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My word is my bond – unless it’s “political”

It’s all a bit obsessive – a U.S. reporter who’s been dead for 49 years wins an “apology” from the employer who had fired him 18 years earlier! Who cares? Actually there’s an important principle at stake here. Associated Press (AP) wire reporter Ed Kennedy broke the...

Asking to be ignored

There are plenty of questions that just should not be answered directly.  And I’m not talking about the “Where did you spend last night?” domestic variety. These are questions in media interviews or panels where there is no direct answer which will not prove...

Sound Bites – the Art of Memorable Précis

Sound bites get a bad press. Politicians are often accused of “talking in sound bites” instead of giving clear and honest answers. So what is this animal?: Wikipedia says: A sound bite is a short clip of speech or music extracted from a longer piece of audio. It is...

The Whole World’s Watching

Back in 1968 at the Democratic Party Convention, the Chicago police gained widespread infamy by wading with unnecessary and gratuitous brutality into a crowd of radical demonstrators outside the conference centre, under the gaze of the tv cameras. A recording of the...

Writing Press Releases that have Impact

At a recent MediaTrain workshop in Manila, participants discussed and practised how to write Press Releases that have impact. One of the examples they worked on is below, an Oxfam/Save the Children press release about the East African drought.We all agreed that the...