Will Sturgeon has written a quality blog post reflecting on the TV interview between Andrew Marr and Peter Mandelson that was on TV over the weekend. The interview started off as an attack from Andrew Marr on Mandelson (aren't all political interviews that at the moment!) and ended up a destruction of Marr using a masterful delivery of a range of interview techniques.
I agree with Will that too much has been made of the interview. It's definitelt not "a victory for media training" (what an insular phrase to use!). The second half of Will's post goes on to broader issues around Labour and the role of PR in politics. All good points well made.
I actually think that if you forget the broader news agenda, he did an awesome interview. Irrespective of PR or training. He was calm, showed engagement, honesty and frustration at the attitude of the interviewer - and rightly so. His body language, conduct and content were all very good too. I agree with much of what Eb says in his post here.
Some people observed that Mandelson didn't really say anything. I thought that compared to many politicians' interviews he answered a lot of what was thrown at him. And he showed Marr up for being ill-informed and unprepared with a lot of his lines of questioning, misquoting statements much of the time.
If you ever need to advise a company spokesperson on how to conduct an interview, I'd say you should have a look at Mandelson's.
I can't agree. His patronising manner detracts from any points he may be making. I expect the interviewer to be able to handle himself but I don't enjoy being talked down to.
Posted by: Richard | June 08, 2009 at 08:41 PM