and it always makes me sort of step back for a minute and question some assumptions. So my, my first question for anyone asking this is, why do you want to turn down an interview? Well, we don't want to be associated with the story. I would then have a test for you. Is the story going to be written anyway and are you going to be talked about anyway in the story? If the answer is no, it's just a general negative trend in your industry and you're not going to be in the story at all. If you don't do it, there's no real danger. And I'll give you some techniques for talking to the reporter in a moment. But if it's a negative story about you and you just don't want to be in a negative story, that's a horrible reason for turning down the interview because now there's more space for the reporter to write negative, nasty things about you or to quote other people, saying you're awful. So I'm never a fan of turning down interviews as a method of controlling the reporter because I just don't find it actually works. So let's go back to the first case scenario where the story is not about you. It's not going to matter that much to the reporter one way or the other if you do it. And you're not going to generate any negative attention for yourself by not doing the interview. Here's what I would do. I would call the reporter instantly. Don't wait two or three days. Reporters hate that. Call them up and say, hey, may I speak to you on background for a moment? It's extremely, unremely unusual or rare for a reporter not to grant you that. I would then say, hey, I appreciate your calling, appreciate you giving us an opportunity. We just would really prefer not to be a part of the story and we don't want to be rude to you. We're happy for you to call us in the future at any time. We want you to know we treat you with respect, we treat you professionally. That's why I called you back. You just called five minutes ago. But we're going to take a pass this time. That's what I would do. And in most cases, the reporter will appreciate that and respect that and you have good relations going forward. What happens in the real world, unfortunately, is people see this and they just think, well, I don't like this story. Let's just say no. And they don't call the reporter back. Well, newsflash. Reporters are human beings like anybody else. If you call somebody and they don't call you back, how do you feel about that person? Well, they've rejected you. They've been rude to you. It doesn't matter if it's a business call, social call. It's a form of rejection being ignored. Nobody likes that. So in my opinion, the worst thing you could do is simply ignore it. Do anything with that and you'll be better off. I'm TJ Walker. I teach people how to speak to the news media and to live audiences. If you want help in those areas, go to my website@mediatrainingworldwide.com you can get a couple of my books at no charge, and also information about upcoming workshops, seminars, and live online training.
