The blog post below is from “Harry’s Place” ( http://www.hurryupharry.org/ ) political bog and is reposted here with permission. We have added comments before the original post regarding the media training lessons that can be taken from the story.

Please read the story below and think about what we can learn from their mistake(s). In this example an Obama Administration official agrees to an interview on her subject of expertise at he White House. For our purposes it doesn’t matter who she is or what the topic is. What matters to us is that the interview goes in a bad direction for her and by reflection her boss (The President).

As you will see when you read the story the interview guest says she was mislead about the topic and was used to give an air of credibility to a subject that she must likely disagreed with. Think about how if she had taken ten minutes to do some research into the show, there would have been no controversy; the interview would never have been done. If she did not have the ten minutes to check on the shows credentials herself then how about a staff person or how about he press office. It’s that an important part of what they do?

Anyway read on and you will see what I am getting at- Know who is interviewing you and any hidden agenda they might have.

She should have hung up

Gene, October 24th 2009, 3:56 pm

The Washington Post reports:

A Muslim member of President Obama’s faith council says she was misled about the nature of a British TV talk show on which she was recently interviewed. It was hosted by a representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which the State Department has condemned for an anti-Semitic, anti-Western ideology that officials said might indirectly generate support for terrorism.

Dalia Mogahed, senior analyst for the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, did a phone interview on the Oct. 8 show. It was hosted by a member of the group, Ibtihal Bsis Ismail, and featured as another guest the group’s women’s media representative, Nazreen Nawaz.

Mogahed said Friday that she did not know about the affiliation of Nawaz until Nawaz was introduced on air, and only learned later about Ismail’s association with Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Emancipation).

She said that she would not have agreed to the interview had she known of their affiliation beforehand and that she believed that Ismail “misled us” to score propaganda points for an ideological movement.
…..
During the 45-minute discussion on the show “Muslimah Dilemma,” which is broadcast on a small British network, Nawaz, Ismail and callers variously condemned democracy, praised sharia law and advocated the restoration of the caliphate — government inspired by Islamic law.

Mogahed said she grew uncomfortable with the discussion and considered hanging up. “I didn’t because I didn’t want to create a story by doing anything dramatic. I just wanted to get through it and say what I could about my research like I had 100 times before and just never go on this show again.”

In fact Mogahed herself said nothing to indicate agreement with the others on the show; she simply discussed polling data. But I think hanging up– or challenging the views of the others– would have been the wiser choice. And I assume she’ll make an effort to find out about the nature of the shows on which she’s invited to appear.

 

The blog post above is from Harry’s Place blog and the link back to the orginal post is:

http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/10/24/she-should-have-hung-up/

(C) 2009 www.media-training.info

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