Talking to the Press Considered Harmful

[Tim May]

On Tuesday, October 9, 2001, at 09:12 PM, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>
> I've been doing semi-regular appearances on CNN for about four years.
> They'll send a car for you if you ask, no need to drive.

Which shows? When/

I'm a frequent watcher of CNN (though not CNN-FN or Lou Dobbs), and yet 
the only time I have seen you on t.v. was on an episode of Geraldo a 
year or two ago.

> But I suppose I fall into the above category. I do TV interviews
> primarily because, in no particular order: (a) it's good experience;
> (b) it raises my profile and the profile of my employer; (c)
> management likes it; (d) I can try to inject some substance into what
> are typically superficial discussions.

Yes, I'd say you fit the profile.
> I did NBC network evening news not long ago. I didn't feel like going
> into their bureau (about 15-20 minutes away),l so I had them come to
> my home. It took them about four hours from the time they arrived to
> the time they left, mostly lighting and setup. A large portion was
> B-roll of me typing dummy entries into Microsoft Passport, punctuated
> by me talking to their reporter in NYC via a speakerphone sitting on a
> chair while I pretended to look straight ahead, as if I were looking
> her in the eye. Sigh. They used about 7 seconds of what I said.

About right. Four hours of your time for 7 seconds of commentary.

No wonder the networks are gradually going broke.

"Typing dummy entries." Typical. Faking the news.

(I had a sort of similar experience in '95 when the BBC wanted to 
interview me. I had to get up at 5 am for an 8 am flight to LA (I live 
an hour away from the airport), take a series of buses and shuttles to a 
hoity toity hotel in Hollywood, wait for 3 hours for Alvin and Heidi 
Toffler to be interviewed, then submit to their "let's have you do some 
fake stuff!" producer directions. I resisted doing the fake stuff, but 
they insisted. I pretended to be doing something crypto-like. They ended 
up using about a second of this elaborately-faked session. And they 
lifted my comments in such a way as to misrepresent what I said. I 
finally  made my way back to LAX around 6, caught a late flight to SJO, 
and arrived back at my home around midnight. All for a meaningless 
snippet on a meaningless t.v. show seen by a few thousands Brits. Of 
course, were I a journalist or other such person, I would prominently 
list this in my resume. What a joke.)



--Tim May, Corralitos, California
Quote of the Month: "It is said that there are no atheists in foxholes; 
perhaps there are no true libertarians in times of terrorist attacks." 
--Cathy Young, "Reason Magazine," both enemies of liberty.