Kelly O’Dwyer’s Insiders appearance was textbook bad media training
Peter Wilkinson spotted one key mistake made by Kelly O’Dwyer during her recent Insiders interview – something that will be used as an example of ‘what not to do’ by media trainers for months.
Very occasionally you want to throw shoes at the television. Kelly O’Dywer’s interview on Insiders yesterday was one of those.
Ms. O’Dwyer is financial services minister. She was on Insiders talking about the disastrous revelations coming out of the Financial Services Royal Commission, which is investigating the banks and other financial institutions.
She might have played it badly, but O’Dwyer had a losing hand going into the interview.
The difference between the context in which Joyce (no longer in Cabinet and free to speak his mind) and O’Dwyer (in Cabinet and expected to toe the line) spoke to the media made the difference more than their style.
The mistake was made when Cabinet decided that their communication strategy didn’t involve an apology. Interviews like O’Dwyer’s and others are the consequence of that strategic choice.
“Kelly O’Dwyer’s Insiders appearance was textbook bad media training” … Nonsense. It was textbook bad media performance. Two quite different things. One lays the blame at the feet of the media advisor and the other at the feet of the interview subject. How on earth could the author of this know whether or not the media training was bad? Maybe it was excellent & she still performed poorly.
Maybe, just maybe, he offers media training.
I suspect Kelly O’Dwyer was told by a media minder in the PMO to hold the line and not admit anything. Given the result, her Cabinet colleagues took a different tack and the result is poor Kelly was hung out to dry.
Both sides of politics are plagued by the modern phenomenon of the “media advisor”. In most cases the so-called advisor has less experience than the politician they are advising. To have reached the point where they are a minister, or shadow, most pollies have run the gauntlet of local media and the more exacting breed in Canberra for a decent period. On the other hand, most media advisors have never held a proper job in the media, or anywhere else except politics. Most have nothing more than a communications degree and a sense of certainty that they know best.Once upon a time media advisors were called press secretaries. This was arguably a better description of the role. And, what’s more, they all came from the media and knew the game from having been on the other side of the scrum.
Both sides of politics are plagued by the modern phenomenon of the “media advisor”. In most cases the so-called advisor has less experience than the politician they are advising. To have reached the point where they are a minister, or shadow, most pollies have run the gauntlet of local media and the more exacting breed in Canberra for a decent period. On the other hand, most media advisors have never held a proper job in the media, or anywhere else except politics. Most have nothing more than a communications degree and a sense of certainty that they know best. Once upon a time media advisors were called press secretaries. This was arguably a better description of the role. And, what’s more, they all came from the media and knew the game from having been on the other side of the scrum.